Research Paper Season – Documenting Sources

It’s that time of the semester again, and regardless of your major, you’ve probably got a research paper. After a semester (or the day night, either way) spent researching to construct a fantastic essay, you have to prove that you did just make up everything that you wrote. All that research must be documented in the form of a works cited page or reference list. No one gets out of this part of the research process, not when you’re in school or out in the real world.

Did you know that you can use the Library’s databases for this part of the process as well? Many of our databases, such as the databases from EBSCOhost and Proquest, will actually format citations for you? Just another reason why you should use them!

Here’s how in EBSCOhost:

  • Find an article or articles that you would like to use in your research.
  • When viewing the result list, click on the folder icon to the right of the citation to Add to Folder.
  • Scroll to the top and click on the link for Folder has items.
  • This page should list all of the sources you’ve selected. You can choose to e-mail, print or save those citations. Click on your preferred method.
  • From this page, you should see to the right the options for citation format. The second drop-down menu allows you to select a particular style, i.e. APA, MLA, etc.
  • Depending on which option you selected, click on Print, E-mail or Save in the left corner.

Just as with any automatic process, you need to make sure that the citations are properly formatted. It’s still a whole lot easier than starting from scratch, no?

About kyle

I'm the library guy. No, seriously, I'm the only male reference & instruction librarian. I also have the pleasure of serving several campus committees, the Academic Staff Assembly and the Chancellor's Task Force on LGBT Issues, among others.
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