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Short 'how-to' guides created by Library staff, based on the official handbooks. Print copies are available in the Library. The official handbooks themselves are listed in the section further down.

Interested in citing AI sources such as ChatGPT? Scroll down to see the stand-alone document on citing resources in this quickly evolving area.

Check with your instructor to make sure that use of generative AI sources, such as ChatGPT, is permissible for your assignments. As this is a new technology, citation standards may change over time.

Official Citation Websites:

Other Resources:

For citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, see the MLA and APA examples below. The Legal Citation (McGill 10th edition) handout includes Indigenous constitutions.

Broken or dead links in an article, whether to resources cited as part of the research process or to datasets, are a common problem. Work-arounds such as using DOIs or archived links can help solve this issue.

Most scholarly resources, like articles, have something called a DOI (a 10 digit Digital Object Identifier). Where available, cite to the DOI rather than to the article's URL e.g. use https://doi.org.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/10.1108/GKMC-06-2019-0067. Most reference styles, like APA, MLA and McGill, recommend using a DOI where one is available. The DOI is usually found on the first page of the article.

Not all materials will have a DOI though, particularly those that are non-scholarly. In that case, you can capture the URL in a web archive, like Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (use their Save Page Now option) or a resource like Perma.cc (offer limited free access).

Follow your preferred citation style's recommendations for citing archived URLs. You may also choose to include it at the end of your formal citation, although you would need to check with your professor (or publisher if submitting an item for publication) first for their preferences.

Additional reading:

Davis, R. C. (2024, February 26). How to Future-proof Your Bibliographies Against Link Rot. Choice Libtech Insights. https://web/20240416152441/https://www.choice360.org/libtech-insight/how-to-future-proof-your-bibliographies-against-link-rot/

The following are only a few of the many websites that provide support and examples for a variety of citation styles. Note: your instructor may have their own specific preferences.

Online citation generators will create citations for you, usually in two ways:

• Look up a source (article, book, etc.), choose a citation style, get the citation
• Fill in a form with details about the source, choose a citation style, get the citation 

These tools can save you time, but it is important to check for errors and missing information. 

• Most Library databases have a Cite option. Find a source, then look for a button or link to create a citation.
• In Microsoft Word, you can add citations using the References tab.