Citation Guide

Why Cite?

• To ethically engage in the research conversation relevant to your topic by giving credit to the authors whose works you have quoted, paraphrased, summarized, and/or interpreted. 
• To help readers locate the sources you used in your work -- this helps build your credibility!
• To provide reputable evidence, research methodologies, and/or information for your research, paper, or assignment.
• To avoid pesky plagiarism.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Correctly citing work is the means by which researchers and writers can avoid plagiarizing the work of others. If you have more questions about plagiarism, please visit our Plagiarism Research Guide. 

There are thousands of citation styles to choose from -- so how should you know which to select? Oftentimes, your instructor will assign one for you; other times, you may have the option to pick one for yourself based on the citation conventions in your field of study. Here are three of the most widely used citation styles:

• APA (American Psychological Association)
  • APA Style Homepage
• MLA (Modern Language Association)
  • The MLA Style Center
• Chicago Manual of Style
  • The Chicago Manual of Style Online

For more information on these citation styles, please select the corresponding links located in the left-hand column. For more information on other citation styles, select the link for Citation Styles by Disciplines.

To help you keep track of the sources you cite and create citations in the above mentioned styles as well as many others, FSU provides support for the following citation management programs!

• Zotero
• EndNote
• Mendeley

For more information on these programs and how to get started using them, please see the Citation Management Programs page of this guide.