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Citation Guides: Home

Information on citations, plagiarism, and research practices

Welcome

This LibGuide provides a central location for many resources about citation styles, research practices, and plagiarism (and how and why to avoid it!).  From here you can explore the specific citations styles you'll encounter here at St. Mark's.

Introduction

MLA: "MLA style is most commonly used to cite sources within the language arts, cultural studies, and other humanities disciplines." -- OWL Purdue

APA: "APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences." -- OWL Purdue

Chicago: "The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) covers a variety of topics from manuscript preparation and publication to grammar, usage, and documentation, and as such, it has been lovingly dubbed the 'editor's bible.'" -- OWL Purdue

You should cite when:

  • Referencing someone else's opinions or research
  • Referencing someone else's creative work
  • Using and image or other media file that you did not create

Err on the side of caution and cite more than you think you need to.  It's much easier to remove a citation than it is to add one in later!

You reference material when you:

  • Quote it directly
  • Paraphrase it
  • Summarize it

If you incorporate someone else's work into your paper using these methods, you need to cite it!

You do not need to cite when:

  • Referencing common knowledge
  • Using your own thoughts or opinions
  • Summarizing historical overviews that appear in multiple sources

All citations must include:

  • Author(s)/creator(s) or editor(s)
    • Some material, especially from online sources, does not credit an author.  Be wary of using a source that does not list an author or creator!
  • Title of the work
  • Title of the publication
  • Year of publication

In addition to this, books or book chapters ALSO include:

  • Publisher
  • Place of publication
  • Pages or chapter
    • Some material (personal journals, for example) may not be paginated.  In that case it is okay to omit the page number.

In addition to this, journal articles ALSO include:

  • Volume number
  • Issue number
  • Page range of material

We cite our sources for a few reasons.

  1. To give credit to the original author
    • Scholarship has always involved building on the works of others.  Citations show appreciation for the researcher's time and effort.
  2. To let the reader investigate your sources him- or herself
    • Oftentimes your reader will be engaged in similar research to you.  Proper citations allow the reader to read the same sources you have in making your argument.

Ethics of citing sources

  1. Cite accurately
    • It's important that you include the material as it appears.
    • A 2008 study found that 41% of references to a particular paper were inaccurate.
  2. Cite completely
    • Do omit parts of a quote that changes its context.
    • Here is a good survey of famous examples of this.

Credit

The formatting and content for these citation guides is borrowed heavily from the citation LibGuide at the Butler University Libraries and Center for Academic Technology.