Citation Guides
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) - This is an extensive guide to research, writing, and formulating citations in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.
Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age by Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister - is a guide to research and citation in the humanities, social sciences, history, and science. Includes instructions on citing electronic works.
Citation Tools
Notes: Citation generation tools can be extremely helpful, but they are not perfect. Always make sure to review and revise the citations you create using these tools.
Zotero - is a free and easy-to-use desktop software to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research. Zotero is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Citation Machine - helps create properly formatted citations.
Related LibGuides
You do not have to do your research alone. In fact, your professors want you to reach out to librarians for help.
Google Scholar is particularly useful for interdisciplinary research. It is most useful if you change Google Scholar library links settings to connect with the UI Libraries.
InfoHawk+ is our UI Libraries' catalog plus. Search results contain items from our physical collections, electronic articles and books, and more.
Use databases strategically. The Find Articles page on this guide contains a list of databases and resources relevant to students completing disciplinary coursework. A description is provided for each resource. Some are more general. Some more specific. Each source will look slightly different but the search strategies demonstrated below work across resources.
Search terms/keywords
Use a variety of terms to describe your topic. Keep a running list of terms you find as you search. You will often discover vocabulary related to your topic that you might not have thought of on your own.
Use quotation marks for phrase searching.
Use truncation to get the search tool (catalog, database, search engine) to search for a root word plus any possible endings.
Use AND, OR, and NOT to combine your search terms
Some resources have unique tools that allow you to get creative and concise with your searching for information. Examples below.