This guide is meant as a starting point for Citation Support at Tufts AS&E. We include an overview of why we cite in academic work, links to print and online guides for the most commonly-used citation styles, and librarian-recommended tools that will make formatting your bibliographies easier. It is not meant to be comprehensive, as most tricky citation style and software questions are better answered directly by librarians.

If you have questions about citation styles or software, please Ask a Librarian - we're happy to help!

Yes, we cite sources to

• Avoid plagiarism
• Give credit to the source of an idea
• Lend credibility to our arguments

And, we also cite sources to

• Allow us, and others, to follow the trail back to a source
• Bring diverse voices together in dialogue
• Participate in a scholarly conversation, situating our own voice in that larger, ongoing academic discussion

Reflecting on Why We Cite also includes examining How We Use Sources.

The BEAM model (Background, Exhibits, Argument, Method) is one illustration of the variety of ways we can use sources. We cite sources to achieve a variety of goals in our own work, and the same source could be used for different reasons in different contexts.

Bizup, Joseph. "BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing." Rhetoric Review vol. 27, no. 1, 2008, 72-86.