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Political Science 140: Introduction to Comparative Politics

For POLSCI 140: Intro to Comparative Politics taught by Professor Brian Min in Winter 2025

Citation Styles

What is a Citation?

A citation is positioned within the body of your paper, right after you finish referencing or quoting another author's work. This is known as an inline or in-text citation. At the end of your paper, you will also provide a complete reference. A reference must provide enough information to both identify and locate the original source of the information.

A reference usually includes:

  • Name(s) of author(s)
  • Title of source (article or chapter title and journal or book title)
  • Publication date (if known)
  • Page number(s)
  • Volume and edition/issue numbers (for books and articles)
  • URL or DOI if accessed online. What's a DOI?
    • If the content is likely to change over time, include the date you originally accessed the content.

Citation Resources

Style Guide Resources

Check out the U-M Library's comprehensive Citation Help Research Guide for examples and formatting tips for APA Style, MLA Style, IEEE Style, and well as other Science Styles. You'll also find guidance on citing government documents, data and statistics, and using bibliography tools.

Many students also rely on PurdueOWL for their various style guides, but be aware that the website has many ads, whereas our Citation Help Research Guide is ad-free.

Zotero Key Features

Zotero logo

Zotero is a free, open source application that helps you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research. 

  • Automatically extract citation information from websites, library catalogs, databases, and more.
  • Save PDF files, images, screenshots, and other files.
  • Record your research notes.
  • Automatically create formatted bibliographies in many different styles.
  • Use Zotero with word processing programs like Microsoft Word.
  • Sync the citations and files you save online.
  • Access your saved information from anywhere.
  • Share your saved information online with groups.
  • Use Zotero -- an open source tool -- for free.

View Zotero video tutorials

View Zotero how-to documentation

To get Started                        

Go to http://www.zotero.org/ and click on the red Download button.

 

Other Tools for Formatting Citations

Having trouble formatting your citations? Use these tools to automatically generate citations for books, journal articles, newspapers and more in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.

Ready to Write?

When you're ready to write, check out Sweetland Writing Center's Resources page for undergraduate students. Here you'll find Writing Support, Writing Guides, and more. 

Last Updated: Jan 29, 2025 11:36 PM
Subjects: Course Help