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Public Policy189/Social Welfare 181: Citations & Bibliographic Software (Zotero)

Why Cite?

"Ethics, copyright laws, and courtesy to readers require authors to identify the sources of direct quotations and of any facts or opinions not generally known or easily checked."--
Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press), p. 594

Why cite sources?
Whenever you quote or base your ideas on another person's work, you must document the source you used. Even when you do not quote directly from another work, if reading that source contributed to the ideas presented in your paper, you must give the authors proper credit.

Citations allow readers to locate and further explore the sources you consulted, show the depth and scope of your research, and give credit to authors for their ideas. Citations provide evidence for your arguments and add credibility to your work by demonstrating that you have sought out and considered a variety of resources. In written academic work, citing sources is standard practice and shows that you are responding to this person, agreeing with that person, and adding something of your own. Think of documenting your sources as providing a trail for your reader to follow to see the research you performed and discover what led you to your original contribution.

Using APA Style

The once familiar APA 6th style has been replaced, as of 2020, with a 7th edition. The new style manual includes some significant changes to formatting papers and has attempted to make language more inclusive and bias free. Among some of the new changes:

  • DOIs are now formatted as URLs
  • Authors no longer need to include the phrase "Retrieved from" before a URL
  • The singular "they" is now endorsed by APA as a gender-neutral pronoun
  • The running head on the title page no longer includes the phrase "RUNNING HEAD" and is no longer needed in student papers at all
  • Use only one space after a period at the end of a sentence
  • For more, see APA Guide: Summary of Changes from the University of Texas Arlington libraries
  • Also consult the online Concise APA Handbook (2021) by Lida, Reugg, and de Boer

The cheat sheet from Purdue now reflects APA 7 but the Harvard guide still refers to APA 6. Also take a look at:

Print copies of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: The Official Guide to APA Style are available in the Doe Reference and the Social Research Library under BF76.7 P83 2020

Also helpful may be the following manuals which are available as ebooks:

 

Creating bibliographies and in-text citations

If you and 4-5 other students want a workshop on Zotero let me know -- we'll try and find a time that works for everyone! Or if you like to work it through at your own pace, checkout this online tutorial!

Zotero (Before you get started)

Go to http://www.zotero.org

  1. Register/Login
  2. Download Zotero 6 (for Windows, macOS, Linux)
  3. Install Browser Connector (for any browser - Firefox, IE, Chrome, etc.)
  4. Sync your account (Preferences > Sync with username/password - see Step 1)

Pro-tip: Use Zotero Standalone which means you have to download the software to your computer.

Zotero (Managing your bibliography)

  1. Doing your research using Zotero
    • Set preferences
      • automatically attach PDFs (Preferences > General)
      • automatically retrieve metadata for PDFs (Preferences > General)
      • etc.
    • Create folders (called "Collections")
    • Add items from a database
    • Make notes
    • Upload PDFs to your Zotero account
  2. Write your research paper (using Word or Google Docs)
    • Add footnotes, endnotes or in-text citations
    • Create a bibliography