Citation

"When and Where Should I Cite?"

Citing your sources is an essential part of research.  Your professors will expect you to acknowledge the sources you used, and the ideas you are using within presentations, papers, and any projects you do while at SUNY Poly.

It's important that you provide citations within the paragraphs of your paper, sometimes called "in-text citations" to indicate that ideas you're using are someone else's.

In addition to "in-text citations," you'll also need to provide the full citation, including publication information at the end of your paper or as a footnote, depending on the citation style you're using. 

At the SUNY Poly Library, there are Reference Librarians and Writing Tutors to help you with citation questions.  If you're unsure of how to cite, come to the Library and ask us for help. You can also get citation help from a live person online, using our Ask A Librarian service.  

APA Style Page - American Psychological Association's site offering examples of citations, papers, and formatting for APA papers.

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) - Comprehensive site that covers all major citation styles (APA 6th and 7th edition, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, and more) with examples of citations, examples of papers in citation styles, and other research help.

CMS Style Page - Chicago Manual of Style’s site offering examples of citations and formatting for papers.

Citation Builders are great tools to use, but you should also check the citations for accuracy. The Purdue OWL has an excellent breakdown of how citation builders and generators work and why they make mistakes. 

ZoteroBib -- Free online citation generator offering thousands of styles without ads. 

NC State Libraries Citation Builder--Select from options to build citations in APA or MLA format.

EasyBib--Generate MLA citations for free (APA and other formats require subscription).   Citation Managers help you to organize, format, and search your citations. These tools are great when working on extensive projects, and in-text citations and bibliographies can be created from these citation managers.

Reference managers offer more comprehensive ways to organize your research materials and generate bibliographies with plugins installed in your word processor of choice. You should always check these citations for accuracy, as plugins can have difficulty with some types of citation. Feel free to contact the library for more detailed tutorials on reference managers. 

EndNote--Browser based reference manager that organizes and stores research sources, connects with Microsoft Word for building citations, and managing citations.

Mendeley--Reference manager that also serves as an academic social network and recommends additional resources based on your current citation library. Allows for annotation of pdfs.

Zotero-- Desktop and browser based reference manager that allows for collaboration, organization, and creating citations for your research. Supports syncing among multiple devices and workstations. 

 

Style Guides at the Library

Image book cover APA 7th

Official APA manuals (7th ed.) are available on Reserve and in Ref BF76.7.P83
 


Image book cover MLA 9th

An official MLA manual is available on Reserve and in Ref LB2369.G53

 

ASA Style Guide 5th Edition

An official ASA manual is available in Reference HM569.A54 2014

 

 

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