How do I cite an article or book for my research? : Villanova University Libraries

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General Research Question

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How to cite your sources depends on which citation style you are using. Social scientists often us the APA style which is an abbreviation for Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. This guide to citing resources and formatting your paper is available at the Information Desk. Scholars working in the humanities often use MLA Handbook. This guide published by the Modern Languages Association is also available at the Information Desk. These are only two of the most common style guides. Check you syllabus or ask your professor to learn which is the preferred style. Some free online resources for creating citations may be found on our "Get Help" "Tips and Guides" page http://beta.library.villanova.edu/Help/FAQs/CiteResources. My favorite is Diana Hacker's Research and Documention Online http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/. If you just need to create a citation to an article found in one of our databases, many have build in applications for creating ALA and MLA formatted citations. You may have to use the online help screens in each database to find these citation formatting features.