Different fields of inquiry have developed different styles, or rules, of documentation. Fields in the humanities, like literature, religion, or philosophy, tend to prefer MLA style. History and some social sciences, like education, economics, or political science, prefer Turabian or Chicago style. Other social sciences and some sciences prefer APA. You should consult with your professor to determine which style you should use for any project.
For any researcher, regardless of the medium--print, Internet, film, photographic, microfiche, etc., citing means indicating exactly what materials were used and what information came from which source. Accurately and completely documenting the sources of information used in a research report or essay is therefore essential to the scholarly conversation.
There are a few ways you can get help with your citation software issues:
Citation and reference management software facilitates the research process by storing citation information to the sources you are using.
Most citation management software packages make it easy to quickly search through the sources you have used in the past in order to automatically generated in-text and bibliographic citations.
Many citation management software packages also facilitate the organization, discovery, and annotation of sources.
Examples of free citation management software include:
