Styles guides by discipline

• APA: Psychology, education, social sciences
• MLA: Literature, arts, humanities
• AMA: Medicine, health, biological sciences
• Turabian: General college style
• Chicago: Non-scholarly publications
• Note: scientists often follow the styles of leading journals, such as Nature and Science. Check with your professor if you have any uncertainty about which style to use.
• Further information

Endnote & other documentation software
Documentation software allows you to build a personal bibliography to use throughout your academic career, and it helps you adapt your bibliography for specific citation styles. There are many different applications to help you manage your bibliography as you write: Endnote, Zotero, Refworks, and more. NU offers Endnote free to all students (http://www.library.northwestern.edu/reference/services/endnote/).

• You can download Endnote here.
• The NU library offers online support and in-person workshops for Endnote users. See here for more information.
• If you need help with Endnote:
• The Reference Department can answer basic questions about how EndNote works and where to acquire EndNote. Contact the Reference Department at 847-491-7656 or refdept@northwestern.edu
• The NUIT Help Desk can assist with downloading the software from the E-Academy site. Contact the Help Desk at 847-491-HELP or consultant@northwestern.edu

Plagiarism and how to avoid it
Northwestern's "Principles Regarding Academic Integrity" defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source."

• The disciplinary action for plagiarism varies by school. See Academic Integrity at Northwestern for more information.
• Principles Regarding Academic Integrity
• How do you know when to cite sources? See the following guides to avoiding accidental plagiarism:

• NU Writing Place
• NU Academic Integrity
• Duke University Libraries
• University of Illinois Center for Writing Studies

• If you’re uncertain about whether you’ve successfully cited something, ask The Writing Place. It’s better to overdocument than to underdocument.

Safe Assignment
Many professors use Safe Assignment software to check for plagiarism. Some may be willing to let you run your draft through to help you check for citation errors; ask each professor individually if this is an option.

• Keep in mind that this software is not foolproof. Ask your professor for help understanding the results.

Depending on course/discipline, your quote may get a high return; for example, English papers often involve quoting passages verbatim. If Safe Assignment only flags your direct quotes and your reference list, you’ve done it right!