Science Research: Citation Guides, Generators, and Tools

There are a number of different citation styles in use. Generally, the one you will use for your classes varies with the professor and academic discipline. The library has created a number of helpful citation guides to assist you in using the different styles. These guides are located in the Research Assistance box on the library's homepage under the Citing Sources link. These guides cover the APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and National Library of Medicine styles.

Citation Guides

We do have full style guides available in the library for the various citation styles. Some you might be interested in are:

There are a number of citation generators available on the internet which will create your citations for you. In fact, some of our databases even offer built in citation generators. While these are often seem like a simple and attractive option, unfortunately they tend to be incorrect.

If you choose to use citation generation of any kind, we recommend that you be sure to double check the results you get either with a copy of a citation guide or with the handouts we have available on our website.

They include:

KnightCite is an online citation generator service provided by the Hekman Library of Calvin College. This service simplifies the often tedious task of compiling an accurate bibliography in the appropriate style by formatting the given data on a source into a reliable citation, eliminating the need to memorize minute details of style for multiple kinds of sources.

Son of Citation Machine helps students and professional researchers to properly credit the information that they use. Its primary goal is to make it so easy for student researchers to cite their information sources.

BibMe is a free fully automatic bibliography maker that auto-fills. Supports automatic citation and bibliography creation for MLA, APA, Chicago and Turabian styles.

eTurabian "is intended to assist you in properly citing resources according to Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 8th and 7th editions; Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition; and MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition. It is not intended to serve as a substitute for these manuals. Keep in mind that your professor may have some specific requirements and the professor is always the final authority - between multitude of subjects and universities there are many traditions how to cite bibliographic materials."

Citation Builder

This is a 2.0 version of the original citation builder.  The developers made extensive changes and improvements to the interface and functionality. The highlights include:
- inclusion of CSE and Chicago styles
- mobile friendliness
- improved user interface fits better with the citation writing task

EasyBib is free when using the MLA generator.