Sociology: Citation Management

This guide provides resources for your sociological research

Citation

There are different styles of citation, American Psychological Association (APA) is recommended for social science subjects. If you are not assigned a style for your assignment, it does not matter what you use as long as you are consistent and use the same style through out. You will use in-line citations and a reference list at the end of your work. 

Plagiarism

All knowledge is built from previous knowledge. As you research, you create your own ideas based off of what you have read or watched. When you put your ideas on paper, you must distinguish between the building block ideas borrowed from other people by citing the sources that inspired your line of inquiry. Readers should be able to find each source you have mentioned through your accurate citations.

Plagiarism happens when we copy/paste someone else's work directly in our own paper without citation or when we paraphrase someone else's work without attributing the idea to them. Paraphrasing counts as plagiarism.  

Zotero

Zotero: A free open access citation management tool that you can download and use as a web browser widget. 

Citation management software makes citation faster and using the information resources easier, allowing you to: 

  • Capture bibliographic and full-text information as you explore
  • Organize, evaluate, annotate, and search within your collection
  • Cite and list resources in a wide range of bibliographic styles as needed
  • Access the information on your desktop or online
  • Synchronize your data across multiple machines
  • Share your research with others