References/Works Cited

Whenever you use information from another source, or reference data that you did not create or discover, you must cite the original source of the data. This includes, but is not limited to, text, tables, figures, and other forms of data. Note that citing copyrighted material is not sufficient for reproducing it; see our section on copyright for more information.

Academic honesty is essential in all disquisitions. For more information, see the NDSU Policy on Academic Responsibility and Conduct.

Contents
  1. Formatting Requirements
  2. Quick Answers
  3. Resources

Format Guidelines: References/Works Cited

  • Citations – For in-text citations, footnotes, endnotes, or other citation formats, refer to the style manual of your discipline (such as MLA, APA, Chicago, and so on). References should follow one style manual consistently throughout the disquisition. When you include a URL (or other linked text) in a citation (such as citations for internet sources), make sure that it is not underlined or otherwise appearing as a hyperlink.
  • Copyright – In some instances, copyright permission might be required to re-print content in its entirety. Most commonly, copyright permission is required to reprint your own previously published work.
  • References sections (individual chapters and general) – If each chapter in your disquisition is a self-contained study or experiment, then you may insert a References or Works Cited section at the end of each chapter that lists the sources used in that chapter. Otherwise, you should insert a References or Works Cited section after the body of the disquisition, but before the appendix or appendices (if used).
  • Spacing and indentation – The line spacing and indentation should follow the directions of the style manual that is used in your discipline. Spacing must be consistent throughout the References or Works Cited section(s).

Quick Answers

Yes, we highly recommend using a citation manager to help save time and effort tracking the numerous citations in your disquisition. However, they do not reliably create well-formatted references/citations, and many times the data used in the manager has been scraped using AI tools, introducing new errors. Therefore, it is very common for the entries created by citation managers to contain errors, such as incorrect capitalization, punctuation, inconsistent formatting, and incorrect information.

If you use a citation manager, do not assume the references it produces will be perfectly accurate or formatted consistently in accordance with the style manual you're using. Having correct citations is a cornerstone of the scientific process and academic integrity and each reference should be double-checked.

Yes, you have several options for your reference sections.

  1. You may have multiple "References" sections, where each is a subsection at the end of a chapter. These reference sections should contains only the references that appear in that chapter.
  2. You may have a "References" section at the end of the main document that contains all references used in the entire document.
  3. You may also have both: "References" sections at the end of each chapter as well as a References section at the end of the document. This option is recommended when your disquisition contains a mix of journal articles as well as unpublished material; for example, chapter 1 contains a literature review that you have not yet published and chapter 2 contains a journal article you've already published.

You should use the style manual of your discipline to format your references/citations. During your format review, all of your citations will be checked for their accuracy, completeness, and consistency--decide early what citation style you will use in your document, and do not deviate from it.

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