Academic research leads us to the insight that comes from gaining perspectives and understandings from other people through what we read, watch, and hear. In academic work we must tell our readers who and what led us to our conclusions.

"Ethical Use & Citing Sources," Ohio State Univ. Libraries

Viewing Citation Positively

All too often, we view the process of citing sources as a task that we are forced to complete in order to avoid punishment for plagiarism. In this negative perspective, citation can seem tedious and even meaningless.

Consider citation from a different perspective. Properly citing the sources you use in your research actually adds tremendous value to your work. It should be viewed positively, as an opportunity to:

Acknowledge the work of others (give credit where credit is due)
Add credibility to your own work (showing that experts support your ideas)
Place your work in an academic context (showing that you've done your research and know what others have said about your topic - you are part of the scholarly conversation)
Help your reader to easily find your sources (so they can verify your claims)

Two Connected Parts

All citation styles include two parts that work together:

An in-text citation, which is a brief notation (usually within a paragraph, at the end of a sentence) acknowledging that information came from another source. In MLA and APA style, an in-text citation is contained inside parentheses (and sometimes called a “parenthetical citation”). Citation styles that use footnotes or endnotes (such as Chicago or Turabian) may use a superscript in the same way.
At the end of the paper or assignment, there will be a list of more detailed bibliographic information that enables the reader to find the sources that were used. Every in-text citation must have a matching entry in this list. Depending on what citation style you are using, his list may be called “works cited,” “references,” or “bibliography.” Different citation styles will require you to format these citations in different ways, but they all include similar information, like the author’s name, title of the publication, date, URL, and/or page numbers.

Video Overview

Please watch the following video, which discusses the definition, purpose, benefits, and basics of citation:

Additional viewing options: Turn on closed captions with the "CC" button, or use the text transcript if you prefer to read.

Citations & Attributions

Textbox: "Ethical Use and Citing Sources" by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Two Connected Parts by Walter D. Butler; Aloha Sargent; and Kelsey Smith is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Video: "Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction" by NCSU Libraries is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0