How to Use the Library

Citing a source is necessary when you use words, ideas, images or any other form of information taken from another place. Citations show where you obtained your information and is a standard practice to avoid plagiarism and ensure that your work meets academic integrity standards.

The guides below give you pointers and examples of the different citation styles your professors may ask you to use when citing sources for assignments. 

Commonly used styles:

APA Style 
APA (American Psychological Association) style is used by social science disciplines such as communication studies, economics, education, psychology, and sociology. It is also used by business and nursing.

Chicago Style 
Chicago style is the preferred citation style for history and theology.

MLA Style 
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is used to cite sources within English, international languages, theater, cultural studies, and other humanities.

Science and other disciplinary styles:

ACS Style 
ACS (American Chemical Society) style is the standard citation style for chemistry.

AMA Style 
AMA (American Medical Association) style is by disciplines in science and medicine, including biomedical engineering.

ASA Style 
ASA (American Sociological Association) style is the standard citation style for sociology.

CSE Style 
CSE (Council of Science Editors) style is used by science disciplines, including biology.

RefWorks or Mendeley
RefWorks and Mendeley are citation management tools that can be useful for organizing your research and writing projects. Both enable you to collect sources in one place, automatically create bibliographies in the citation style you need, add PDFs to your account and annotate them, and share sources with others for collaborative projects.

The library provides you with access to RefWorks. Mendeley is free (up to 2GB storage).

For assistance with citing books, articles, and more, help is available! Use Library Chat or email reference@up.edu to ask your question. We can recommend citation guides and answer specific questions about citations.