Library 101 - Your Guide to Library Resources

Evaluation - Citing Sources

Activity 5: Citing Web Sites

Cite your Sources!

No matter what kind of research you do, if you’re going to present the information to other people, it's important to let those people know exactly where you're getting your information from. Here are a few reasons why:

Other researchers can use your "works cited" or "bibliography" of materials to do some further research on their own.
Citing the sources you used gives credit where credit is due. Don't let that nasty "p word"--plagiarism--ruin your research efforts!
Citing your sources of information gives validation to your own research, especially if the sources you're using have cited THEIR sources of information, too.
If you ever expand or revisit your research topic at a later date, you'll have a great list of sources that you've already consulted.

If you're writing a paper for a class, be sure to talk with your professor about the many different ways you can cite your sources of information then find the style guide that will help make sure you're citing correctly.

Style Guides for Citing Sources

Here a few of the most commonly used style guides that help researchers prepare their papers, including guidelines for your works cited or bibliography section.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th Edition
Call Number: PE 1478 .M57 1999
Locations:
JPL Reference Desk
JPL Reserve
JPL Stacks (You may check these out)
Downtown Library Reference
One of the most common style manuals. Used in the humanities predominantly. Also often recommended to freshmen and undergraduates as a citation source.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 4th Edition
Call Number: BF76.7 .P83 1994
Call Number: BF76.7 .P83 2001
Locations:
JPL Reference Desk
JPL Reserve
JPL Stacks (You may check these out)
Downtown Library Reference
Downtown Library Reserve
Another heavily used manual. Also referred to as the "APA Style Manual." Often the recommended form for documentation in the social sciences and some of the "hard sciences."

Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition
Call Number: Z253 .U69 1993
Locations:
JPL Reference Desk
JPL Reference Stacks
JPL Reserve
JPL Stacks (You may check these out)
Downtown Library Reference
Another commonly used style guide.

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
Call Number: LB2369 .T8 1996
Locations:
JPL Reference Desk
JPL Reference Stacks
JPL Reserve
JPL Stacks (You may check these out)
Downtown Library Reference
Also known by the author's name, "Turabian."

Do you need to cite Internet/Web resources?