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It's very important to cite your resources properly, so on this page we've put together some information on style guides, how to get assistance with your citations, citation management tools, and ethical issues with not citing properly.

The library has online access to the full style guides for:

• AMA Manual of style
• Chicago Manual of Style

While the library unfortunately does not have online access to the full text of other guides, our Citations & Style Guide Help guide does contain information on APA, MLA and ICMJE style.

If you want help with a quick question about citation formatting, you are welcome to contact your liaison librarian or submit an email request for help.

If you want someone to look at your citations and tell you if they are correct, then we recommend making an appointment with the Writing Center. They can look through your references with you and provide more detailed guidance.

Citation management tools can be useful for helping you organize all your references in one place and also assisting you with getting them formatted in the citation style of your choosing.

RefWorks is the citation management tool that UIC subscribes to, and there are also other options available such as Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley. You can learn more about these programs at our RefWorks and Other Citation Management Tools guide.

It's important to understand how, and when, to properly cite content so that you do not accidentally commit plagiarism.

Here are the main types of plagiarism:

• Direct quotes without citation
• Paraphrasing without citation
• Using other types of materials (charts, graphics) without giving proper credit
• Self-Plagiarism—reusing your own work without indicating that you are doing so

Some basic recommendations:

• Keep track of your sources and your notes.  Don’t assume you’ll be able to easily determine which article you got a particular piece of information from without documenting it in the moment.
• It’s better to err on the side of citing too much than not citing enough.

For more information, look at the Library’s “Avoiding Plagiarism” LibGuide