Library Tutorial - Citing Sources - Introduction

When you quote, paraphrase an idea, or use the ideas of another person in your research you must provide a proper citation for the source in a bibliography or list of references to:

• be considered an ethical user of information
• give credit to the author or creator
• enable a reader to locate the source you cited
• avoid being charged with plagiarism

Providing references for sources you used also lends credibility to your work, especially if you use authoritative sources. The citation serves as the source's address. Just as a website has an address so the computer can locate it, books, articles and other kinds of sources have addresses as well. Be sure to provide full citations to all types of sources you use, including:

• books
• government documents
• Internet sources
• interviews
• magazine or journal articles
• non-print media (videotapes, audiotapes, pictures and images)
• software

Citations were discussed in Module VI. As you saw in that section there are almost as many styles for citations as there are databases. Typically, citations in databases are NOT in proper citation styles, and you will need to put them in the appropriate style when you write your paper. When you write a research paper you must use a particular style manual and cite all works according to that one manual.

next - Citation Styles