Citation Help
Mason Library has numerous resources to help create and/or store citations, organize your research, build bibliographies and footnotes, avoid plagiarism, and more. Your professor will tell you if she or he prefers a particular citation style.
RefWorks Zotero Citing and Writing GuideAvoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as taking for your own use the words, ideas, concepts or data of someone else without giving proper credit. Students are encouraged to take the self-paced Avoiding Plagiarism Course, on MyLearning, to learn the basics of avoiding plagiarism during your academic career and beyond. For more information, see the Sheridan Libraries’ Avoiding Plagiarism guide and the SAIS link on the Academic Integrity Policies page.
Citation Managers
One option is RefWorks, a web-based product provided by Johns Hopkins to all current affiliates and accessible to you after you graduate. From RefWorks, choose “login from my institution.” First time users must provide a Johns Hopkins email address and fill out a short form. For subsequent logins, choosing “login from my institution” will lead you to the familiar JHED login screen. See the RefWorks Guide for more information.
Another option is the free, open source Zotero. For Zotero help, including a link to download the product, see their Quick Start Guide, as well as guides from Oregon State and/or Georgia State. This 6-minute YouTube video is a good "first look" at how Zotero works. Note that Zotero also has features for highlighting / annotating PDFs.
Chicago Manual of Style
An alternative to using citation managers is to learn the basics of a particular style. Commonly used at SAIS, Chicago-style citations come in two varieties: (1) author-date and (2) notes and bibliography. The latter is particularly useful if you plan to use footnotes in your paper. The Chicago Quick Guide gives sample citations for various type of resources.
Have a question about citing sources or citation styles? Ask a Librarian.