Has your instructor given you the task of creating citations and a bibliography for your research paper? NVC librarians have assembled a list of free citation generators to help you in this endeavor.
As a general rule, it is always a good idea to check your citations for accuracy against the appropriate style manual. Style manuals are listed below and are located in the reference area of the McCarthy Library and online (when available) via hyperlinks below.
Free Citation Generators
BibMe http://www.bibme.org
BibMe "is a free automatic citation creator that supports MLA, APA, and Chicago (Turabian) formatting." It was developed by Carnegie Mellon University. To use it, simply choose what your source is (e.g. book, magazine, newspaper, website, scholarly journal, etc.), then enter the author or title and BibMe finds the results for you.
Docs Cite http://www.asu.edu/lib/hayden/govdocs/docscite/docscite.htm
"Docs Cite is a step-by-step guide to putting government citations into proper style format." Docs Cite is available for MLA and APA styles.
Easybib.com (Three-day Free Trial) http://www.easybib.com
Easybib formats each entry of your Works Cited list and also allows you to export your entire list into a Microsoft Word. Handles MLA, APA and Chicago Style. Thre- day free triall, then $4.99 per month to subscribe.
KnightCite http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/
KnightCite "is a free online citation generator provided by Hekman Library of Calvin College. It supports MLA, APA and Chicago Manual of Style for 25 different types of sources. It is available to members both within and outside of the Calvin Community. Simply create a user name and password to save your citations and even multiple bibliographies."
Scholar's Aid and Scholar's Aid 4 Lite http://scholarsaid.com/aboutsafree.html
The freeware version of Scholar's Aid is called Scholar's Aid 4 Lite. It includes a bibliographical data manager called Library, an importing/exporting manager called DataRetriever and a notes/information manager called Notes. You must register with Scholar's Aid 4 Lite if you want to use it for more than 30 days. The Lite version does not include as many features as the paid version, Scholar's Aid 4 AE.
Son of Citation Machine
http://citationmachine.net/index2.php?reqstyleid=1&mode=form&reqsrcid=MLABook&more=yes&nameCnt=1
This free site creates MLA, APA and Chicago Manual of Style. Citations can be copied and pasted in a Microsoft Word document. David Warlick created the site and also maintains a blog about Citation Machine.
Zotero http://zotero.org
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite and share your research sources. It lives in the web browser. You can work locally on your computer and sync your data between multiple computers. Collect information on books and other materials with a single click on your location bar. Drag and drop bibliographies anywhere. Produced by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Zotero requires Firefox 3,6, 4 or 5.
Style Manuals
APA Style
American Psychological Association. (2001). (5th ed.). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Call no.: R808.0661 Publication.
American Psychological Association. (2007). APA Style Guide to Electronic References. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
MLA Style
For high school and undergraduate students:
Gibaldi, J. (2009). (7th ed.). MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America. Call no: R808.027 MLA.
For graduate students, scholars, and professional writers:
Gibaldi, J. (2008). (3rd ed.). MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. New York: Modern Language Association of America. Call no: R808.027 (Available at Napa Main and other SNAP libraries).
Chicago Style
Turabian, K. (2007). (7th ed.). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses and Dissertations. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. Call no: R808.02 Turabian.
The Chicago Manual of Style. (2003). (15th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Need More Help?
Still confused about when and where to cite sources? Check out NVC's online modules on How to do Research:
http://www.napavalley.edu/Library/Pages/WritingandCiting.aspx
Copyright (C) 2011 Napa Valley College By: Napa Valley College Library
Last updated: July 13, 2011 Questions & Comments: Nancy McEnery