All the meticulous research you conduct for a paper could still be worthless if you haven’t properly cited your sources. As observed by the College of Staten Island Library, academic integrity demands that you give credit to the researchers whose ideas you build upon, citations demonstrate that you’ve thoroughly engaged with your topic, and identifying your sources gives your own readers a starting point to learn more about the topic.
Fortunately, the Library offers tools and expertise that can help you make citations a breeze.
Zotero
Zotero is a free, open-source app with connectors to Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Edge that allows you to save sources from your browser with one click. It is also an incredibly flexible, customizable tool to organize your sources. With Zotero, you can:
- Explore references from scholarly databases, the library catalog, and other web pages
- Download articles as PDFs and link them to your references
- Save snapshots of websites you have visited
- Drag and drop references directly into your document
Zotero has extensive documentation to help you get started, and many libraries and users have also created video tutorials.
ZoteroBib
ZoteroBib is a free tool from the team behind Zotero that helps you build a bibliography in any citation style. It requires no account or software installation; simply copy a website URL to the ZoteroBib search bar to generate citation information in more than 9,000 styles. ZoteroBib is a quick and easy tool for creating a bibliography for a paper, while Zotero is more suitable for longer-term projects or collaboration.
RefWorks
RefWorks is an online research management, writing, and collaboration tool designed to help researchers gather, manage, store, and share information and generate citations and bibliographies.
RefWorks allows you to:
- Create your own personal library of references
- Add citations manually or export from numerous databases directly into RefWorks
- Set up group accounts for collaborative scholarship
- Capture information directly from websites with RefGrab-It
- Add citations to Word documents with Write-N-Cite
Note that the Legacy RefWorks platform will be retired June 30, 2023. If you are still using the Legacy RefWorks platform (at www.refworks.com with an orange-and-white logo), migrate now to ensure your references, folders, and notes are saved. Just follow our easy migration instructions. If you’re working at refworks.proquest.com, you’re already on the new platform. For questions and additional support, contact refworks@georgetown.edu.
Find more information on the Library’s citation tools and styles page. Or, for one-on-one help, schedule a research consultation.