Citing Sources

What is a citation?

• "Citations are a way of giving credit when certain material in your work came from another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again-- it provides an important roadmap to your research process. Whenever you use sources such as books, journals or websites in your research, you must give credit to the original author by citing the source." (University of Washington)
• Citation styles provide guidelines for citing sources of information in the body of your work ("in-text") and at the end of your paper (called "references" or "works cited" pages) as well as the formatting of your paper and using inclusive language.

Citations are important for many reasons.

• Honor others' contributions to your work (APA Style)
• Build authority and credibility (Purdue OWL)
• Protect against plagiarism and academic dishonesty (MLA Style)
• Provide sources for readers to investigate further (UNC Chapel Hill)

The following materials and sources must be cited, which includes others' ideas, words, terminologies, data, and statistics.

• Direct quotes, both entire sentences and phrases
• Paraphrases (rephrased or summarized material)
• Words or terminology specific to or unique to the author's research, theories, or ideas
• Use of an author's argument or line of thinking
• Historical, statistical, or scientific facts
• Graphs, drawings, or other such aggregations of information or data
• Articles or studies you refer to within your text

Library resources and Google Scholar have built-in citation generators. Look for the " icon or Cite/View Citation hyperlink. Always double check that the citation adheres to formatting guidelines.

In the Universal Search and Library databases, citations are located to the right or above the book or article's cover image.

In Google Scholar, citations are located at the footer below the item's summary/preview.