Citation Help and Plagiarism Awareness: NoodleTools

If this is your first time using NoodleTools at Clovis Community College, you will need to "Register" to create a free account. New users DO NOT have an account already; new users will be asked to provide an email address (a personal email is fine) and create a password to access NoodleTools.

1. Access NoodleTools from a link provided by the library, e.g., the library's How to Cite page or the Research Databases page (for off campus access, sign in to use this resource using your Canvas/Email credentials).
2. Click on "Register" (logging in through the other options is not currently supported).
3. Choose your individual role, and select your expected year of graduation (if applicable), and enter an email address (you will be asked to verify your email before using your account).
4. Fill in the rest of the required information and select "Register."
5. Once signed into NoodleTools, you are taken to the Projects area.
6. Click on + New Project and give your project a title (e.g., “ENGL 1A” or "Comm 1"), choose a Citation style (i.e. MLA or APA), and select "Advanced" for the Citation Level.
7. Your new project will be created and placed in your projects list. Start adding citations by selecting "New Source."

1. Log in to NoodleTools and create an MLA NoodleTools project, or open a MLA project you've previously made.
2. Click on the sources tab for the project at the top of the page.
3. Click on "+ New Source."
4. Answer the questions here about the type of resource you want to cite (did you find it in a database? In a book? Is it an image? etc.).
5. When the citation form appears, enter as much information as you can about your source.
6. Click Save.
7. You will be taken back to the sources area of the project and you will find your new citation will be in the list.

Need help with your in-text citations? Select the "Options" button on the far right side of a citation and click "in-text citation" for examples, rules, and guidance.

1. Log in to NoodleTools and open or create an APA NoodleTools project.
2. Click on "+ New Source" at the top of the project page to start creating a citation.
3. Begin by answering the questions about where you found your source.
4. Next you will be taken to the full citation form; enter as much information as you can about your source.
5. Click Save.
6. Your citation will be saved, and you are taken back to the sources area of your project.

Need help with your in-text citations? Select the "three dot option" button on the far right side of a citation and click "in-text citation" for examples, rules, and guidance.

Several of our research databases allow you to quickly add citations created by a database directly into a NoodleTools project.

Exporting citations into NoodleTools allows you to fix any errors in database-generated citations, plus you can gather useful sources while you research.

** It is very important to open each citation after exporting it into NoodleTools so that you can check and edit any errors in citations generated by the database.

Use the videos below to learn how to export citations into NoodleTools using some of our databases.

1. Be signed in to your NoodleTools account in one of your browser tabs.
2. In another browser tab, open EBSCOhost and go to the detailed record of a source.
3. Select the "Cite" tool (the quotation mark icon) near the top of the record.
4. In the window that appears, select the "Export Citation" tab.
5. Select "NoodleTools" and the export will begin in another browser tab.

NoodleTools lets users create a fully formatted References or Works Cited page using your project's citations. You can create a Word document, an RTF file, Google Doc, or get a HTML preview.

A NoodleTools project in MLA will export a Works Cited page; APA projects export a References page.

1. Go to your Sources page of a project.

2. Click the Export/Print button at the top of the page.

3. To edit the file before it is created, select Formatting Options first: change the title of your exported page(s), headers, and what types of data to include from your citations.

3. Select the type of file you wish to create and choose from the options that appear. (If a window with your file fails to appear after submitting your file choice, please check that your browser allows pop-ups.) Depending on the file type selected, you may have a file download, a new tab/page opening, or for Google Docs you will need to be signed in to a Google account.

1. In your "Projects" area, find the project you wish to share. 
2. In that project's “Sharing” column, click the "plus sign +" icon to access the sharing settings panel.
3. To give access to this project to an instructor, click the "share" button under "Share with an Inbox," and carefully type in the name of the inbox provided by the instructor and click "Done."
4. To share a project with a student, open the sharing panel and select "add student" in the "student collaboration" area. Then type the other student's NoodleTools personal ID into the box. [Full Collaborator allows the other student to edit the project; Peer Reviewer only allows comments.] Click "Done", and add more students if needed.
5. The sharing status of a project is indicated in the "Sharing" column by an "inbox tray" icon. Click on that icon to access the sharing panel, and to make any sharing access changes [note that only an instructor can edit sharing access to their inbox.]

An annotated bibliography is composed of citations from information sources like journal articles, web pages, multimedia, and other source types, where each source is accompanied by an annotation: a summary and/or evaluation of that source relative to a research topic.

Once you have created citations for a research paper in NoodleTools, you can add annotations to each source and export a formatted annotated bibliography in same style as the citations used in the project.

1. Create or open the existing NoodleTools project with the sources you would like to use for your annotated bibliography.
2. Select a citation from your sources.
3. Compose your annotation in the "Annotation" box of the citation builder; it will be the final section of the citation.
4. Once you have completed annotations to all of your project's sources, select the "Export/Print" button near the top of the "Sources" page.
5. If needed, the "Export/Print" area allows you to customize your output file, like page numbers and headings, etc. Otherwise, choose the file format for your annotated bibliography to begin the export/download of your file.