Research Paper Style Information on the Internet

There are three major style manuals in use in North American academic institutions:

American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York Modern Language Association.

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 

For shorter explanations of the proper forms for notes (footnotes, endnotes, short notes), there are lots of Internet sites. Here are some of them:
 

APA

http://library.nmu.edu/guides/userguides/style_apa.htm (interestingly, electronic styles are covered first)

http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPA.html

http://www.nova.edu/library/dils/lessons/apa/index.htm (video tutorial approach)

Note that the APA 6th edition has received widespread criticism for inconsistencies and errors (partially corrected in a second printing).  The following is a link to the (corrected) sample paper that this edition uses:

http://www.apastyle.org/manual/related/sample-experiment-paper-1.pdf

MLA

http://library-guides.scottsdalecc.edu/content.php?pid=20236&sid=319995

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/11/ (contains an overview and a specific description of citation format)

http://libguides.dixie.edu/content.php?pid=5025&sid=31250

Sample MLA paper:
http://concordia.csp.edu/writingcenter/WriterResources/MLA%20sample%20paper%207th%20ed_42910.pdf  

Turabian

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turabian_citationguide.html (official Turabian site quick guide)

http://www.libs.uga.edu/ref/turabian2009.pdf  

http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChicago.html

Sample Turabian papers:  http://seminary.ashland.edu/documents/Writingbook08.pdf (beginning p.29)

Several Formats plus Sample Essays in Each Format

http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/ - a terrific site for format issues! (Note: "Humanities" = MLA, "Social Sciences" = APA, "History" = Turabian,
"Sciences" = CSE)

For Electronic Items in your Bibliography - all 3 Formats Above:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_docelectric.html

Increasingly, academic libraries are providing bibliographic formatting software to students, e.g. EndNote, RefWorks.  Check to see if your institution has such resources.  Zotero, a Firefox browser plugin, is available at http://www.zotero.org/

A useful style formatters on the Net: 

Knightcite: http://webapps.calvin.edu/knightcite/ ("Chicago" = Turabian)

CitationMachine: http://citationmachine.net/