Citing your sources properly is a very important part of the research process and on this page you will find resources to help you cite your research paper correctly.
Citing your sources accurately is necessary for three primary reasons:
1. Citations help you avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is an ethical standard based on community practice. USD considers plagiarism a serious violation of academic honesty and it can result in serious punishment such as failing a class or being expelled from school.
2. Citations lend creditability to your work by providing evidence to support your argument and by demonstrating that you have considered a variety of perspectives; including those of experts in your field.
3. Citations are a standard way for responsible scholars to help maintain the scholarly record by giving credit to the work and ideas of others and by allowing readers to locate the sources referenced by way of footnotes or a bibliography.
Take Copley's Avoiding Plagiarism Tutorial
Citation Management Tools
Most Copley Library databases offer tools to generate citations for the resources you find. Below is a select list of citation tools you can find on the web to generate and manage citations.
- BibMe BibMe is a free citation generator that produces citations and bibliographies in APA, Chicago/Turabian and MLA styles. It has some features not found in other free citation generators such as auto-fill and the ability to switch between citation styles.
- Citation Machine Citation Machine is a free site that automatically produces MLA, APA, Turabian or Chicago style citations for a variety of sources (but not bibliographies).
- DocsCite Docscite is a free site that automatically produces MLA or APA style citations for government documents.
- KnightCite Free site that automatically produces MLA, APA, or Chicago style citations for 25 types of sources.
- Noddle Tools Express Free tool that allows users to create citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian styles.
- RefDot This Google Chrome extension allows you to bookmark and cite websites and online articles not found in our databases.
- Zotero Zotero is a free web-based application that allows you to save, cite, sort and share all your research materials.
Chicago Manual of Style Online
- Chicago Manual of Style Online This link opens in a new windowThe Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. It is a reference guide for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice.
Chicago Style
Chicago Style (also known as Turabian Style) is the citation style most often used by historians. Other citation styles include MLA and APA.
The Chicago Manual of Style by Call Number: Z253 .U69 2010ISBN: 9780226104201Publication Date: 2010-08-01
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Eighth Edition by Call Number: LB2369 .T8 2013ISBN: 9780226816388Publication Date: 2013-03-28
USD Writing Center
- Writing CenterThe Writing Center at USD helps students improve there academic writing. Bring your paper to the writing Center at any stage in the process for assistance.
For more on this topic see Copley's Library Guide on Paper Mechanics and Citing Sources.