How to Cite Your Research

The Purdue OWL site provides guidance for basic citation and paper formatting (APA, MLA, Chicago, AMA, IEEE).

• APA Style Guide 7th Edition  
• MLA Style Guide 8th Edition 
• Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition 

Zotero is a free Citation tool. Citation tools are also called citation managers or reference managers. These are are programs that help you collection, store, organize and cite your sources. You can:

• Collection citations of your research as you research.
• Store your citations in one location.
• Organize your citations by topic, paper, or subject.
• Export citations and articles from databases and the web
• Cite your sources in your paper.
• Create a bibliography of your sources for your paper or project.

Most library databases provide formatted citations. While generally very accurate, these can have minor errors, often in capitalization. Most citations can be exported to Zotero, Word or other software.  

See our citations FAQ for details for finding citation generators in library databases. 

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned to identify articles and provides a persistent link to its location. A DOI starts with the number 10.

• Not all articles will have a DOI.

The DOI can be found:

• At the top or bottom of the first page of the article near the copyright information:
• In the database search results or article record:

If you already have the DOI, you can use it to locate your article:

1.  From the Library's home page, directly under the main OneSearch box, select CitationLinker. 

2. OR, add the DOI to the end of the following web address: http://dx.doi.org/.

For example: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2009.00314.x

If you have the citation, use CrossRef to locate the DOI.