Citations & Style Guides

Research

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Citations

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 as an author. If an article inspires your thinking on the topic, you should always cite it at the end of your paper, even if you didn't end up quoting or referencing it in your writing. 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

 

Why Cite?

Compiling citations may feel tedious, but there are many reasons why you should (and need to) do it. For one, as a college student, you need to cite sources in order to avoid committing plagiarism, which counts as academic fraud. It also improves your credibility and authority as a writer. If you've learned the CRAAP method for evaluating sources, or read through our Misinformation, Disinformation, and Bias page, you know that reviewing an author's references and independently verifying their claims are key factors when it comes to judging a source's credibility, authority, accuracy, and trustworthiness. Having a wide and varied list of references/citations at the end of your paper makes you seem more trustworthy because it tells readers that you've done your research and are knowledgeable enough to write on the topic. Here are some more reasons citing sources is important:

  1. Improves your own credibility as an author
  2. Honors the hard work others have done
  3. Shows readers where they can learn more (and check your information)
  4. Provides evidence for the claims you make
  5. Shows how your paper fits into current research
  6. Provides essential context and background information for readers new to the topic
  7. Maps out where your paper belows in scholarly conversations on the topic

 

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)

 

Free Citation Tools

 

More Resources

 

Updated 2/10/26