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How should I cite?

Citation Basics

A direct quotation reproduces another author’s words exactly.

Direct quotes are useful for defining or describing specific concepts, whereas paraphrasing or summarizing information from other sources shows that you understand the content and general idea. A direct quotation should be used sparingly – either to present a concept, respond to the except wording or to create a stronger impression in the reader.

  • Short quotations (fewer than 40 words) are usually incorporated into the text and enclosed in quotation marks.

Example:

Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another” (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).

  • Long quotations are typically presented as a separate indented block of text.

Example:

Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves:

Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people’s everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)

 

Those examples, together with further details about how to create direct quotations in APA can be found here.

Paraphrasing involves expressing someone else’s ideas in your own words.

It allows you to summarize, synthesize, and integrate information from one or more sources while highlighting the most relevant points and relationships between ideas.

In academic writing, paraphrasing is generally preferred over direct quotation, as it demonstrates understanding of the source material and helps maintain the flow of your argument.

Whenever you paraphrase, you must acknowledge the original source using the appropriate citation format. Depending on the citation style, this may be a narrative citation (author included in the text) or a parenthetical citation (author and date included in parentheses).

While page or paragraph numbers are not always required when paraphrasing, they can be included to help readers locate the original passage, particularly in longer or more complex works.

Example:

Webster-Stratton (2016) described a case example of a 4-year-old girl who showed an insecure attachment to her mother; in working with the family dyad, the therapist focused on increasing the mother’s empathy for her child (pp. 152–153).

The previous example, together with further details about how to paraphrase in APA can be found here.

A reference list or bibliography provides the full details of all sources cited in a document.

References are usually arranged alphabetically or numerically, depending on the citation style.

A complete reference typically includes:

  • Author(s)
  • Title
  • Publication date
  • Publisher or source information
  • Additional identifiers such as DOI, ISBN, or URL when applicable

Example (ISO style):

Velayos, J. L. Anatomy of the Head: For Dentists. Buenos Aires: Médica Panamericana, 2007. ISBN 978-84-9835-068-5.

Citation Methods

Different citation styles use different methods to connect in-text citations with the corresponding references.

Sources are identified using numbers inserted in the text, usually in parentheses, brackets, or superscript format. Each number corresponds to a full reference in the reference list.

Example in the text:
Research data should be managed according to FAIR principles [1].

Reference List

[1] Wilkinson, M. D., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I. J., et al. “The FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship.” Scientific Data, 3, 2016.

One advantage of the numerical method is that it keeps the text concise and easy to read, particularly when multiple sources are cited in the same sentence (e.g., [3–5] or [3,4,5]).

In the text, a note marker refers to an ordered note placed at the bottom of the page, at the end of the chapter, or at the end of the document. The note may contain either an abbreviated citation or the full bibliographic reference.

Example in the text

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to support scholarly communication.^1

Footnote

¹ Crawford, Kate. Atlas of AI. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021.

Reference List (optional, depending on the style)

Crawford, Kate. Atlas of AI. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021.

After the referenced information, the author’s name or names, the publication year, and, in some cases, the page numbers appear in parentheses. At the end of the document, the full list of references is provided in alphabetical order. If the same author has multiple works cited, these are arranged chronologically.

Example in the text

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to support scholarly communication (Crawford, 2021).

Or:

According to Crawford (2021), artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to support scholarly communication.

Reference List

Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Citation Styles

During the publication process, a scientific paper may be reviewed by several referees, which makes clarity and consistency especially important.

For this reason, editors and scholarly communities have developed different citation styles over time. These styles aim to ensure a uniform presentation of elements such as: Punctuation and abbreviations, headings, in-text citations, tables and statistical data.

When you are writing a paper, you must follow the rules of the publisher or the entity to which our manuscript is addressed. Within the text, we will have to take special care of the presentation format of citations and bibliographic references, which vary according to the requested style.

The most used citation styles are:

APA
Harvard
MLA 9
ISO 690:2010
Chicago
Turabian

Reference Managers

Reference managers are specialized software tools designed to help users create, organize, and manage references for both personal and academic purposes. These programs allow users to manually input bibliographic information or automatically import it from different catalogs or databases.

Additionally, bibliographic managers are used to generate citations and bibliographies in research papers, adhering to standardized citation formats to ensure accuracy and consistency.

EndNote & EndNote Online Classic
MENDELEY
ZOTERO
RefWorks

EndNote is a reference management tool developed by Clarivate, the company behind Web of Science. It allows you to store, organize, and manage bibliographic references, and its Cite While You Write (CWYW) feature lets you insert citations into Word documents and generate bibliographies automatically.

Versions of EndNote

Clarivate offers three versions of EndNote:

  • EndNote Desktop – the full paid version
  • EndNote Basic – a free version available to all users, but with a limited number of styles, filters, and connection files
  • EndNote Online with Web of Science – an enhanced free version that includes thousands of styles, hundreds of filters and connection files, and 2 GB of storage. It also allows you to collect references from Worldcat – and therefore our IE University Library Catalog.

Because the library subscribes to Web of Science, users can access the enhanced EndNote Online version through the library. This is the version covered in this guide.

Getting Started

To create an account and access the enhanced version, you must register through the library website so that you are recognized as an institutional user.

  1. Go to Web of Science via the library’s databases page.
  2. Select Register and follow the instructions.
  3. Keep a record of your login details and make sure you only create one account.

Your enhanced EndNote Online account will remain active for 12 months after your last access through Web of Science. After that, it will revert to the basic free version. Your references will still be available, but access to the full range of styles and connection tools will be limited. Logging in again through Web of Science will reactivate the enhanced account.

Learn More:

EndNote Online Training

Mendeley is a free reference management tool developed by Elsevier. It enables researchers to organize and manage references, annotate PDFs, collaborate with colleagues, and automatically generate citations and bibliographies. Mendeley combines a desktop application with a web-based platform and provides cloud storage for your research library.

What can you do with Mendeley?

  • Organize references and research materials in a personal library.
  • Annotate and highlight PDFs directly within the platform.
  • Generate citations and bibliographies in a wide range of citation styles.
  • Synchronize your library across devices through cloud storage.
  • Collaborate with other researchers by sharing references and documents.

Getting Started

  1. Create a free account at Mendeley.com, preferably using your institutional email address.
  2. Download and install Mendeley Reference Manager from the Mendeley website.
  3. Install the Mendeley Web Importer browser extension to quickly save articles, webpages, and other sources to your library.
  4. Install the Mendeley Cite add-in for Microsoft Word to insert citations and generate bibliographies while you write.
  5. Start building your library by importing references from databases, library catalogues, websites, or PDF files.

Learn More:

Web access, Download Mendeley Desktop, and Tutorials.

Zotero is a free, open-source reference management tool that helps you collect, organize, cite, and share research sources. It supports a wide range of content types, including journal articles, books, webpages, videos, PDFs, and other digital resources. Zotero is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What Can You Do with Zotero?

  • Save sources with a single click using the Zotero Connector for your browser. Capture references from library catalogues, databases, and websites directly into your library.
  • Cite while you write with integrations for Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs. Insert citations and automatically generate bibliographies in a variety of citation styles.
  • Organize your research by creating collections, adding tags, and attaching notes to references.
  • Read and annotate PDFs using Zotero’s built-in PDF reader, which allows you to highlight, comment, and save annotations directly within your library.
  • Collaborate with others by creating shared libraries and synchronizing references across research groups and projects.

Getting Started

  1. Download Zotero and install the Zotero Connector for your preferred browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari).
  2. Open Zotero and set up your library. Word and LibreOffice plugins are installed automatically, while Google Docs integration becomes available when you first use Zotero with Google Docs.
  3. Add sources by clicking the browser Connector icon when viewing a webpage, article, or catalogue record, or by dragging and dropping a PDF into Zotero.
  4. Insert citations while writing by selecting Add/Edit Citation in Word or Google Docs and choosing your preferred citation style (APA, Harvard, Vancouver, Chicago, etc.).
  5. Generate a bibliography automatically with the Add/Edit Bibliography feature.
  6. Explore advanced features, including tags, saved searches, PDF annotations, and ZoteroBib for creating quick, standalone bibliographies.

Learn More

Web access, Download Zotero Desktop, Zotero Bib, and Tutorials.

RefWorks is a web-based reference management tool that helps researchers collect, organize, manage, and cite sources throughout the research process. Developed by ProQuest (Clarivate), RefWorks allows users to create personal reference libraries, collaborate with others, and generate citations and bibliographies in a wide range of citation styles.

Because it is cloud-based, RefWorks can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, making it a convenient option for managing references across multiple locations and projects.

What can you do with RefWorks?

  • Store and organize references in a personal online library.
  • Import references directly from databases, library catalogues, and websites.
  • Generate in-text citations and bibliographies in numerous citation styles.
  • Collaborate with colleagues by sharing folders and references.
  • Organize research projects using folders, tags, and notes.
  • Save and annotate documents associated with your references.

Getting Started

  1. Check whether your institution provides access to RefWorks through its library subscription.
  2. Create a RefWorks account using your institutional email address.
  3. Install RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Microsoft Word or Google Docs to insert citations and generate bibliographies while writing.
  4. Import references from databases, library catalogues, or existing reference management tools.
  5. Organize your references into folders and begin building your personal research library.
  6. Select your preferred citation style and use RefWorks to format citations and bibliographies automatically.

Learn More:

RefWorks Help Center