Citing Sources

It is important to cite sources in your research

• to help readers locate the sources you used by citing them accurately.
• to credit other scholars for their ideas or findings.
• to avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors.
• to show the extent of your research. 

When working on extensive research projects, you will need to collect, organize and format all your citations. The citation management tool Zotero is supported by the Boston College Libraries and allows you to search for and store your references, as well as create in-text citations and bibliographies.

• Zotero (BC guide)

  a free stand alone program that allows for easy capturing of citation information from web pages. Use Zotero to help you to collect, manage, and cite your references. With Zotero you can attach PDFs, notes, and images to your citations, organize them into collections for different projects, and create bibliographies.

Other tools:

• EndNote (Training guide)

  a citation manager that you must purchase and download onto your personal computer. There is a free web version as well.

Many of the Library's databases (including the Library Catalog) include an option to create a citation for sources in different styles (often under "Citation", "Cite", or "Export").

Here are additional tools that will help you create citations quickly in standard styles. 

Steve Runge
steven.runge@bc.edu
617-552-2183
O'Neill Library
Boston College

Chris Strauber
chris.strauber@bc.edu
617-552-4447
O'Neill Library
Boston College