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Using citation generators to help with the research and writing process

This guide highlights some recommended citation generators and how to use them.

Limitations

While convenient to have a citation generating tool readily available as you search the library collection, there are some limitations: 

  • The Library Search citation generator only offers a handful of citation styles, but luckily they are the most common ones used at UVic -- APA, MLA, IEEE, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard, and Vancouver Style.
  • You can only capture one citation at a time.
  • It only generates citations for your reference list/bibliography, it does not provide in-text citations.
  • As with most citation generators, you must double-check the citation generated is correct.  (For example, if you look at the APA-formatted citation in the screenshot, you will notice there is a formatting error in the article title.  It should be in sentence case, and not title case.  If you were to use this citation, you would need to fix it in your document.)

Library Search's citation generator

If you are using Library Search for your research, you can use the built-in citation function to generate a citation for any items in the library collection.

Generating a citation for an item

  1. On the search results page, once you have found an item you would like to cite, click on the quotation mark symbol located to the right of the title. 

image showing where to find the quotation mark symbol in library search for citing an individual item

  1. A pop-up window will appear allowing you to choose a citation format.  Pick a format then use the green "copy citation to clipboard" link for pasting it into your document.

image showing the citation style options you can choose from and the copy/paste feature

  1. Repeat these steps for any additional items you want to cite.
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This work by The University of Victoria Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise indicated when material has been used from other sources.