Citations with Style and a Useful Feature or Two

Synthesizing your own thoughts with the thoughts of others is common in most projects at the college level. To avoid plagiarism, you must report the external sources of ideas and information by citing them. We have several resources available to you that help put your citations in the proper format (check with your instructor for his/her preferred format). This week, I'll cover the resources available at the University Libraries, as well as point out some helpful features of popular databases.

As part of our Virtual Reference Shelf, we have a short list of resources that cover citing sources in two standard formats: APA and MLA.

You may not be aware, but some of our databases have help for putting citations in the proper format, too. For example, Academic Search Premier's Help file has detailed instructions for not only APA and MLA citation formats, but for Turabian (Chicago Manual of Style) and AMA, as well. To access the Help file,

1. Click on the link labeled "Help" in the upper right corner of the main page. Then,
2. On the page that pops up, scroll down until you see the "Citation Styles" section on the left, and click on the help topic of your choice. (See the screenshot for details.)

Another database, CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature), illustrates a different example of how electronic resources can help you cite sources. When you run a search in CINAHL and click a title in the list of resulting articles, you have the option of printing or e-mailing the record to yourself. If you choose the e-mail option, CINAHL will let you pick the citation style you'd like to use. Take a look at the screenshot for more information. Note: This feature is also available in Academic Search Premier and other EBSCOhost databases.

A WORD OF WARNING: Contrary to popular belief, computers are dumb. They try their best to put these citations in the proper format, but goof up sometimes. Always double check that automatic citation-makers have put the parts of the reference (e.g., article title and dates) in the order specified by your instructor.