Citation Guide

Free citation generators are available in most library databases and many search engines. These can help you with creating the full citation for an individual item, often useful for annotated bibliography assignments or for creating your bibliography at the end of a paper. Citation generators don't typically store your citations like citation managers do and few include help with formatting in-text citations.

Before using a citation generator, ask yourself the following:

• Does it offer the publishing style you need? 
  • Common styles such as APA, MLA, and Chicago are almost always available. For rather uncommon, in-house publishing styles, you are better of using Citation Management Programs.
• Is the citation style edition correct?
  • Always use the latest edition of a given style, unless you are instructed otherwise.
• Did you double check citations?
  • ​Using citation management programs or citation generators can be helpful, but it is still your responsibility to make sure that your citations are formatted properly for the given style you are using.  Citation generators are free, convenient, and easy to use, but not perfect -- you may notice minor inaccuracies when using these online tools.
  • Watch out for common errors: incorrect capitalizations, punctuation, spacing, information or placement, etc.
  • Use reliable resources such as the individual citation manuals or OWLS writing guides to double check.