Research Citations

Citations

This page provides useful resources and tools for managing citations in your work, along with best practices and why citations are essential for building trust and credibility.

Citation Resources

The following resources will help you generate and format citations correctly for your research:

• NPS Citation Guide – This guide includes citations for intelligence, operational, and administrative documents, providing an APA format reference.
• APA Student Template – A Word document template designed to help students format their citations properly.
• ZBib – A free and simple citation generator that can be used to create various citation styles.
• Citation Machine – Another online tool that helps generate citations quickly in multiple styles, including APA.

Reference Management

Here are tools and services designed for managing references and ensuring you can retrieve cited content even if the original source changes or is removed:

• Zotero – A popular reference manager that allows you to store, organize, and generate citations.
• Vortimo – A tool that automatically saves all web pages you visit locally on your hard drive as they appear in your browser. Great for storing research and sources that may not be available later.
  • Message Vortimo – If you are a student, Vortimo may offer you a free license for their tool.
• HTTrack – A tool for copying and saving entire websites exactly as they appear. This is useful for ensuring your sources are preserved in case of future changes.
  • Submit a page for archive – You can submit pages to be archived on the Internet Archive, allowing future access to important references.

The Importance of Citations

Citations are crucial for several significant reasons:

1. Trust and Credibility — Properly citing sources demonstrates thorough research and provides factual support for your statements. This transparency builds trust with readers, enabling them to verify the accuracy of your work and rely confidently upon your research.

1. Knowledge Management — Citations contribute to the collective body of knowledge by explicitly documenting sources and references. This enables future researchers and teams to trace the origin of findings, expand upon existing research, and prevent the inadvertent loss of critical information.

1. Collaboration and Continuous Improvement — By clearly citing sources, research can effectively become a living document that evolves through continuous collaboration. Future researchers and other teams can easily access primary sources, identify gaps, and make informed decisions about areas that require further investigation or modification.

1. Lateral Research and Contextual Understanding — Storing and citing sources also enhances lateral research capabilities. Researchers and teams can efficiently identify primary and adjacent content, facilitating a deeper and broader understanding of the research topic. This approach allows exploration of related or tangential areas that may provide additional insights or alternative perspectives.

For more details on the necessity and benefits of citations, refer to Why Cite: A Writer's Perspective.

What Needs to Be Cited?

Not all information requires citation; distinguishing between common knowledge and content requiring documentation is essential. Generally:

• Common Knowledge — Facts that are widely known and readily available in multiple reliable sources do not typically require citation.
• Specific Data or Unique Ideas — Direct quotations, statistics, specialized concepts, and specific claims not universally recognized must be cited.

For further clarification, consult the NPS Common Knowledge PDF.