Research Help

If you quote directly, use ideas, or paraphrase from any information source, you should indicate this in your research paper, speech, or assignment. When you cite, you show that you have done the research, you are a responsible scholar by giving credit and acknowledging others’ work, you allow others to expand their understanding by going back to the original source, and you avoid plagiarism.

The citation guides presented on this page are available in the Archbishop Alter Library and/or online as indicated. If you are unsure about which documentation style to use, ask your professor or consult with the Learning Commons: Peer Tutoring & Academic Support for advice. (For appointments, see also their scheduling site.)

Look for the quotation mark icon within research databases. The quotation mark symbol signifies that cite tools are available to help you format a citation for the corresponding resource so that you can copy and paste it into your bibliography. Example databases include, Worldcat.org, Business Source Complete (and all other databases from EBSCO), Nursing & Allied Health (ProQuest), and even the MSJ Library Catalog in Library Search.

If using citation generators, remember to verify the generated citation to ensure that it correctly follows the citation style that you are using. For example, it is not unusual to see capitalization issues within the autogenerated citations, especially for APA citations.