Research Fundamentals : Cite your sources

Getting started:

• See Citation Fundamentals (PDF tutorial) 

Why do I need to cite? 

• It gives credit to the person who created the idea. Remember to cite whether you quote them directly or just paraphrase.
• It allows your readers to locate the sources you used, so they can read and judge themselves.
• It provides evidence for your research. 

How do I cite? 

• If you are writing a paper or assignment, consult with your instructor about the proper style used in your discipline or needed for the assignment. 
• if you are writing for publication, check the author guidelines on a publisher's web page or ask your editor.

More Resources:

• Need a particular style guide? Check out Resources on Citation and Style Guides in the Writing Resources Collection here at Northeastern Library. 
• The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) is an extraordinary resource for all aspects of paper writing, including citation and bibliography. The Site Map is a good place to begin.

A citation style is the pattern or format your instructor or editor expects you to use when citing your works.  It determines the order you list them in, whether numbered or alphabetical, whether you put them in a footnote or parenthesis in the text, and how you format and punctuate titles, authors, dates, and other information.

For example, below are two citations for the same article.

• The author is Albert Bandura. 
• The title is "Self-Efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change." 
• It was published in 1977 in a journal called Psychological Review.

Here's how it looks if you choose to cite it using APA style

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change.  Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191

Here is how the same article would look in your source list if you were to use IEEE style

A. Bandura, "Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change."  Psychological Review, vol. 84, issue 2, pp. 191–215, 1977.  doi:10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191

Note the differences in how each one is ordered and puctuated, and what information is included and excluded.  There are more details and links to the most popularly used style guides on our Citations and Bibliographies guide.

 

Citation management software lets you collect and managing your references, and auto-format citations and bibliographies in your papers using the style your editor or instructor suggests.

Be sure to check with a professor or advisor about whether they recommend a particular software tool, otherwise use our Comparison Chart to help you decide which software would be the best for you. 

Northeastern Library also runs citation management workshops in the fall and spring semesters; see our calendar and past recordings.

Northeastern Library currently supports  EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero, and Mendeley. 

We offer some support for BibTex formatting as well; see the BibTex page on our Mathematics Guide.