Everything You Need To Know About Citing Sources

Why is citing important?

You must have been taught to include citations properly in your writings but you might not be aware of the reasons why they form an essential part of your academic essay or research paper writing. While there are numerous reasons to include a proper in-text citation, some of the common reasons attributed to such practices are as follows –

1. Prevent Plagiarism

One of the primary reasons for citing sources is to enable the readers to understand which is the own idea of the writer, and which has been borrowed from another source. This ensures that all the authors of the content are given credit for their ideas. A survey conducted by the Psychological Record revealed that more than 35% of undergraduates have admitted to plagiarizing written content.

2. Prevent fake news

Citation can be an effective tool for tackling fake news and preventing it from spreading further. When a writer is required to cite sources, he is likely to study the reliability of a source before referencing it.

3. Enable fact-checking

Accuracy represent an essential part of any writing. The act of looking up a reference for verification serves as accuracy check, such as double checking a direct quote, ensuring the correctness of a paraphrased passage, etc.

4. Persuade the reader

When you are placing your views in front of the reader, certain facts might turn out to be controversial. Backing up your ideas with proper citation will help you to persuade the reader into believing your thoughts.

How to cite sources?

The first condition for properly citing a source is to cite original information from the referred source, whether you do it for an essay, a research work, or any other written content. Properly citing a source provides credibility to the content and provides your readers with the option to explore your content further for more information. There are a few simple steps that can help you cite your sources properly. This includes –

Step: 1 Decide the citation style that is relevant

There are various citation styles that are relevant for different research fields. Sometimes the writer has the option to choose the citation style while most of the time the supervisor or instructor decides it for you.

The common citation styles include American Psychological Association (APA),Chicago Style and the Modern Language Association (MLA).

While at the body of the text you include in-text citations, at the end you need to provide the entire citation list. This can be in the form of a bibliography, works cited, or reference list depending on the citation style used for drafting your paper.

Step: 2 Identify the author, title, and publication of the sources

Write down the name of the author along with the title for every source that you use in your writing. If there are more than one author, write it down in the order as mentioned in the title page.

Note down the date of publication of the source, location, and name of publisher. Besides, you may need information regarding the volume, edition, and date of issue for reference volumes and journals. If you are citing from a journal or magazine, mention the pages from which the citation is taken.

Step: 3 Including in-text citations

Different styles require different citation patterns as follows -

• APA style – Include the last name of the author in the parentheses at the final part of the paraphrase with the year of publication after a comma. Mention the period ending the line after the parentheses mark.
  For example, Marcus (1987) asserted that "keeping the field in its natural state increase the organic matter in the soil by over 10 % in 10 years" (p. 45).
• Chicago Style – Use footnotes to provide the same details as contained in the bibliographic citation, along with different punctuation. A superscript number is placed at the end of the paraphrased content, after the punctuation.
  For example, Kent Portney, Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003).

MLA Style – Use parentheses citation in the main body of the work. The author’s name and page number should be provided where the material is provided but without any punctuation. For example: ("Sustainable Cities" 57).

When to cite sources?

While different colleges and universities may impose specific requirements on the students based on their discipline, there are situations when citing sources is always important.

Direct quotation:

There are situations where you need to include the exact words of an author to be specific for your argument. This can be instinctively understood that the quotation must be cited.

If a word or a phrase is quoted, it can be included within the text. But if the quotation is for more than three lines it should be offset from the rest of the text.

Summarizing or paraphrasing:

If you plan to use the idea of another author in your writing to support your argument, it must be cited.

The purpose is to acknowledge the opinion of the author and not the work itself.

Whenever you are not sure:

You must err on the side of caution and cite a source if you are hesitant as to whether or not to cite the same.

But make sure that you cite the source as per the prescribed rules and guidelines provided in general and specifically by the examining authorities.

Conclusion or supplemental information:

If you have cited any source earlier in your text you need not reference the same again in your conclusion.

However, if you introduce any new information, you need to cite the source separately. The same holds true for supplemental information as well.

Not just books and articles, but any source from which you borrow content for your writing must be cited including T.V. programs, interviews, websites, etc.

When not to cite sources?

Common knowledge means facts and information that is known by a lot of people and can be found in several sources.

However, if something is common knowledge in your field but the same might not be known by the readers, then it has to be cited.

Also, common knowledge that contains research and statistical information needs to be cited.

For example:

• St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota (need not be cited as this is common knowledge).
• St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota and has the lowest population in the State (need to be cited as the information contains statistical data).

Your own thoughts and opinion:

When you include your own ideas, words, and original research work in your content you need not cite them. This is because you are the real author of your thoughts.

How to determine if something is common knowledge?

There is no marked boundary on what should be considered as common knowledge. There is even a difference in opinion between experts of plagiarism as to what counts as common knowledge.

While some sources consider historical and current events, geographic areas, famous people, etc. to be common knowledge others consider only non-factual materials such as common sayings and folklore.

Some even restrict the concept of common knowledge to the area of study with which they are dealing.

However, only two facts should be considered while determining information as common knowledge. These are –

• Quantity: i.e. information is available at multiple places; and
• Ubiquity: i.e. the information is likely to be known to the common people.

When you include your own ideas, words, and original research work in your content you need not cite them. This is because you are the real author of your thoughts.

How to ensure the ‘quantity’ criterion for common knowledge has been met?

Some experts are of the opinion that a fact can be considered as common knowledge if it is available in three independent locations. Others sometimes recommend five independent sources.

The fact is that a piece of information can be found in several different sources. With more research paper writing, you get to explore more sources containing the same information.

The possibility of encountering these facts increase with the increase in the written research work which indicates that the frequency of occurrence cannot be factored in to consider something as common knowledge.

How to know if the fact is ubiquitous?

Research essays and papers written within a discipline will find certain facts to be common knowledge within that group. However, general readers may require attribution to know about the piece of information.

Therefore, the safer option is to ask other peers or readers outside the field of study whether they are aware of such information to consider it as common knowledge.

How to consider a fact as a general reference source?

General reference sources such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, gazetteers, and almanacs collect information from several sources for easy look-up. Referencing sources that emphasize on a specific area cannot be considered as general.

For example, a medical term defined in a medical dictionary cannot be considered as general. Therefore, if you are writing content for a non-medical reader, you should cite this source for his/her easy reference.

Factors influencing the consideration for common knowledge

Since the concept of common knowledge is all inclusive it depends on several factors to determine whether a piece of information can be considered as common knowledge or not. Consider the answers to the following questions, and your decision will become considerably easier –

• Who is the target audience?
• What can you assume that they already know?
• Will there be a question in the mind of the reader from where the information is obtained?

What is not common knowledge?

The following things cannot be considered as common knowledge –

• Datasets that are generated by the original writer of the content.
• References to studies by others.
• Statistics obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the US Census Bureau.
• References to certain numbers, facts and dates that the reader would not know without research.

How to cite information obtained verbally from a credible source?

Citing information obtained verbally from a credible source is also allowed to be included in a text. Handle the in-text citation as you would normally do for other written sources.

Provide the name of the author, year and the source number. Mention the name of the person providing such information verbally along with his or her title and affiliation.

To be more precise, include the mailing address of the party mentioning the words "personal communication" with such citation.

How to cite pictures from different sources?

The specific citation guide for the citation style provides the details relating to citing pictures from various sources. Each citation style contains a section for citing the visual images. However, from a general viewpoint, an image can be cited in the similar manner a book is cited. This can be done in the following manner –

• Listing the name of artist or photographer;
• Including a title for the image;
• The year in which the image was produced or published; and
• The original location of the image.

If the image has been collected from an online source, the citation should be a URL with the date when it has been accessed.

How to cite electronic sources?

It cannot be assumed that the information that is available on the internet is common knowledge. The information has been written by someone at some point of time and needs to be cited accordingly.

Even if the name of the author is not mentioned there are other details that need to be included. This should be done in accordance with the citation style that is followed. Refer to the style guide provided by each style to cite the sources accordingly.

Citing electronic sources always require the source of the database or the URL from where such information has been retrieved.

The Education Week published a national survey revealing that 54% of the students admitted plagiarizing from the internet.

How to cite Creative Commons-licensed Content?

Information that is available under a Creative Commons License should be cited in accordance with the terms and conditions imposed by the Creative Commons License. All such licenses require any user of such information to cite the original creator of the content.

In addition to that, the content must be cited similar to any other online source. Provide the maximum possible information about the source and adapt it to the citation style you are following for your content.

Include the Creative Commons license at http://creativecommons.org/.

When citing web sources, should the URL be included in the text itself?

No, this looks pretty lame and comes off as an unprofessional approach. Instead, you can provide the URL on the reference page. But as far as an in-text citation is concerned, you need to provide the source number, author, and year as you usually do for citing a reference. If you need to include web-based sources, you should consider something that is highly relevant to the context. Otherwise, the reader goes virtually unaware that you are using a web source.

Also, keep in mind not to include a web-based source citing as “According to the internet….” This will sound downright silly and informal even if you mean to have plagiarism free content. There might be instances where you will find a web page with just the title on it. In such situations, provide only the information that is available with the date accessed, on the reference page. But assess the quality and credibility of the page before citing it as a source.

Is Wikipedia a reliable academic source?

Using Wikipedia as a source for collecting information or data about something is quite common.

However, Wikipedia or similar other wikis where various people provide collaborative information cannot be considered as a reliable source to be used in the academic citation. Therefore, such a source cannot be used while writing an academic paper. The bibliographic reference provided at the end of the Wikipedia page will provide you with the potential source from where such information has been collected.

You can cite such a source in your writing but only after judging the reliability of the source of information. Do not replace your own research with that of the Wikipedia bibliography sources.

How to judge the authenticity of social media posts?

To assess the authenticity of social media posts, you need to follow the guidelines mentioned below –

• Certain social media platforms like Twitter conduct their own verification testing which can help users in distinguishing the original accounts from the parody accounts. Verified Twitter accounts are marked with a blue badge next to the name.
• Check the quality of the previous posts to see if the content is consistent with the views and opinions of the author. Go through the bio of the account to know about the identity of the individual among other credentials.
• You are advised to cite a social media source by its vanity URL and not by its name. This would accurately reflect the source to the reader.
• If you want to quote any social media post of everyday people, assess if the person is real and not an automated web bot.

To do this –

• Check the previous post quality. Bots tend to re-post the content of others and posts of spam.
• Bots tend to post a link with a statement. But a real person will provide his opinion.
• A social media account that is curated is likely to be of a legitimate person.
• Above all, if you have the slightest doubt as to whether a social media account is reliable or not, do not use the source.

A final word of advice

Keep in mind that the institutions of different countries impose different rules and regulations for citing a source. Make yourself acquainted with those rules to avoid any plagiarism while writing and expressing your thoughts and opinions without any hesitation.