SFS & Government Librarian
Why Cite?
The primary reasons for citing sources when presenting research are:
- to give credit to the authors whose work you have drawn upon, and
- to allow readers to track down your sources, should they wish to do so.
There are many style guides for formatting citations and creating bibliographies. The major styles are:
- MLA Style, from the Modern Language Association;
- APA Style, from the American Psychological Association, and
- Chicago Style, from the University of Chicago Press
Citation Guides and Tools
- Georgetown's Citation ToolsThe Georgetown Library's Citation Tools page is full of recommendations for managing and formatting citations.
- Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style GuideExplains how to format a paper and citations in APA style.
- Purdue OWL: Chicago Manual of StyleExplains how to format a paper and citations in Chicago style.
- How To Cite Data (MSU Library)A concise page with helpful tips on citing your data and examples from three official style guides (APA, MLA, and Chicago). Includes information about how to cite tables, datasets, and citing within text. From Michigan State University Libraries.
- How to Cite U.S. Government Documents in APA Citation StyleCornell University guide to citing government documents.
Citation Management Systems
These tools allow you to gather citations and PDFs in one place and then quickly create a reference list and/or bibliography. It is best to install these tools at the start of your research.
- ZoteroZotero is a free tool designed to help you gather, manage and share information about books, articles, web pages and other digital objects that you are using in your research, and to generate citations and bibliographies. Zotero is a desktop-based program with browser and word-processor plugins. You can also choose to make a free cloud account to sync over multiple devices.
- RefWorks This link opens in a new windowRefWorks is an online research management, writing, and collaboration tool designed to help researchers gather, manage, store, and share information and generate citations and bibliographies.
Zotero Workshop
Finding Sources on the Open Web
- Lean Library This link opens in a new windowThe Lean Library browser extension makes it easy to access academic articles, e-books and databases licensed by Georgetown University Library wherever you are and whenever you need them. If the content you’d like to use doesn’t seem accessible, Lean Library will automatically check for open access versions of the article or take you directly to interlibrary loan. Install it on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, or Opera browsers in just a few clicks.
