Research Toolkit

While there are different citation styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.), they all serve the same purpose. And they all have similar fill-in-the-blank properties. Think of them like jigsaw puzzles. You just have to put the pieces together. And just as different jigsaw puzzles are completed in different ways, different citations have different orders of placement.

citation jigsaw puzzle solved

citation jigsaw puzzle pile

Also, syntax and punctuation matter in the creation of citations. If you place the citation elements in the wrong order with incorrect punctuation, the citation won't work — just as the jigsaw pieces wouldn't fit together if the shapes or edges weren't exact matches.

All bibliographic entries provide the same types of information:

• Who. Who's responsible for writing the source? Author, editor, translator.
• What. What's the name of the source? Book, article, or journal title; series title; subtitle; etc.
• Where. Who produced the source and where are they located? Publisher, publisher location, website URL or DOI, etc. Is the source from a specific location? Book chapter, edition, journal volume and issue number, etc.
• When. When was the source published or produced? Date. Sometimes just year; sometimes month and year; sometimes day, month, and year.
• Some citation and reference styles want to know the source's format, such as print or web, as well as when you accessed the material.

"I've heard some people say citation, and other people say reference. What's the difference?"

Citations and references are linked to each other. When you cite a source, you're providing credit for that source in two different places: a citation and a reference.

• The citation is placed within the text where you refer to the source. (It's also called an "in-text citation" for this reason.) This is a short version of information about the source. It could be a parenthetical citation: (Bradbury, 1970). Or, it could be an endnote or a footnote: 2.
• The reference is placed in the list at the end of your paper. This is the longer version of information about the source, and it looks something like this:

  Bradbury, R. (1970). Fahrenheit 451. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.

The citation should always match the reference. That way, if a reader wants to find more information about a source while reading your work, s/he can just flip to the back to locate the source in your reference list according to the information you provided in your citation.

It's also a good idea to double-check that all of the sources in the in-text citations are in the reference list, and vice versa. In other words, don't include sources in your reference list that you didn't quote or paraphrase; that's called "bib padding."

The Purpose:
The purpose of a citation is to provide the reader with information to find the source of the author's facts or ideas. A citation includes, at the very least, the title, author, source of publication, and date of publication. 

Citation styles, such as MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian, are sets of rules that determine how citations are formatted. Different disciplines favor certain styles, so check with your professor if you are unsure which format to use for your coursework. 

A DOI is a unique code assigned to a digital object (such as an article from a database) used for location and identification. You'll often see the DOI for an article listed on its first page. DOIs allow you to connect directly to a specific article, avoiding potential problems like broken links or missing URLs. They are often used in place of a Permalink. Not all databases provide DOIs

Citations perform very important roles in research, both at an academic and a professional level.

• They tell your readers where you located your information.
• They tell your professors what kind of research you performed.
• They connect your research to the work of other researchers and scholars.
• They give you authority as a writer and researcher.

Why Should I Cite?

Citing your sources

• provides credit to the original authors,
• prevents plagiarism, and
• meets requirements of assignments.

When Should I Cite?

You should use citations whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize someone else's work.

• Quotations are exact duplicates of other people's words.
• Paraphrases are other people's ideas rewritten in your own words. They're usually about the same length as the original material.
• Summaries are other people's ideas that you've shortened to highlight the main ideas. They're always shorter than the original material.

You should cite your sources whenever you write ideas that aren't your original ideas. For specific situations, take a look at: Plagiarism Resources.

The one your professor tells you to use. Your class typically will write in the style that is common for the professional standards associated with the course subject. As you go through your academic career you'll pick up on which style manual is most suited for your major and you'll find yourself writing in it, most often.

Citations describe sources in a standard format or style. They include information such as title of the work; author; publication date; publisher and location; and, other details such as volume, issue, and page numbers.

Citation are important because they: 

• indicate that you have done proper scholarly research;
• show that you have given credit to other researchers' work and ideas; and, 
• give others the opportunity to assess the credibility of your argument by providing them with the information they need to find and review the sources on which it is based.

Citations help you avoid plagiarism

Plagiarism

presenting others' work without adequate acknowledgement of its source, as though it were one’s own. Plagiarism is a form of fraud. We all stand on the shoulders of others, and we must give credit to the creators of the works that we incorporate into products that we call our own.  

Some examples of plagiarism:

• a sequence of words incorporated without quotation marks

• an unacknowledged passage paraphrased from another's work

• the use of ideas, sound recordings, computer data or images created by others as  though it were one’s own"

What should be cited?

Cite all ideas, statistics, images, charts, graphics, audio/video materials, and quotes that are not your own. You do not have to cite common knowledge* or your own ideas or your conclusions (that should be based on cited information).

*So what is common knowledge? This is generally information that is both noncontroversial and accepted by the average reader as true. So this can get tricky. How do we know what the average reader accepts as true?

Citation Machine

EasyBib

BibMe

Zotero

Please visit the Academic Resource Center for information on tutoring, including writing support.