8.4 Using Citation Generators

Library Database Citation Tools

Library databases have several useful tools built into the technology to help you. One of the most useful is the citation generator. In most of the databases, it appears in the tools menu on the right side after you’ve opened a document. If you don’t see it there, scan the page and look for a link that says “Cite” or “Citation tool.” You’ll choose the citation style you need.

This is a useful time-saver, but we must include a word of caution. Citation generators are robots that are scraping the information from the source, and sometimes the formatting is off (e.g., having a title in all capital letters). It’s up to you to know the basics so you can identify when something looks strange. It’s always a good idea to check it against a style guide and make any needed corrections.

Online Citation Generators

While you can manually copy citations from each article you find in library databases (again, with caution and double-checking the formatting), you might want to consider keeping citations together in one location. One way to do this is by using an online citation generator, like Zotero.