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Research Tools & Citation Guides
Make your research work easier
APA (American Psychological Association)
The sixth edition provides explicit rules for direct quotations and states that you must credit the source when “paraphrasing, quoting an author directly, or describing an idea that influenced your work”.
APA is the style of documentation of sources used by the American Psychological Association. This form of writing research papers is used mainly in the social sciences, like psychology, anthropology, sociology, as well as education and other fields.
CMS
(Chicago Manual of Style)
You will format your bibliographic citations differently depending on the type of resource being cited, but they all tend to include the author, the year the source was published, and its title, along with information on where to locate the source.
Chicago-style source citations come in two varieties: (1) notes and bibliography and (2) author-date. If you already know which system to use, follow one of the links above to see sample citations for a variety of common sources. If you are unsure about which system to use, read on.
Chicago and Turabian Manual of Citation
The following entries illustrate the citation style according to Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition. A slight modification of Chicago style is known as Turabian style, which is geared more toward the types of citation students encounter; please refer to Kate L. Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th edition.
The notes and bibliography style is popular in the humanities—including literature, history, and the arts. In this system, sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes.
Alphabetize your bibliography by the first item in the citation, usually the author’s last name. Authors’ names are last name first in the bibliography. If there are multiple works by the same author, alphabetize them by title. If there are four or more authors of a work, use the first author’s name followed by “et al.”
This guide provides examples and the basic guidelines for citing sources following the University of Chicago Press’s Chicago Manual of Style and Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, commonly referred to as Chicago Style or Turabian Style. Kate Turabian, the dissertation secretary at the University of Chicago for over 30 years, developed her guide for students and researchers writing papers, theses, and dissertations.
Council of Biology Editors(CBE) and Council of Science Editors(CSE)
Writers in mathematics, physical sciences, and the life sciences rely on the the Council of Biology Editors, and the CBE Style Manual. The CBE has two styles of citation: one starting with the author and date and one beginning with numbers.
When writing, we want our readers to be able to trace the conversation we are having with our audience and other writers. Clear citations signal where we found information that we refer to within our writing.
This guide is based on Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (8th ed.), a publication of the Council of Science Editors. For more detailed formatting information, guides and examples, visit the Council of Science Editors website. Formatting examples also based on the National Library of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation Supplement: Internet
This site is designed to introduce you to citing information in a variety of citation styles. Click the Next button to begin or select from the options on the left to jump to a specific section of the tutorial.
(MLA)
Modern Language Association
Building confidence in the information and ideas we share with one another is perhaps more important today than ever before, and for nearly a century it has been the driving principle behind MLA style, a set of standards for writing and documentation used by writers to find and evaluate information, alert their audience to the trustworthiness of their findings through citation, and shape the expression of their ideas in conversation with others.
Research Information is a website that gives the essential link between publishers, librarians and researchers.
(OWL)Purdue University Online Writing Laboratory
The online writing lab offers global support through online reference materials and services for creating citations, cover letters, major-specific writing help, and general writing advice.
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.
This resource provides a summative overview of style guides. Students and instructors will find this resource particularly useful for understanding what a style guide is, why and how style guides are used, and suggestions for exploring style guides across the disciplines.