Research Guides: A Guide to Geology: References & Citation Management

Choosing a style

There are many different citation formats, or styles, to choose from when writing.

If you are writing a paper for a class, you should use the format recommended by the course instructor or department.
If you are writing a paper for publication, you should use the format recommended by the publisher.

GSA (Geological Society of America ) Style

The GSA Style is commonly used in the Geosciences. General guidelines and sample citations can be found at the GSA website.

AGU (American Geophysical Union) Style

The AGU generally follows APA (American Psychological Association) Style across publications, with some specific modifications for AGU. Examples may be found at the AGU Website

Recommended Citation Management Tools

Citation management tools work in conjunction with databases to allow the user to save and organization citations. This allows for the creation of foot/endnotes and bibliographies in a variety of styles. Citation management tools also enhance search efficiency by allowing the user to save citations for later reading and sorting.

Endnote Web
The Environment, Geography & Earth Sciences Department at Gustavus recommends students use Endnote Web for citation management. Create a free, basic account first. Then login to Endnote before you begin a database search. Exporting citation information works fairly smoothly using the export feature of an individual database. Once exported, citations can be arranged in folders of the user's choice and creation.
Cite Your Sources: Citation Management Tools
If you'd rather use a different citation management tool, we suggest a few on the Gustavus Library Cite Your Sources guide.

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Dan Mollner

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