Citations and Referencing
One of the most common questions I get asked when I talk to people about writing in an academic setting is how to keep track of citations, especially when working on a massive document like a thesis, dissertation, or book. Below are some of the tools I’ve personally used over the years or that have been recommended to me for keeping track of all of my citations.
Zotero: This is my personal favourite and what I use most often for my own research. Zotero is a free, open-source reference management software that helps you collect, organise, cite, and share research sources. It works as a browser extension, allowing you to save references directly from your web browser. I love having the Chrome plug-in so that I can save snapshots of what I’m looking at online! I can’t rave enough about Zotero, especially given that I’ve been using it for the last five to six years without issue. I only wish I had discovered it sooner!
Mendeley: Mendeley is another widely used reference manager and academic social network. It allows you to organise your research, collaborate with others, and generate citations and bibliographies in various citation styles. One con with Mendeley is that while it offers a free version, it comes with limitations on storage space and features compared to the premium subscription. It might be great for an essay or conference paper but not so useful when it comes to longer works.
EndNote: EndNote is a commercial reference management software developed by Clarivate Analytics. It offers advanced features for managing references, creating bibliographies, and collaborating with other researchers. EndNote syncs pretty seamlessly with Microsoft Word, making it really useful when you need to directly cite something in your paper.
RefWorks: RefWorks is a web-based reference management tool provided by ProQuest. It allows users to store, organise, and share references, as well as generate citations and bibliographies in different citation styles.
BibTeX: BibTeX is a tool used with LaTeX, a typesetting system often used for academic and technical documents. BibTeX allows users to manage bibliographic references and automatically generate citations and bibliographies within LaTeX documents.
EasyBib: EasyBib is a web-based citation generator that helps users create citations and bibliographies in various citation styles. It’s particularly useful for quickly generating citations for websites, books, journals, and other sources. I find EasyBib to be pretty basic (I primarily used it in high school to learn how to keep citations easily.)
Referencing
need to directly cite something in your paper.
RefWorks: RefWorks is a web-based reference management tool provided by ProQuest. It allows users to store, organise, and share references, as well as generate citations and bibliographies in different citation styles.
BibTeX: BibTeX is a tool used with LaTeX, a typesetting system often used for academic and technical documents. BibTeX allows users to manage bibliographic references and automatically generate citations and bibliographies within LaTeX documents.
EasyBib: EasyBib is a web-based citation generator that helps users create citations and bibliographies in various citation styles. It’s particularly useful for quickly generating citations for websites, books, journals, and other sources. I find EasyBib to be pretty basic (I primarily used it in high school to learn how to keep citations easily.)
Referencing
Referencing is a whole topic on its own, so I will try to come back to it, but below are some of the more common referencing systems in play in academia. I would highly recommend that you check with your institution or the journal/publishing company you’re working with before you begin writing to see which style guide they prefer or utilise, as this will impact the way that you write your text! It’s also useful to have a browse online to find the style guides. While I grew up citing in MLA, when I came to the UK, I was required to learn MHRA, and it’s always good to have a guide handy while you work so you can reference properly the first time and not have to come back and redo all of your references later.
In academia, several style guides are commonly used for referencing and citation. Some of the most widely recognized ones include:
APA Style (American Psychological Association): Often used in social sciences, education, and psychology, APA style provides guidelines for formatting academic papers, citing sources, and creating reference lists.
MLA Style (Modern Language Association): Commonly used in humanities disciplines such as literature, language studies, and cultural studies, MLA style offers guidelines for citing sources and formatting papers.
Chicago Manual of Style (CMS): Chicago style is used in a variety of disciplines and offers two citation formats: notes and bibliography (common in humanities) and author-date (common in social sciences and sciences).
Modern Humanities Research Association Style (MHRA): Often used in the humanities, particularly in disciplines such as literature, history, and cultural studies, MHRA typically uses footnotes or endnotes for in-text citations.
Harvard Style: The Harvard referencing style is widely used in various disciplines and features an author-date citation system, where the author’s last name and the year of publication are included in the in-text citation.
AMA Style (American Medical Association): AMA style is used in medical and biological sciences for citing sources and formatting research papers, particularly in journals and publications related to healthcare.
These are just a few examples of the many style guides used in academia. The choice of style guide often depends on the discipline, the requirements of the academic institution or publisher, and personal preferences of the researcher or writer. As mentioned before, it’s incredibly important to check with your institution or journal/publishing company before you begin writing to see which style they usually use.
Happy citing!