As researchers your job is to find, evaluate, interpret, and make meaning from the various sources you encounter during your research. This means you are supposed to build your arguments and ideas from the work of previous researchers - so when you're engaging with that research, it is important that you acknowledge the individual(s) who originated that idea or information. Similarly, if you base an argument over a specific piece of research that later turns out to be incorrect, your integrity as a researcher will be less jeopardized if people can identify that you were working with information that was thought reliable at the time but was later disproved or changed.
As previously discussed, part of a book or article being credible is being able to track where information and ideas came from. If someone on the street told you 90% of Americans have red hair, you would rightly question where that data was coming from. People reading your research have those same questions, so let them know that you're not pulling figures or other information out of thin air - you got that information from a reliable source.
Finding, evaluating, reading, analyzing, and incorporating sources into your research is HARD WORK. Show off all the effort you put into your project by citing all the sources you used and referenced.
One excellent way to find additional information on a topic is to look at the sources used by an author in their work. If those works aren't cited - finding those other sources becomes harder. Similarly, sometimes you read about something that's only a minor part of the larger work you're reading. If you want to learn more about that particular topic, seeing what sources the author referenced for that section will help you get started.
A citation manager is a software tool that helps you collect, organize, annotate, and cite your research sources. Many citation managers have browser extensions to quicky gather citation information and MS Word plugins to quickly and accurately insert citations and bibliographies in research papers! There are many options out there, but two of the most popular are:
Paid (but free through SLU):
EndNote is a bibliography software that allows users to import citations from online bibliographic databases, organize references, images and PDFs, and create bibliographies. EndNote 21 is available through Information Technology Services to all Saint Louis University faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students and can be downloaded on your personal computer/laptop. (ITS will need to download to your Saint Louis University work station.) There is even an EndNote LibGuide that will help you download, set up, and organize your citations in EndNote!
Free:
Zotero is a free bibliography software to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research. In addition to the traditional software it also has a webapp so you can access your sources from any browser, a browser extension called Xotero Connector, a mobile app for iPhone and Android, and plugins for Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs. You can also share collections via Zotero Groups - great for group or partner work, or for sharing reading lists with a broader audience.
Did you find a book or journal article using SLUth Search? Good news: you can generate a citation for that source right from the item record!
From the item record:
From the search results:
Export a citation to a citation manager
Are you using a citation manager to organize your sources? You can export a citation directly from the SLUth item record as well!
