When doing research, you are joining an on-going scholarly conversation, and citations show that you understand what has come before you and where the conversation is going. Citation is about building an argument and showing what you know about your topic as much as it is about giving others credit for their work. Yes, accurate citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism and academic dishonesty, but at its core it's about adding your voice to the academic conversation around your topic.
One advantage of using library databases for your research is they offer an auto citation tool. It is still best practice to double check the citations that the database generates for you, but the tool is a great way to get quick citations that are more accurate than free citation generation websites like EasyBib. Look for quotation icons in the database when you have selected a specific article, this will allow you to generate citations.
Once you click on the quotation mark icon, a new window will pop up that allows you to select the citation style you need, APA is the default.
Need help formatting your citations? The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) site is an excellent source for questions about how to cite in a particular style. The links below will take you to Purdue OWL's pages for each citation style:
Citation managers like Zotero and EndNote can help with formatting citations as well.
