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Christa Williford, User Services Librarian (HC)
Diana Franzusoff Peterson, Manuscripts Librarian & College Archivist (HC)

Sections:

When should I cite?
How can I manage all these citations?
Tip #1: Get the most out of your library catalog
Tip #2: Use a bibliographic management tool
Tip #3: For a very current topic, try social networking
Tip #4: Double-check your style
Other Resources

Databases A-Z:

Other:

Creating Citations--an introduction

When should I cite?

How do I distinguish between what to cite and what is common knowledge? How should I go about citing the same work multiple times? When do I cite a whole book, and when do I cite just a chapter? Do I cite informal conversations, chats, or emails? What is the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism?

If you need help with any of these questions, you can ask your Reference Librarian or visit the Writing Center.

Quick rules of thumb for when to cite:

Do you use 3 or more exact words from your source? If so, put them in quotation marks and cite your source.
Do you paraphrase a source? Cite it.
Do you make a reference to your source by name? You must cite.
Did a particular source play a role in the formation of an idea you’re presenting? Cite.

How can I manage all these citations?

If you're struggling to keep track of all of the books, essays, articles, and web sites you're using in your research, follow these tips:

Tip #1: Get the most out of your library catalog:

Tripod

Make sure you know how to save, email, and export records using Tripod.

WorldCat

Provider: OCLC

WorldCat not only allows you to save and export citations (the best option is to export to EndNote, then open the EndNote file in Microsoft Word), it can render individual citations for all items in WorldCat (books, visual media, sound recordings, journals, etc.) into various citation formats. If you're working from off campus, you must be logged in to the Virtual Private Network to access this tool.

Worldcat.org

If you're off campus and don't have VPN software, use this publicly accessible version of WorldCat.

Tip #2: Use a bibliographic management tool:

If you can't decide which tool to use, check out Managing Your Citations, a Tri-Co tip page.

Zotero

If you use Mozilla Firefox to do your research, download this free plug-in developed by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Zotero recognizes bibliographic citations in online databases (like library catalogs), and makes it easy to drag-and-drop citations from the web into a local bibliography. You can export citations in multiple styles as web pages or text documents. Your information will be saved to your computer's hard drive, so you will have to export and reimport files to continue your work on a different computer. If you'd like to know about other useful add-ons for Mozilla Firefox, visit this helpful tips page. You can download all recommended add-ons in a single file here.

Endnote Web

Tri-Co students may create accounts on the web version of EndNote for free! It may take some time to get familiar with this tool, but this could save you a lot of time in keeping track of up to 10,000 citations. You can collect and add sources directly from Tripod, WorldCat, ProQuest, Web of Science, JSTOR, Google Scholar. To get started using EndNote Web, the Haverford "Quick Guide to Using Endnote Web" is a great place to start. When importing records into EndNote Web for the first time, the Tri-Co guide titled EndNote Web: General Database Instructions is a helpful reference. Currently, the greatest advantage of using this tool is its "Cite While You Write" plug-in for Microsoft Word. You can use this plug-in to search your personal EndNote Web bibliography directly from Word, and import correctly-formatted citations in numerous styles. Swarthmore librarians have created a helpful introduction to Cite While You Write.

Tip #3: For a very current topic, try social networking:

CiteULike

You can collect citations and find new ones by using any of several free social bookmarking tools designed for scholars. CiteULike is one of the most popular of these tools. You can't always depend on citation information being complete (since many citations are created by other users), but since they are stored online, your citations are completely portable. In addition to citation storage and rendering citations in different styles, this is also a great tool for discovering more resources: check out the links to current tables of contents. Currently you can explore the contents of more than 11,000 journals.

Tip #4: Double-check your style:

If you can't find a correctly formatted citation through one of the tools listed above, try these links:

Citation Builder, from North Carolina State University

Type or paste bibliographic information into one of this tool's forms, and you will get a correctly formatted citation in MLA, APA, or CBE/CSE styles.

Tri-Co resource page on citations and styles

If you're unsure how to cite a resource in a particular style and aren't using a bibliographic management tool, you'll need to check a style manual to be sure you're citing correctly. Many of these are now available online. You can find a list of available manuals on our this Tri-Co Resource Page

Other Resources:

The Haverford College Writing Center

The Writing Center's website includes much helpful information about the research process, including how to avoid plagiarism and how and when to cite sources in your work.

Haverford Student Honor Code

From the code: "Students are expected to properly cite (in footnotes, quotations, and bibliography) all sources used in the preparation of written work, including examinations, unless otherwise instructed by the professor who assigned the work."

The OWL at Purdue

The online guide to writing at Purdue University is thorough and up-to-date. The "Research and Citation" section of the guide includes explanations and examples of both APA and MLA styles.

Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices

This helpful guide from the Council of Writing Program Administrators outlines good policies and practices for teaching research and citation skills.