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 styles:

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

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

Reference Managers
Reference managers and quick citation generators can automatically format citations in the style you need. We recommend ZoteroBib for generating quick citations and Zotero as a reference manager. Reference managers can be useful for organizing your research and writing projects. They 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.

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