Cite a Source

Scholarly papers, articles and books always include a bibliography of sources used in research, and include citations (footnotes, endnotes or in-text). Showing the source you used in your research provides credibility and authority to support your work.

Different academic fields use different citation styles: standard ways of formatting citations. The most commonly used styles are:

Your professor will usually prescribe which style to use for your assignment. Check the Citation Styles guide for examples of each style.

Need a different style?

The library has a manual for every citation style, usually kept in the reference section on Library North 2, that spells out all the details and variations. Check the library catalog for the style manual you need.

Citation Software

The library provides two different citation manager programs to help you save, organize and format your citations into a bibliography. Start using one of these programs early in your research process!

 ENname_RGB_web EndNote is a desktop application for Mac and Windows. It runs in a separate window from your browser. It’s free to download for GSU students, faculty and staff. Our EndNote guide has more details. (Need an EndNote “product key”?)


 zotero_sticker Zotero is available as either a desktop application or an add-in for the Mozilla Firefox browser that runs in the background while Firefox is open. It’s free to download for anyone. Our Zotero guide has more details.