Citations and Style Guides

Citing your sources is an essential part of doing research. It protects you from committing plagiarism, allows your readers to find the information you reference, and improves your credibility. For every source you use, you will need to create a short in-text citation to include in the paper right after you reference the source, and a full citation to include at the end of your paper. However, the way you format your citations may change depending on what subject you're writing about and what your professor's preference is. In general, subjects in the humanities (literature, philosophy, religion, etc) will use MLA format, subjects in the social sciences (education, psychology, criminal justice, etc.) will use APA format, and historical or artistic subjects will use Chicago style. Subjects in the hard sciences (chemistry, engineering, medicine) may use subject-specific styles.

Always check in your syllabus to see what citation style your professor would like you to use, or email your professor directly if you do not see a specific style listed in the syllabus.

 

Common Citation Styles

Citing AI

While generative AI tools can be helpful in a myriad of ways, you should only be using AI tools if your professor has explicitly stated that you are allowed to do so. Just like any other source you use while writing, AI tools need to be cited at the end of your paper. In general, official style guides have decided that AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Bard, and others should not be treated as authors. Instead, you should treat the name of the company that produced the tool like the "publisher", and the specific tool and version as the "main title of work". 

For example, to cite ChatGPT in MLA, you would follow the template below:
"Prompt text" prompt. AI tool, version of tool, company that made the tool, date text was generated. URL. 

In APA, you would follow this template:
Company that made the tool (date text was generated). AI tool (version of tool) [Large language model]. URL.
(Note: if you are generating an image rather than text, replace [Large Language Model] with [AI image generator])

If you are using AI tools to locate sources, you should cite the sources that support your argument wherever possible, instead of the AI tool. However, if you are doing a meta-analysis or systematic review (where describing your search methods is essential), cite the AI tool using the templates above.

See this guide for more information on citing AI tools: Artificial Intelligence and Information Literacy (University of Maryland)

 

More Resources

• Purdue University Online Writing Lab 
• Citation Style for Research Papers (Long Island University)
• Developing a Working Bibliography (Colorado State University)
• University of Pittsburgh Subject Guide

 

Free Citation Generators

• BibMe
• NoodleBib Express
• Zotero