Research Guides: *Health Sciences: Cite & Organize Sources

What's On This Page?

On this page you'll find the resources we recommend for citing, organizing, and using your resources. You will also learn more about APA 7th, the style that the health science programs use at MCPHS.

Helpful Tips

Are you working on an assignment? Check the instructions for any specific citation requirements. If you don't find any, reach out to your professor!
The MCPHS Writing Center
- The Writing Center is a great place to receive feedback about how you can improve your writing. Their friendly experts can coach you through the process of drafting and revising essays, reports, presentations, personal statements for professional and graduate school—anything where clear written communication is important. They can help you with everything from presentation of ideas, to citation style, to grammar errors. Even before you start writing, the tutors are happy to discuss your ideas for a paper. Schedule an appointment with the Writing Center. Learn more about with the Writing Center and the process for scheduling an appointment in the MCPHS Writing Center LibGuide.
The Center for Academic Success and Enrichment (CASE)
- CASE provides academic support services to students across all three campuses. CASE works with students to maximize their potential by introducing them to the strategies that will make them more efficient, effective, and independent learners. Reach out to CASE.

Using Your Sources: Quoting, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing

Summarize, paraphrase, and quote to include others' ideas in your own writing.

Summarize: Condense the information to a few general statements. Summarize when you find the same information in many sources. Summarize when one source provides a lot of context for your project.
Paraphrase: Put the information in your own words. Paraphrase when one idea is important but the exact wording does not matter. You will often find paraphrasing useful if multiple sources have similar information.
Quote: Use a small portion of another person's words, exactly as that person wrote or said them. Put quotation marks around the words or phrases you borrowed. Quote when information is unique to one source and is not easy to reword. Quote when one source uses especially compelling language.

How to Recognize Plagiarism: Tutorial and Tests
Learn how to use your sources in your paper in this tutorial for graduate students. You already know that you need to cite your sources. Explore how to blend information from your sources with your own ideas. From Indiana University.
Skip the certification test; it is only for Indiana University's own students.
Academic Phrasebank
The "Introducing Work" and "Referring to Sources" pages suggest phrases to use in your paper. Use the suggested phrases to help you evaluate others' ideas and include them in your paper. Other parts of the site might be helpful as you write other parts of your paper. For example, those parts might help you write your methods or conclusions. From the University of Manchester.

APA 7th Resources

Purdue OWL
Online guide to using APA 7th to formatting paper and cite sources (in-text and reference lists).
Official Guide to the APA 7th Style
This physical book is available at all 3 campus libraries, on reserve in Boston and Worcester, and in the reference collection in Manchester.

APA 7th Example Citations

Academic Article

Ruben, M. A., Shipherd, J. C., Topor, D., AhnAllen, C. G., Sloan, C. A., Walton, H. M., … Trezza, G. R. (2017). Advancing LBGT health care policies and clinical care within a large academic health care system: A case study. Journal of homosexuality, 64(10), 1411–1431. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1321386

Book, edition other than first

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (Fifth edition). Los Angeles: SAGE.

Website Article

Resnick, B. (2016, March 14). What psychology’s crisis means for the future of science. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.vox.com/2016/3/14/11219446/psychology-replication-crisis

CDC Report

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). National diabetes statistics report, 2017. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf

Dissertation

Garza, J. R. (2015). Stressful social comparisons and daily stressors: examining their role as psychosocial explanations in socioeconomic health disparities. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58z827t1#main


Academic Article	Ruben, M. A., Shipherd, J. C., Topor, D., AhnAllen, C. G., Sloan, C. A., Walton, H. M., … Trezza, G. R. (2017). Advancing LBGT health care policies and clinical care within a large academic health care system: A case study. Journal of homosexuality, 64(10), 1411–1431. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1321386
Book, edition other than first	Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (Fifth edition). Los Angeles: SAGE.
Website Article	Resnick, B. (2016, March 14). What psychology’s crisis means for the future of science. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.vox.com/2016/3/14/11219446/psychology-replication-crisis
CDC Report	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). National diabetes statistics report, 2017. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf
Dissertation	Garza, J. R. (2015). Stressful social comparisons and daily stressors: examining their role as psychosocial explanations in socioeconomic health disparities. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58z827t1#main

Citation Managers

Citation managers are amazing tools that can assist you during the research process. Using citation mangers is a way for you to collect, manage, and organize citations for all the articles, books and other sources you find. You can use them to create reference lists in a wide range of styles, do in-text citations, and share articles and citations with colleagues.

The citation managers that MCPHS supports are Zotero and EndNote.

MCPHS Libraries Citation Managers Research Guide
This guide compares the different features of the citation managers that MCPHS has resources for: Zotero and EndNote.
MCPHS Libraries Zotero Research Guide
This guide will walk you through setting up and using Zotero, as well as some specific tips and strategies.
MCPHS Libraries EndNote Research Guide
This guide will walk you through setting up an account and the primary functions of EndNote, while providing you access to additional resources.

Quick Citation Tools

The Cite Button

Most of the Library's electronic resources can generate a citation for you. Check for the Cite Button or other Citation Tools in these locations:

In the menu to the right of an article/abstract.
At the top of the results list.
Under each citation in the results list.
At the bottom of an article/abstract page.

Citation Generators

Citation generators are useful tools for creating citations. Remember though, no citation generator is 100% accurate. Please double-check your citations against the handbook to be sure they are correct!

ZoteroBib
- ZoteroBib is a quick, web-based citation generator provided by Zotero--no account or software installation needed.
CiteThisForMe
- Great for creating one-off citations in a wide variety of styles, including AMA. You can also create an account and save bibliographies here.
Citation Machine
- Standard online citation generator that walks you through the process of finding the information you need for a citation and then creating it.