Skip to Main Content

Citation helpers

If you want to keep track of your references as you are finding them, and if you use Mozilla Firefox, try Zotero.  It's a free Mozilla add-on that makes it easy to save and correctly format your article citations as you find your sources, whether in library databses or on the general web.  

In addition, you may want to try a citation generator such as KnightCite, this one from Griffith, or Referencite -- but they're not always perfect, so check with a style guide too.

Ready resources: Style guides in print

Check out these books at Chambers for the ultimate reference to the different citation styles.  If you prefer, check out these UCO handouts summarizing each style:

Why should I cite?

There are some very practical reasons for citing your sources:

  1. Use your citations to keep track of your own research process
  2. Enable other researchers to corroborate and verify your sources
  3. Scholarly ethics: Give credit where credit is due!  Provide clear citations to acknowledge the work of your peers, and they will do the same for your work 
  4. Enable more exact citation analysis. (Some databases, like Web of Knowledge, allow you to select a topic, author, article, etc. and then see how many other authors have cited that person/article)
 If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” 
Isaac Newton in a letter to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1676