Research Guides: Biology: Subject Guide: Citation

Organizational Tools

These online tools can help you manage your articles, citations, and bibliographies.

Some are free, some are not. Choose one that best fits your needs.

eLearning Industry's best online bibliographic management tools
This site rates and reviews free and subscription bibliographic management tools. These tools can help you organize and properly cite your research.

WorldCat Local Citation Tool Video

NOTE: You already have a WorldCat account through Southwestern. You can use the citation features for any of the books/articles/etc you find there. You can also create lists of items in WorldCat. Ask a librarian if you need help.

Style Guides

A style manual provides direction on all aspects of the writing process, from the ethics of authorship to the word choice that best reduces bias in language. It also has examples of citations for different types of resources.

Many academic disciplines have their own style guide. Some journals even have their own specific style. Ask your professor what style they want you to use for your paper/project.

For more information, see the individual tabs for specific styles above, or use the printed style manuals shelved in the library's Research Commons.

Debby Ellis Writing Center
List of style guides and writing handbooks at SLC
In WorldCat, search for "su:Academic writing Handbooks, manuals, etc." to see relevant books in our collection on writing and citation.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Did I Plagiarize? - Flowchart

The ACS Style Guide

*NEW* ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication
2020 Online Edition.
The ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication provides students, researchers, educators, and librarians with the instruction and advice they need to master the art of scholarly communication. The new Guide covers all instructions from previous editions of The ACS Style Guide - completely updated and modernized - as well as a wealth of brand new chapters covering everything from preprints, Open Access, machine-readable data, and much more.
2020 ACS Style Quick Guide
This citation guide is FREE and available ont he ACS website.

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is the standard citation style used in physics and some engineering courses.

AIP style guide (4th ed.)
A searchable PDF version of AIP provided with permission by Ken Hanson; home page http://public.lanl.gov/kmh/

Purdue OWL: APA style
APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.

American Sociologcical Association Style Guide by American Sociological Association Staff
Publication Date: 5th ed.
5th edition on Desk Reserve.
The authoritative reference for writing, submitting, editing, and copyediting manuscripts for ASA journals and other publications following ASA's unique format. This revised, expanded edition features guidelines for the most common situations encountered by authors and editors. New features include revisions to reference formatting and additional information on grammar. In addition, updated reference examples, including citing social media sources and journal articles posted online ahead of print, are included in this new edition. This guide also has been updated based on the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, on which much of ASA style is based.

Purdue OWL: ASA Style
This resource covers American Sociological Association (ASA) style and includes information about manuscript formatting, in-text citations, formatting the references page, and accepted manuscript writing style. The bibliographical format described here is taken from the American Sociological Association (ASA) Style Guide, 5th edition.
Quick Tips for ASA Style
A 2-page PDF showing brief tips for writing and citing with ASA style.

The Chicago Manual of Style
ISBN: 9780226287058
Publication Date: 2017
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
ISBN: 9780226430577
Publication Date: 2018

Online Turabian Quick Guide (9th ed.)
Kate L. Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations presents two basic documentation systems: notes-bibliography style (or simply bibliography style) and author-date style (sometimes called reference list style).
Purdue OWL: Chicago/Turabian

Purdue OWL: MLA style
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (8th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.