Citation styles are specific methods of formatting research papers and projects and citing sources to give appropriate credit to authors for their ideas and work.
The two main citation styles you are likely to use in your courses are MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association).
Additional citation styles you may use include Chicago, and AMA (American Medical Association).
These organizations have developed style guidelines for how to format research papers, how to format citations, what style of language to use, and many other aspects of writing research papers.
This guide will cover:
*Be cautious when using a citation generator! Citation generators are machines that take the available information and format it into a citation using the indictated style (i.e. MLA, APA, etc.). Since they are automated, they can be prone to error including missing information or mistakes in formatting like missing punctuation or italicis. As such, you should ALWAYS double check the citation generated by a machine and make sure it's accurate. Use the resources available in our citation guides to check the accuracy of a citation or ask a librarian for help.
For more information, see Purdue OWL's guide on Using Citation Generators Responsibly.