All research sources should be identified and cited in your research report/paper whether they are print resources or electronic articles or Web sites or classroom notes. Not only does it enable others, as well as yourself, to find the source listed, but it also gives credit to the person whose work you quoted or paraphrased, or whose ideas you incorporated into your own report.
When you do research for a paper, write down all the necessary information needed to locate the material in a citation format. When accessing Internet resources, be sure to WRITE DOWN the URL. Another option is to use RefWorks.
There are different citation styles depending on your field of study:
When you are quoting or making a reference to information directly from another source, you must always identify that source. You do this in a note. Notes are called Footnotes when they appear at the bottom of the page and Endnotes when they are collected at the end of each chapter or of the entire paper. Frequently notes are cited within the text of your paper. Some citation styles only use Notes Within the Text.
Zotero [Zoh-TAIR-roh] is a free citation manager that collects, organizes, cites, and shares your sources.
WARNING: Since Zotero uses the information that it gets from databases and Web sites, the final version may be incorrect (i.e. missing information or in the wrong order). You still need to know how to do the specific citing style that you are using.
The following resources cover at least two of the following styles for citing sources: MLA, APA, Chicago, Sociology, Council of Science Editors, & IEEE:
© 2023 University of St. Thomas, Minnesota