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Faculty Guide to Library Resources

Academic Writing Documentation Styles

Trevecca has three primary documentation styles students can apply when writing academic research papers. They are the APA, Chicago, and MLA styles. Each documentation style has its own information page linked to the Citation Tools research guide, which includes accompanying video tutorials and web resources. Click the titles below to link to the related content. 

What is a citation?

Citations are the bibliographic information within a database or other indexes. A group of citations makes up your References or Works Cited lists. Below is diagrammed citation taken from ProQuest Central. The elements you see here are common elements found in every database. 

 

Citation Generators

Citation generator tools convert bibliographic information found in a database into a citation style. You would copy and paste the generated citation into a Word doc. There are many citation tools available online. Some free websites offer citation generators; even Word has a citation tool.

Click the different database tabs to learn where to find the citation tools. Citation generators save time but cannot be trusted for accuracy. 

How do you know whether what they state about APA 7 is accurate?  

  • The APA 7 Publication Manual, the APA 7 Style Blog, or the OWL@Purdue are true authoritative sources to verify format accuracy. 
  • Always check one of those options before you submit work for grading. Because it came from a library database, it is not formatted correctly. 

Citation Generator from the library's Discovery Search found on the library homepage.

  • Click the Cite option on the record from the result list.
  • Choose your format style, then copy & paste it into Word
  • Verify its accuracy. 

Citation Generator from EBSCO databases

e.g., Academic Search Ultimate, APA PscyArticles, APA PscyTests, ATLA Religion, Business Source Ultimate, Educators Reference Complete,  ERIC, Library  Lit & Information Science Full Text & others.

  • Click on Cite from the options on the right side of the record on the result list. 
  • Choose the format you need.
  • Copy and paste the citation into Word. 
  • Verify the accuracy of the citation using the manual or the OWL@Purdue.

Citation Generator from Films on Demand (FOD) 

  • Click on Cite under the video image.
  • Choose your format style.
  • Verify its accuracy.

Citation Generator from Google Scholar

  • Click the Cite option.
  • Choose the citation style you need.
  • Verify its accuracy. You will probably need to add some elements, e.g., doi number or page numbers.

Citation Generator from a Gale Database

e.g., Academic OneFile, Gale Literature, Gale LitFinder, Global Issues in Context, and more.

  • Click on Cite at the top of the page when viewing a record. 
  • Choose your format style, then copy and paste it into Word. 
  • Verify its accuracy. You will probably need to add or remove some elements, e.g., doi number, URL, or page numbers. 

Citation Generator from JSTOR

  • Click on Cite from the options on the right side of the record on the result list. 
  • Choose your format style, copy and paste it into Word.
  • Verify its accuracy. You will probably need to add or remove some elements, e.g., doi number, URL, or page numbers.

Citation Generators from ProQuest databases

e.g., Dissertations & Theses Global, eBook Central, and Historical Newspapers

  • Click on Cite, another screen will pop up.
  • On this screen choose your format style, copy and paste it into Word. 
  • Verify its accuracy. 

 

This video, created by Andrea Zielke, compares citation generators in four TEL databases.