Reference management software are tools designed to assist students and other research-oriented professionals in organizing their citations accurately and efficiently. These tools are usually “plugged in” directly in the word processing software or web browsers. Reference management software can automatically create bibliographies formatted to a journal or citation style requirements.
What is a citation?
A citation is a reference to the source of information used in your research. It provides the reader information necessary to locate the material and acknowledge the author. Citation contains information about:
- the author
- the title of the work
- Place of Publication
- Its publisher, and
- Year of publication.
Why do we need to cite sources?
The main reason why we cite the information used in our research is to give proper credit to the original author of the work. It is very helpful for others who would want to do further research on the topic as not all sources are good or right. Proper citation will eliminate inaccurate and bogus sources. Further, citing sources will strengthen your research by linking the support to your ideas.
What is a citation style?
It is considered as the abbreviated form of citation which is usually found at the end of the paper. It represents the variety of sources that the researcher utilized to support their research.
Citation style differs in format as to the order of information, punctuation and other syntax of information about references. It is recommended to consult your instructor for the appropriate citation style for your research paper. In other academic requirements wherein publication of research output is aimed, adhering to a particular citation style is observed.
There are standard citation styles depending on the academic discipline. These are:
For Humanities:
MLA (Modern Language Association)
Chicago
Sciences:
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
Social Sciences:
APA (American Psychological Association)
Is there a way to generate citations easily?
Yes, there is. One way to generate citations is through the library’s WebOPAC. Library users are advised to login using their account to perform this function.
When all resources are saved on a list, click on the particular list of resources.
The “View Bibliography” function of our library system allows you to view saved items in a list through a citation-like format.
Generated citation is available in MLA format. Library users have the option to print the said list.
There are also free citation generators available online, these are just some of them:
- BibMe – it provides a fully automatic bibliography maker that auto-fills. It’s free and it will help you create citations, build bibliographies and acknowledge people’s work easily.
- Citation Machine – It helps students, professionals researchers to give due credit to information that they used in their research. Its goal is to make citing information sources easy so that there is no reason not to.
- Cite This For Me – it assists users in automatically compiling bibliographies used in research as well as manual creation of bibliography.
- EasyBib – can assist students and researchers in organizing their sources used in the paper.
- Mendeley – a reference manager that allows you to organize and cite all of your research from one library. Also, you can share your research through its academic social network feature..
To know more on the topic, you can visit Plagiarism.org.
You can email us via library@mapua.edu.ph if you need further help in citing your resources.
