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education (graduate)

why citing sources in your work is important

when you read articles and/or books on your research topic and you include that information in your paper,  it is important that you acknowledge the source of your information: 

  • citing other people’s work will help you to avoid plagiarizing 

  • you are being respectful by acknowledging the work of others 

  • you are establishing your own credibility by acknowledging what others have found and written about on this topic 

  • you are leading others to work that has been done in this area so that they can find related articles and research on this topic 

  • you are becoming part of a community of scholars and adding your voice to the scholarly conversation on this topic

the academic integrity matters (aim) course is a self-guided, professional-development course which is designed to help you develop an understanding of what academic integrity is, why it matters, how to avoid academic misconduct, and the key components of the lu student code of conduct - academic integrity policy

citation manuals available at the libraries (click on an image below for availability)

citation websites

some websites are available to help you to cite your sources. if you use an automatic citation generator, please always remember to check the output.  citation generators will sometimes make mistakes and it is up to you to check!

omni and other subject databases will also include a citation tool (see box below this one).  please remember to also check the citations that these tools generate for you.  

citation tools in article databases

many education articles databases offer a "cite" tool on their search results screen.  this tool will format your article information and format it in a citation style that you select (apa and mla are available styles).   

here is a list of education databases available through 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 library and the location of their cite tool:

cbca complete, eric  (proquest):  in your results list you can select one or more references you would like to cite.  on the light blue bar above your results, click on the link labelled cite.   it will format your results in the default citation style.  you can change the citation style. 

educationsource, teacher reference center (ebsco): click on the article you want to view.  on the right side are listed several tools.  click on the "cite" link.  you will be presented with the citation formatted in several citation styles. 

google scholar also includes a cite option below each article it finds. simply run a search and click on cite underneath the citation. a new window will open and you can cut and paste the citation into your document. 

always remember to check the output! 

tools for managing your references

when you are gathering information for your research papers it can become difficult to organize and keep track of what you have found.  these tools can help you to manage your information sources and create citations: 

zotero

zotero offers an open access option for managing your references.  for information on organizing your references check out our zotero guide . 

omni

it is possible to manage references found through omni, the library's new discovery tool for finding books and journal articles on all subjects.  within your list of references, you can "pin" any citation you would like to save to your account.   these pinned items will go to your "favourites" in your account.  within your list of saved items you can add "labels" to categorize your pinned references.  you can then retrieve your items with these "labels". 

mendeley

mendeley provides another option for managing your references.  please see this chart which provides a comparison of zotero and mendeley. 

zotero

what is zotero?

zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.

a video tutorial on installing and using zotero, is available on our videos and tutorials page.    

a library guide for using zotero is also available. 

why use zotero?
  • free (up to 300 mb of storage)
  • add in-text citations as you write an essay, with just a click
  • very fast and very accurate bibliography creation
  • great way to organize all the resources you are finding for different essays / projects
  • create citations from pdfs
how do you get started?
  1. download and install zotero.
  2. install the zotero connector for your browser (chrome, firefox, safari or opera).
  3. register for a free account on the zotero website.
  4. sync your account (login to your "desktop" version of zotero, with the credentials you created on the zotero website).
  5. start adding citations!