Need to cite your work?

The most commonly used citation styles include MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian. Use these links to understand the differences between the styles and how to properly use them:

APA tutorial

This tutorial will explain the APA format -- to help you cite sources in your papers.  It was prepared by the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Citation Software - Endnote

Want to save time organizing and writing out your citations? 

Use Endnote.  All computers in the library have the Endnote software installed.

For help setting up and using Endnote, go to https://libguides.colostate.edu/endnote.

Citation Help in Databases

SOME databases will give you the bibliography part of your citation. Look for a "cite" link, select the style you want, then copy and paste into your bibliography. Be carful with these and remember three important facts:

  1. These are not 100%! You need to double check them.
  2. These will only give you the bibliography part of your citation. You still need to write the in-text part of the citation.
  3. They are only available in a few selected styles. If your citation style is not available, you can't use them.

Citation Management Programs

Citation Management programs are designed to collect and organize your citations, and often the actual documents you are interested in. The benefits of using these programs include:

  • Gather and store references while you research.
  • Create a personal research library of references, images, and PDFs.
  • Most programs will "talk" with Word and write your in-text citations and bibliography for you.
  • You can organize your citations in different folders and groups.
  • Allows you to return later to see what you have worked on over the years.
  • You can place everything you are interested in reading in one place and refer to it as you need.
  • Share your references with colleagues/collaborators/anyone.

Some examples of these programs include:

Use this comparison chart from The University of Wisconsin-Madison to compare EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero.

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