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TOPIC: How to Use the Library for Research

Citing & Documentation

Be sure to provide a trail for others to follow and to indicate all of the hard work that you have accomplished.  This is done through documenting all of your sources of information.  Depending on what your professor recommends, you may have to use a particular citation style for your works cited page or bibliography at the end of your paper.   

Style Guides

Citation Assistance

If you don't want to create citations from scratch, we suggest using a free citation assistance program. Some library research databases (like Academic Search, JSTOR, etc.) will also provide a tool to format citations for you.

If you use a program for citation assistance, ALWAYS check the citation provided against the official citation manual for the style you are using (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.).  If you have questions, contact your professor or check out the additional resources provided on this page.

While there are many citation programs available (EasyBib, BibMe, KnightCite, etc.), we often recommend using Zotero.   OR try ZoteroBib - a quick way to get your citations done right.

Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool that can help you to collect, organize, cite, and share your research resources, as a standalone program.  With the click of a button you can instantly store citation information for the online information you find as you browse the web or the library's databases.  You can also annotate your sources as well as organize them into separate folders. 

For more information about how to use Zotero, check out this How to Use Zotero guide or the Quick Start Guide created by the folks at Zotero.

Common Citation Generator Problems

MLA

  • Incorrect dates. Dates should be listed as day month year. Ex: 12 Jan. 2021. Month names longer than 4 letters should be abbreviated as follows: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.
  • Including https://. Remove https:// from website urls, but keep it for dois.
  • Capitalization errors. When writing titles, capitalize first, last, and major words. Articles, conjunctions, and prepositions should not be capitalized. Fix any titles rendered in ALL CAPS. 
  • Missing containers. Sometimes the database will leave out the publication an article comes from. Check the database record to make sure no elements have been left out. 

APA

  • Capitalization errors. APA titles should only capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Ex: A brief history of Missouri: A monograph. Databases sometimes capitalize too much or render proper nouns in lowercase. 
  • Missing containers. Sometimes the database will leave out the publication an article comes from. Check the database record to make sure no elements have been left out.
  • More than six authors. In APA 7, up to 20 authors should be listed before using an ellipses. 
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