Political Science

This online resource is a great starting point for how to cite sources in the most commonly used styles.

• Research and Citation (Purdue OWL)

Always consult with your professor to determine which style you should use for any paper or project.  For citation help, ask for assistance at the library reference desk or the Meredith College Learning Center.

Chicago Style refers to two different citation styles.  Please ask your instructor which version to use.  Note that "Turabian Style" is very similar to Chicago Style, with a few minor differences.

The Humanities, or Notes/Bibliography version (often used in Art, History, and Religion) involves footnotes and a bibliography.

The Author-Date version (often preferred in the social sciences) involves in-text citations and a reference list.

ACS (American Chemical Society)

• The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information - Reference Collection, R 808.065554 Ac78c
• ACS Style Guidelines (UW-Madison Libraries) - Examples for in-text citations and bibliography entries.

AMA (American Medical Association) or NLM (National Library of Medicine)

• AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors - Reference Collection, R 808.06661 Am11 2020
• AMA Citation Help (Purdue University) - Examples for bibliography entries.
• AMA Introduction (Purdue OWL) - Explains in-text citations and bibliography entries, provides examples.
• Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors and Publishers (National Library of Medicine)

CSE (Council of Science Editors)

• The CSE Manual: Scientific Style and Format for Authors, Editors,and Publishers - Reference Collection, R 808.066 Sci279 2024
• CSE Documentation Style (Univ. of Wisconsin) - Examples for in-text citations and bibliography entries.

MLA Style involves parenthetical citations within the paper, plus a list of works cited at the end of the paper.

APA Style involves parenthetical citations within the paper, plus a reference list at the end of the paper.

Zotero is a free tool for managing your references, and creating citations and bibliographies in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.  It involves two components: the Zotero program itself, and a browser "connector" for adding items to your Zotero library.

For more information, see our Zotero 101 guide.

Mendeley is a free research management tool that allows you to collect and organize the sources that you find in library databases and on the internet.  Mendeley offers the ability to share references and collaborate with others in groups, and it integrates with Microsoft Word, allowing you to automatically insert citations into a Word document and generate bibliographies using a variety of citation styles.    

Mendeley works particularly well with the Scopus database, allowing seamless exporting of citations from Scopus into your Mendeley reference library.

CCL Guide to Mendeley

Many research databases such as EBSCO and ProQuest offer "cite this item" features, which generate citations in the most popular styles (MLA, APA, etc.) for any source that you find. You can then copy-paste these directly into your papers.

WARNING: Be sure to double-check these citations against the rules for proper style, since they are NOT always accurate.