This guide is to provide information on citation and annotated bibliographies, with basic information on the landing page and more specialized information on appended pages.
This guide is intended to provide both general and discipline-specific help pointers for citation and annotated bibliographies. This landing page points to basic citation help, while the navigation pages provide more in-depth guidance regarding annotated bibliographies and citation styles in the various colleges,
And remember, for citation and research questions you can also go get live help on24/7 Live Chat.
Established by the American Psychological Association. This style is standard for multiple disciplines including many in the Social Sciences. The official APA style site provides robust citation examples and support.
This provides exhaustive documentation for APA stylistics, grammar and citations. There are print copies on Permanent Reserves and at the Research Help Desk on the 2nd floor.
MLA Style
Citation style established by the Modern Language Association.
Call Number: Research Help 2nd Floor LB2369 .G53 2016 (Ref)
ISBN: 9781603295628
Publication Date: 2021-05-20
The ninth edition builds on the MLA's approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date. It allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, social media posts, and more.
Call Number: RESEARCH HELP 2nd Floor LB2369 .T8 2013
ISBN: 9780226494425
Publication Date: 2018-04-16
Turabian provides a more student-friendly version of Chicago style, and this text provides comprehensive guidance. There are copies on Permanent Reserves and at the Research Help Desk.
CSE/CBE refers to the citation format established by the Council of Biology Editors. CBE is the format preferred by writers in Biology, Geology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine, and Physics.
Scientific Style and Format is a recognized, authoritative reference for authors, editors, publishers, students, and translators in all areas of science and related fields. It is available in the Main Collection at the Research Help Desk.
An exception is when the database contains proprietary information that cannot be accessed in another way, such as some of the business resources Cal Poly subscribes to (such as MRI Simmons).
Guidance on how to cite such sources is not as detailed as for other kinds of information, so in some cases you (or your instructor) must choose an approach, with the goal of presenting enough information for the reader to locate your source material.
There are various online tools that will help you generate citations, Some, such as EasyBib and Citation Machine, provide a limited number of citations before asking for some form of payment.
The OWL at Purdue has FREE citation generators for several styles.
WARNING:DO NOT BLINDLY TRUST ANY GENERATORS, AND BE PREPARED TO ADJUST THE CITATIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE PARTICULAR STYLE, INCLUDING INDENTATION, CAPITALIZATION, ITALICIZATION, AND THE ORDER OF THE CONTENT.
Zotero is a free tool that lets you save, cite and manage just about any format of information. You can create separate folders for your research and, since it is hosted remotely, you can access it anywhere, and create bibliographies in a wide range of citation styles. Zotero is available on all the computers in Kennedy Library.
Cal Poly's Subscription to the Web of Science databases is augmented by the ability to download a version of EndNote which allows you to download, store, and manage your citations. This ITS page exactly details how to download the software.