Citing Sources

Always check with your instructor on what format specifications to use for a particular class or assignment, especially when citing electronic resources including material found in library databases.

Plagiarism is using another person’s ideas or words without clearly acknowledging or citing the source of that information.  You must give credit whenever you use:

• Another person's idea, opinion, or theory.
• Direct quotes from another person's actual spoken or written words.
• Paraphrasing of another person's spoken or written words.
• Any piece of information this is not common knowledge (e.g., fact, figure, statistic, chart)
• Multimedia created by another person (e.g., photo, drawing, film clip, music, etc.)

For more information on plagiarism, and how to prevent it, see the Avoiding Plagiarism section of Guide to Research at JSRCC

A citation is a reference to a source of information.  A citation typically includes enough identifying information, such as the author, title, publisher information, date of publication, database retrieved from, etc. for a reader to be able to locate a copy of the item.

The ability to interpret citations or references from various sources of information is a fundamental research skill.  In order to be able to correctly cite an source in a specific style (e.g., MLA, APA), you need to be able to determine what type of source the item is, where the source came from, and identify the various elements of the source.

The boxes below provide several examples of the most common types of sources found in the library catalog, databases, and web sites.

The primary reason to cite your sources is to avoid plagiarism and give proper credit to the original author or creator.  Other reasons for citing your sources:

• Enables a reader to locate the sources you cited.
• Demonstrates the accuracy and reliability of your information.
• Shows the amount of research you’ve done.
• Strengthens your work by lending outside support to your ideas.

Library Hours

Student IDs are available in the libraries and at the Smithfield Center!