• What writing style should I use for citations and references?
• citing and referencing personal communications, websites, etc. is explained in your discipline's publication style guide.

Helpful quidelines for citing and referencing--one can always take information out, but it’s more difficult to add it in after the fact.

1. While writing, insert full citations when paraphrasing and quoting, and leave these in the text until the final edits (an APA example/format might be: Surname, Surname, & Surname, YEAR, p. ##).
2. As each new citation is added, add the complete reference to the References.
3. In the final 2 or 3 edits, match the References to the Citations (and cull the citations).
   1. Print the References’ pages and go through the list one-by-one.
   2. Using Word’s “Find” function, search for the first author’s surname throughout the text and, once the specific reference is found, tick off the reference on paper.
   3. As you continue searching throughout the text, remove any extraneous material in subsequent citations (e.g., unnecessary dates, insert “et al.” or "ibid.", etc.) until you wind-up at that reference again.
      (Note. Once a reference with 3 to 5 authors has been ticked once, the next occurrences will need “et al.” or "ibid." inserted.  This will depend on the citation style you're using.)
   4. Then go on to the next reference, and do this for all references.
4. Then cross-check the Citations to the References.
   1. Scroll through the text and, as you see a citation, tick it off on the printout of the References.

This way you can be sure of accuracy—that is:

1. All your citations are listed in your references.
2. All your references are cited in your text.
3. All your citations are complete.

See the comprehensive APA (6th ed.): Essentials for Academic Writing workshop handout. 

For information on citing using various styles such as APA, MLA, Chicago publication styles, see Writing & Style Guides.

For things you can't find, seek help from your discipline's Liaison Librarian.

Can I use my own material from my previous thesis (Master's) in a current thesis (Doctorate)?

Reference Managing Software

Many use software to manage references and swear by them.  My experience has been that these programs make errors; this may be due to program errors or users entering the data incorrectly.  Nevertheless, my experience has also been that these errors can be edited out afterwards.  

Bibliographic Management Software at SFU Library

More FAQs on reference managing software.

A student sent the following information to share with students.   

There are some softwares that can help graduate students to write in APA (6th ed.) format easily. They can download a free trial of these softwares from below links:

   StyleWriter 4: StyleEase for APA Style
   StyleEase for APA Style

In addition, one of the mostPowerful bibliographic management and user friendly software in APA style is Reference Manager 12.
(Mina Sedaghat Jou, 2011-06-04).

The library makes available a product called RefWorks which also helps manages references.