Social Work 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

Social Work students will commonly be asked to use APA style to cite their sources.

Click here for the Library's Guide to APA Style 

 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 tools:

EndNote   

Mendeley   

Zotero