Unsure which citation manager is the best fit for your research needs? Take a look at these videos from UW Madison for a quick overview of four of the most popular resources. Additionally, check out the comparison guides below for side-by-side reviews of the core features of each tool.
You cite sources in your research projects for several reasons:
This brief video from Suffolk Community College explains what it means what citing is and how it works:
A "citation" is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again, including:
Whenever you borrow words or ideas, you need to acknowledge the source. You need to cite:
The image below shows all the kinds of information sources that can be cited ... basically, you can cite almost anything. In college research projects you will typically cite Journal and Magazine Articles, Books and e-Books, Webpages, News Articles, and Dissertations ... putting it metaphorically, that's the yoke of the egg. But there are all kinds of information sources you might use in your research, such as Tweets, Youtube Videos, Artwork, Interviews, Maps, TV Shows, Blog Posts, etc.. Just rememeber ... If you use it, you must cite it!
You do not need to cite the source if the information is considered "common knowledge."
What is Common Knowledge? Common knowledge is information that the average person would know or accept as reliable without having to look it up. This includes:
Keep in mind that what may be common knowledge in one culture, nation, academic discipline or peer group may not be common knowledge in another. So, when in doubt ... cite the source.
Image credit: http://blog.apastyle.org
Academic disciplines have varying expectations for how to list citation information. But all the styles require the same basic information ... it is the order of that information that varies. In part, this is because different academic fields emphasize different elements of a source when referring to previous research.
When writing a research paper, the discipline determines the citation style you will use. You should also be sure to check with your instructor to find out which style your instructor prefers.
Here is a quick list of the core citation style guides are used in different disciplines:
The following guides provide in-depth information about the different citation styles:
To provide an overview of the difference between the three most commonly used citation styles, this chart from Purdue provides a side-by-side comparison of ALA 6th edition, MLA 7th edition, and the Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition.
Plagiarism involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward … in other words, it is an act of fraud.
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