On-line Citation Generators (revisited)

One way to combat plagiarism in the classroom is to ensure that students understand citation requirements and that they have a painless way to generate citations!  I can well remember the agony of writing a couple of hundred citations for my dissertation back in the day.  Arghh!  I don’t EVEN want to think about it.

I was very pleased to find such a wide array of citation generators available on-line.  Not all of these citation generators cover all styles or all types of content.  Some are more oriented toward younger students or internet based content rather than print materials.  These are the ones I looked at today:

• Bibme
• Citation Center
• Citation Wizard
• Citing Internet Resources (This one good for younger students)
• Easy Bib
• Good Citations
• Hedges Library Citation Generator
• KnightCite Citation Service
• NoodleTools:  NoodleBib Express (good for younger students)
• Son of Citation Machine (the first one I used, by David Warlick)
• Citation Builder

In April of this year (2009), the MLA released a new edition of their style manual.  Citation generators producing MLA style citations will be revising their services to accommodate.  You might note whether or not each generator is compatible with the 7th edition if MLA is a style you or your students use.

My on-line class is going to pair up and investigate each of these citation tools.  I have set up a shared google spreadsheet to enable my students to construct a comparison matrix.   Our first collaborative project!

If you know of any other citation tools, please add them to the comments below.   Thanks!