Why is citation important?
It's important to cite your sources for many reasons:
- Avoiding plagiarism by quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing words and ideas used by others. It also gives proper credit and acknowledgment to the researchers and authors who worked hard on their papers.
- It shows your reader( not just your professor) you've properly researched your topic/ argument by listing where your evidence has come from. Anyone not willing to share their sources is likely getting their information from unreliable sources, or aren't using any sources at all! Yikes!
- Readers can find the sources you accurately cited to further their own curiosity and research.
What are citations and citation styles?
Citations are identifiers that give credit to the people or groups' works that you used as evidence or support for your research. They are also used as combative evidence for plagiarism.
Citation styles are collected organizational guidelines that show the order of the information as well as format choices and punctuation.
When do I need to cite?
Always cite your sources when you:
- Quote two or more words verbatim, or even one word if it is used in a way that is unique to the source.
- Introduce facts that you have found in a source.
- Paraphrase or summarize ideas, interpretations, or conclusions that you find in a source.
- Introduce information that is not common knowledge or that may be considered common knowledge in your field, but the reader may not know it.
- Borrow the plan or structure of a larger section of a source’s argument (for example, using a theory from a source and analyzing the same three case studies that the source uses).
- Build on another’s method found either in a source or from collaborative work in a lab.
- You build on another’s program by writing computer code or on a not-commonly-known algorithm.
- Collaborate with others in producing knowledge.
Choosing a citation style:
When writing a paper or presentation, follow what your professor or the journal/other institutions say as their preferred citation style. However, it is good to note that the citation style may depend on the academic discipline. Here are some examples
- MLA(Modern Language Association): Most common to use in high school, so you might be familiar with it. It is used by the Humanities Disciplines
- APA (American Psychological Association): This is used by Business, Nursing, and Social Sciences (like Psychology, Education, Sociology, Economics, and Criminal Justice) Disciplines.
- Chicago: This is used in the Fine Arts and History Disciplines, but other Disciplines like Literature, Philosophy, or Business may use this style instead.
- AMA(American Medical Association): This "more recent" style can be used in medicine, health sciences, public health, and biomedical research.
- ASA(American Sociological Association): Another "more recent" style created for the Sociology Discipline.