Research Guides: Religion and Philosophy Subject Guide: Organize & cite your sources

Manage your sources

Everyone will approach the collection and organization of research sources in different ways to suit their own preferences. However, the following advice generally applies:

For electronic sources, download copies and back them up to the cloud
For every source, take good notes and record page number references for text that you want to quote/paraphrase
Ensure that you record sufficient details about each source so you can cite it properly
Use an online research manager to help you (see below)

Cite your sources

Writing in English

REL students will commonly be asked to use Turabian’s, Chicago, or MLA styles to cite their sources.

In Chicago style, the basic format consists of a number that is assigned to a particular fact in the text, and a footnote with the corresponding number appears at the bottom of the same page, listing the source of the text. At the end of the paper, there is a bibliography (in alphabetical order by author's family name) detailing all the sources that have been cited in the paper, along with other works that were consulted but not directly cited.

Click here for the Library's guide to Chicago Style

In MLA style, you should first briefly credit sources with parenthetical citations in the text of your paper, and then include a complete citation to each source in the works cited list at the end of your paper.

Click here for the Library's guide to MLA Style

Writing in Chinese

There are no standardized Chinese citation styles. The key is to be consistent in the way you cite.

We have provided a few examples of style guides on the Library's Citation Guide for your reference.

We strongly recommend that you consult with your professor as to which style is acceptable for your assignments and papers.

Documentary collections

Online research managers

Organizing and citing your sources can be challenging, but fortunately there are several free online tools to help you. These allow you to:

Save copies of the sources that you have found, and back them up to the cloud
Make notes and highlights on PDF copies that you have saved
Automatically generate in-text citations and bibliographies

The Library recommends the following tool:

EndNote

Mendeley