Citation Guides

Your go-to resource for all of the citing sources, style use, avoiding plagiarism, and writing support at Benedictine University.

Why Cite Sources?

To show readers that you’ve done proper research
To be a responsible scholar and avoid plagiarism by giving others credit for their ideas
To allow readers to track down and further explore the sources you used

Which Style Should I Use?

The citation style to use is determined by your professor, or if you are submitting a manuscript, by the journal or publisher. However, each discipline tends to use one or two styles.

APA – Nursing, business, and social sciences, including psychology, education, sociology, and economics.
MLA – Many humanities disciplines, including languages and literature.
CSE – Many disciplines in the natural sciences, including biology, geology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics.
Chicago / Turabian – History and the arts.
AMA – Medicine, health, and the sciences.
APSA-Political Science

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a violation of Benedictine University’s Academic Honesty Policy and may result in sanctions that could have profound long-term effects. Whether done intentionally or unintentionally, plagiarism carries serious consequences. There are steps you can take to avoid plagiarizing unintentionally.

Plagiarism FAQs (Purdue OWL)

There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work.

Writing Support

BenU Peer Tutoring

Visit a peer tutor on the Lisle campus for writing assistance.
Purdue OWL: General Writing Resources

Covers the writing process, academic writing, common writing assignments, grammar, and graduate school application writing.

female student working with male student in library

Citation Guides

Explore the various citation guide styles to help you in your academic writing pursuits.

APA Style

Should I use APA?

APA is a citation style generally used by students and scholars in nursing, business, and social sciences, such as psychology and economics. Always ask your professors which style they prefer.

Helpful APA Guides

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by American Psychological Association

Call Number: 808.02 P976 2020

Print version of the APA style manual. The library owns several circulating copies. You can also find non-circulating copies in our Reference Collection on the 3rd floor of the library on the Lisle campus.

Citation Tools

Always review citations for accuracy and make sure they meet exact formatting and punctuation guidelines.

NCSU Citation Builder

Automatically generates citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE Name-Year.

Tip: Many academic databases provide ready-made citations that you can copy and paste into your paper. For example, in EBSCO databases, such as Academic Search Complete, click Cite in the Tools column to view citations in a variety of styles.

MLA Style

Should I use MLA?

MLA is a citation style generally used by students and scholars in many humanities disciplines, including languages and literature. Always ask your professors which style they prefer.

Helpful MLA Guides

BenU Library MLA Research Guide
Purdue OWL: MLA

Offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

The St. Martin’s Handbook by Andrea A. Lunsford

Call Number: Reference – 3rd floor (non-circulating) R 428.2 L963s 2015

ISBN: 9781457667244

Publication Date: 2015-01-16

Citation Tools

Always review citations for accuracy and make sure they meet exact formatting and punctuation guidelines.

NCSU Citation Builder

Automatically generates citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE Name-Year.

CSE Style

Should I Use CSE? Which Sub-Style Should I Use?

CSE is a citation style generally used by students and scholars in disciplines in the natural sciences, including biology, geology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Most Benedictine University instructors recommend using the name-year sub-style. Always ask your professors which style they prefer.

CSE does not specify format and structure of your paper (i.e., line spacing, margin width, section headers, page numbering, etc.), so ask your professors for clarification.

Helpful CSE Guides

Scientific Style and Format (7th ed.)

Call Number: 808.066 S416 2006

Publication Date: 2006

Print version of CSE 7th edition. You can also find a non-circulating copy in our Reference Collection on the 3rd floor of the library on the Lisle campus.

The Writer’s Handbook: CSE Name-Year Documentation

CSE Name-Year documentation from the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Citation Tools

Always review citations for accuracy and make sure they meet exact formatting and punctuation guidelines.

NCSU Citation Builder

Automatically generates citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE Name-Year.

Chicago / Turabian Style

Should I Use Chicago / Turabian?

The Chicago Manual of Style Notes-Bibliography System (NB) is a citation style generally used by students and scholars in history and the arts. Always ask your professors which style they prefer.

Helpful Chicago / Turabian Guides

Chicago Manual of Style

eBook version of the 17th edition of the style manual. Contains a quick guide to citations and a Question and Answer section.

Owl-Chicago/Turabian style

Easy to use and informative guide to correctly create Chicago/Turabian citations.

Citation Tools

Always review citations for accuracy and make sure they meet exact formatting and punctuation guidelines.

NCSU Citation Builder

Automatically generates citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE Name-Year.

AMA Style

Should I Use AMA?

AMA is a citation style generally used by students and scholars in medicine, health, and the sciences. Always ask your professors which style they prefer.

Note: Nursing students and scholars generally use APA, not AMA.

Helpful AMA Guides

Purdue OWL: AMA Style

A guide to AMA Style from the Purdue Online Writing Lab.

AMA Manual of Style (10th ed.)

Call Number: R 808.06661 A512 2007

Publication Date: 2007

Print version of AMA. Find it in our Reference Collection on the 3rd floor of the library on the Lisle campus.

Citation Tools

Always review citations for accuracy and make sure they meet exact formatting and punctuation guidelines.

NCSU Citation Builder

Automatically generates citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE Name-Year.

ACS Style

Should I Use ACS?

American Chemical Society (ACS) style is a citation style generally used by students and scholars in chemistry. Always ask your professors which style they prefer.

APSA Style

Why use ASPA?

The American Political Science Association style guide is used for Political Science papers. The format is similar to Chicago Style but there are important differences. Be sure to ask your instructor if you are required to use APSA style for your assignments.

Helpful APSA Citation Guides

Citation Machine for APSA
APSA Style examples

Meriam Library – California State University, Chico offers examples of APSA style for books and journals

Citation Tools

Research-o-Matic

Free bibliography generator
Citation Machine

Create free citations in many styles
Cite4me

Free citation generator for APSA style

Citation Managers (Free Citation Management Software)

Introduction

Citation management tools allow a user to:

Collect, organize, and retrieve citation information from books, articles and websites.
Interface with the library databases and with websites.
Work with word-processing software (Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and others) to insert properly formatted footnotes or citations and bibliographies into a research paper

Zotero

Zotero is free open source software, available for download on your computer or used online via the web. You can download on multiple devices and Zotero automatically synchronizes your data.

Access: Zotero has both a cloud based version or a standalone software version that you can download to your computer (PC or Mac). Download Zotero . Users can sync between desktop software and an online account.
Storage: Zotero provides 300MB of free online storage and desktop storage is dependent of your computers capacity.
Direct Export & PDFs: Send PDFs and citations to Zotero using a Zotero Connector browser extension. Store PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages for easy retrieval.
Citation Styles: Many popular citation styles with the ability to easily download additional styles here .
Cite while you write Using the Zotero citation plugin you can create in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies in Microsoft Word and LibreOffice. Users can also generate a quick bibliography of selected citations directly from Zotero.
Help: Find more information at Zotero Documentation.

EndNote Basic

EndNote Basic, also known as EndNote Web, is a free web-based application offered by Clarivate Analytics and Web of Science. EndNote Basic is a stripped down version of the EndNote product that is available for purchase.

Access: The free version is only available as a cloud based citation manager at EndNote Basic.
Storage: EndNote Basic provides 2GB of free online storage and 50,000 maximum records.
Direct Export & PDFs: Users can send citations from EBSCO databases to EndNote Web using the Direct Export feature in EBSCO. PDFs can also be uploaded and attached to the EndNote record.
Citation Styles: EndNote supports many journal citation styles.
Cite while you write: Download the Cite while you write EndNote Plugin from the top banner by clicking on download. Users can create in-text citations, footnotes and bibliographies in their word processor.
Transfer Citation Records from Mendeley to EndNote: If you previously used Mendeley to manage your citations, learn how to transfer Mendeley records to EndNote.
Help: Find more information at EndNote Basic Details and at EndNote Online Training

Mendeley

Mendeley is a free citation manager tool offered by Elsevier, providers of the Science Direct platform. You can download Mendeley on multiple devices and sync your citations across the devices using your online Mendeley account.

Access: Mendeley has both a cloud based version and a standalone software version that you download on your computer (PC or Mac). Users can sync between desktop software and an online account. Sign up for a free account and Download Mendeley.
Storage : Mendeley provides 2GB of free online storage and desktop storage is dependent of your computers capacity.
Direct Export & PDFs : Drop and drag PDFs over to Mendeley application. Extracts metadata from PDFs to create citations. Easy to highlight, annotate and organize PDFs.
Citation Styles: Many popular citation styles with the ability to easily download additional styles.
Cite while you write: Using the Mendeley citation plugin you can create in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies in Microsoft Word and LibreOffice.
Help: Find more information at Mendeley Tutorials.

Research Help

How-to Guides

Additional Help Tools

Library Tutorials

Visit our full list of tutorials, including interactive and video tutorials.
Frequently Asked Questions

How do I log in? How long can I borrow an item? Where can I find peer-reviewed articles? Find answers to these and more questions on our FAQ page.
Research Project Calculator

Use the Research Project Calculator to help plan your assignments. Simply enter your start date and due date to receive a research timeline.
https://ben.edu/academics/academic-support-center/

Visit a peer tutor on the Lisle campus for writing assistance.
Purdue OWL: General Writing Resources

Covers the writing process, academic writing, common writing assignments, grammar, and graduate school application writing.

Citation Guides

Why Cite Sources?

Which Style Should I Use?

Avoiding Plagiarism

Writing Support

Citation Guides

Campus Locations

Quick Links

Citation Guides

Why Cite Sources?

Which Style Should I Use?

Avoiding Plagiarism

Writing Support

Citation Guides

Campus Locations

Quick Links

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