Politics Research Guide

When working on a significant project, like a JP or senior thesis, you should consider using a bibliographic reference manager. 

Citation managers allow you to:

• import references from the main catalog, article databases, Google Scholar, and more
• manage your own collection of references and create project-specific folders
• handle and edit references from all sorts of sources (i.e. books, chapters, articles, papers, Web sites, etc.)
• insert references directly into your paper properly formatted according to the citation style you choose
• generate your entire bibliography/works cited page in any of a wide variety of citation styles

Learn more about tools supported by the Library:

Using Zotero at Princeton (this is my recommendation)
Using EndNote at Princeton
Using Mendeley at Princeton
Using RefWorks at Princeton

Sign up for a library training session

The Politics Department does not require you to use any particular style for citations in your papers, but your professor may have a preference.

The three most widely used styles in Politics papers are:

• Chicago
• APA
• MLA

Always ask your professors which style they prefer.

In addition, some professors require that you use Blue Book format for any legal citations you make.

See our Citing Sources page for examples and more information.

Official government documents are rich sources of information for research in many areas of political science, but figuring out how to cite them can be a real challenge. Here are a couple of helpful guides about how to cite them: