Citing Sources

Citing sources is an academic convention for keeping track of which sources influenced your own thinking and research. (See Ethical Use of Sources for many good reasons why you should cite others’ work.)

Most citations require two parts:

• The The full bibliographic citation on the Bibliography, References, or Works Cited page of your final product (e.g., research paper or presentation)
• An indication within your text (called an in-text citation) that usually includes the author, publication date, and sometimes the page number from which you are quoting. The in-text citation tells your reader when you have used something that needs a citation. Your reader will be able to tell which full bibliographic citation you are referring to by paying attention to the author’s name and publication date.

Adapted from "Citation and Citation Styles " by Ohio State University Libraries, Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Video: "Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction

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