Armacost Library: BIOLOGY: How to Cite Your Sources

To Connect Ideas | To Acknowledge a Community of Contributors | To Read & Cite Inclusively

"When you cite a source, you show how your voice enters into an intellectual conversation and you demonstrate your link to the community within which you work. Working with sources can inspire your own ideas and enrich them, and your citation of these sources is the visible trace of that debt." (Yale College Writing Center)

When you cite a source you also reveal whose voices and thoughts are included in these intellectual conversations. Thus, who you read and what you cite can help strengthen diversity and equity in scholarship.

We are a collective of Black women of first-generation, queer, working class and poor, immigrant, and disabled experience and we formed out of the necessity to cite, (re)claim, and honor Black women's work. #CiteBlackWomen
— Cite Black Women. (@citeblackwomen) September 9, 2020

Citing Sources

The ACS Style Guide
Online Resources:
Ch. 14 from the ACS Style Guide

ACS Style Guide

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Publication Date: 2019
Online Resources:

The Chicago Manual of Style
Publication Date: 2017
Online Resources:

MLA Handbook
Publication Date: 2021
Online Resources

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 9th ed.
Call Number: REF LB2369 .T8 2018
ISBN: 9780226494425
Publication Date: 2018
Online Resources:
Turabian Quick Guide -
Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date
Turabian (Chicago) Style -
Notes with Bibliography for Humanities

Additional Online Citation Guides

When citing maps and other less-traditional sources, start with the citation style (e.g., APA, MLA) recommended by your professor, then build or modify as necessary. As the researcher, you'll have to decide how you'll cite your resources and which citation elements you'll need to include. Providers of information sometimes specify how they want their sources cited; check to see if such instructions are available.

Trans citation practices -- A quick-and-dirty guideline
While not a formal guide, the author helps researchers practice their good intentions. Main takeaways: style guide rules may cause harm, follow the author's lead, and don't out people by deadnaming.
Citing American FactFinder Tables and Maps
Citing Audio from the University of Cincinnati
Citing Cartographic Material from ACMLA From the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA). Provides citation examples for a variety of resource types such as software, satellite imagery, maps from theses or dissertations, etc.
Citing Data and Statistics from Michigan State
Citing Data from IASSIST From the International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST). Check out their Quick Guide to Data Citation. Identifies a core set of elements to be included in citations, and provides examples in ALA, MLA, and Chicago styles.
How to Cite Datasets and Link to Publications This guide will help you create links between your academic publications and the underlying datasets, so that anyone viewing the publication will be able to locate the dataset and vice versa. It provides a working knowledge of the issues and challenges involved, and of how current approaches seek to address them.
Citing Images from the University of Cincinnati Examples of how to cite images in MLA and APA style, from University of Cincinatti Libraries.
Citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers Lorisia MacLeod introduces citation templates for Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers created in partnership with the staff of the NorQuest Indigenous Student Centre. These citation templates have been adopted/linked to by twenty-five institutions across Canada and the United States.
Citing Maps and Atlases from Macalester Guidelines taken from Clark's, Larsgaard's, and Teague's Cartographic Citations: A Style Guide
Citing Maps and Geospatial Data from ScholarsPortal This resources points out the need for researchers to carefully consider the best way to reference the work of others, and suggests a way to balance the need to reference sources without inundating readers with too much information.
Citing Musical sources from Cal State East Bay Style guide for musical sources developed by Cal State East Bay, based on Chicago style.

Cartographic Citations by Christine Kollen; Wangyal Shawa; Mary Larsgaard
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Guidance on how to cite cartographic material including data, maps, aerial photography, relief models, and globes.

Artificial Intelligence

When using artificial intelligence, be sure to cite it as you would any other source. Here's a list of sources to help you decide how to cite AI.

Citation Helpers

Citation Generators can be great time-savers, but their accuracy is only as good as the information you enter and they will still make mistakes. For best results, identify the type of source you are citing, accept that most generators only cite commonly used sources, and double-check every generated citation.

Zotero can help you manage your citations. View these guides from the Armacost Library (video-based), GTU, and information on which is particularly useful to researchers managing 100s of sources.
KnightCite helps auto-generate citations. Be sure to double-check these.