Research FAQ

Where can I get help formatting my reference citations properly?

The Reference Desk (1 West in Bracken Library) has copies of all of the popular citation manuals used on campus, including MLA, APA, and many others.  Reference staff are available to help with citation questions, as well.

The "Citation Style Help Guides" section of the Library Subject Guides page provides links to basic outlines of all of the major citation style formats, as does the "Citation Styles" tab of the Research Methods Subject Guide.

For more extensive help with citing sources and writing research papers, visit Ball State's Writing Center.

What are DOIs and PMIDs?

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are permanent identifiers given to electronic documents, such as journal articles. DOIs commonly appear at the beginning of articles, in citations, and also in search results. Generally, the DOI appears like this: DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.69.2.334.

PubMed Unique Identifiers (PMIDs) are unique identifiers given to articles and citations in PubMed. They generally appear like this: PMID: 18488594.

If you have a DOI or a PMID for an article, you don't need any other citation information to find the article using CitationLinker.