why cite sources in research papers

Citing sources: Overview

Citation style guides

Manage your references

Use these tools to help you organize and cite your references:

Citation Management and Writing Tools

If you have questions after consulting this guide about how to cite, please contact your advisor/professor or the writing and communication center .

Why citing is important

It's important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list

About citations

Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site). They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases.

Citations consist of standard elements, and contain all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:

author name(s)
titles of books, articles, and journals
date of publication
page numbers
volume and issue numbers (for articles)

Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. Choose an appropriate style guide for your needs. Here is an example of an article citation using four different citation styles. Notice the common elements as mentioned above:

Author - R. Langer

Article Title - New Methods of Drug Delivery

Source Title - Science

Volume and issue - Vol 249, issue 4976

Publication Date - 1990

Page numbers - 1527-1533

American Chemical Society (ACS) style:

Langer, R. New Methods of Drug Delivery. Science 1990 , 249 , 1527-1533.

IEEE Style:

R. Langer, " New Methods of Drug Delivery," Science , vol. 249 , pp. 1527-1533 , SEP 28, 1990 .

American Psychological Association (APA) style:

Langer, R. (1990) . New methods of drug delivery. Science , 249 (4976), 1527-1533.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style:

Langer, R. " New Methods of Drug Delivery." Science 249.4976 (1990) : 1527-33.

What to cite

You must cite:

Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge

Publications that must be cited include: books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, etc.

Another person's exact words should be quoted and cited to show proper credit

When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!

Avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism occurs when you borrow another's words (or ideas) and do not acknowledge that you have done so. In this culture, we consider our words and ideas intellectual property; like a car or any other possession, we believe our words belong to us and cannot be used without our permission.

Plagiarism is a very serious offense. If it is found that you have plagiarized -- deliberately or inadvertently -- you may face serious consequences. In some instances, plagiarism has meant that students have had to leave the institutions where they were studying.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to cite your sources - both within the body of your paper and in a bibliography of sources you used at the end of your paper.

Some useful links about plagiarism:

MIT Academic Integrity Overview on citing sources and avoiding plagiarism at MIT.
Avoiding Plagiarism From the MIT Writing and Communication Center.
Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It From Indiana University's Writing Tutorial Services.
Plagiarism- Overview A resource from Purdue University.
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Last Updated: Jan 16, 2024 7:02 AM
URL: https://libguides.mit.edu/citing

APA Style (7th ed.)

Citation Overview
Book, eBook, Dissertation
Article or Report
Business Sources
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
In-Text Citation
Format Your Paper

Learn why and when to cite using APA

Watch the following video:.

How to cite in APA Style (7th edition)

Most academic writing cites others' ideas and research, for several reasons:

Sources that support your ideas give your paper authority and credibility
Shows you have researched your topic thoroughly
Crediting sources protects you from plagiarism
A list of sources can be a useful record for further research

Different academic disciplines prefer different citation styles, most commonly APA and MLA styles.

Besides these styles, there are Chicago , Turabian , AAA , AP , and more. Only use the most current edition of the citation style.

Ask your instructors which citation style they want you to use for assignments. (Looking for the old 6th edition guide?)

Prefer an interactive, video-based tutorial? Click the image below:

link to APA tutorial: https://uww.libwizard.com/f/APA

Why We Cite

Citing information: why we cite.

Introduction
Sample References Page
In-Text Citations
Print Sources
Online Sources
Sample Works Cited
Sample Bibliography Page
Sample Works Cited Page
Print & Online Sources

Why we Cite

The purposes of citation.

Quality academic writing is built upon the work of others, to which we add our own unique analysis and contributions. Citations serve three major roles in scholarly work:

They allow you to show how your argument is built upon the ideas of others.
They allow you to indicate which ideas are taken from others, and from whom those ideas were taken; in other words, to give credit where it's due.
They allow the interested reader to follow your argument and confirm its logic by investigating the ideas on which the argument is built, or to further explore those ideas on their own.

In each case, it's important that you acknowledge the ways in which others' ideas contributed to your own. To fail to distinguish our original ideas from those of our forebears is plagiarism, "the act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one's own creation." (West's Encyclopedia of American Law ).

What Needs to be Cited?

If you incorporate or refer to others' theories, words, ideas or concepts in a paper or project, you must document each one using a citation. The use of facts and statistics that another has compiled must also be likewise acknowledged.

You need to document:

Direct quotes, both entire sentences and phrases
Paraphrases (rephrased or summarized material)
Words or terminology specific to or unique to the author's research, theories, or ideas
Use of an author's argument or line of thinking
Historical, statistical, or scientific facts
Graphs, drawings, or other such aggregations of information or data
Articles or studies you refer to within your text

You do not need to document:

Proverbs, axioms, and sayings ("A stitch in time saves nine.")
Well-known quotations ("Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.")
Common knowledge (Thomas Edison invented the phonograph; "Starry Night" was painted by Vincent Van Gogh; Oxygen has the atomic number 8)

Sometimes it can be difficult to be sure what counts as common knowledge. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if a knowledgeable reader would be familiar with the information in question. If he or she would have to look it up to confirm it, you should usually document it. If you're not sure, document it to play it safe.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is theft; it is a violation of professional ethics; it is a violation of UNC at Chapel Hill's Honor Code; furthermore, the courts have recognized it as a violation of copyright. There are many ways to violate copyright, including failure to acknowledge direct quotes or the paraphrasing of another person's work, and the insufficient acknowledgment of such works.

For an in-depth discussion of plagiarism , please refer to the Library's Plagiarism Tutorial and the Writing Center's Plagiarism Handout .

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Last Updated: Aug 1, 2024 9:29 AM
URL: https://guides.lib.unc.edu/citing-information