Watch this video for an introduction to Citations By NCSU Libraries. CC BY NC SA 3.0.
Why Cite?
Be sure to write, copy or save as much information as you can while you are first looking at a source in case you need to view it again. Not sure where to start? Some good choices include:
1. Author or editor
2. Title of the book, OR the article AND the journal title
3. Publisher
4. Place of publication for a book OR Volume and issue number of the journal or magazine
5. Date of publication
6. URL and/or the database name
7. The date you accessed an electronic document
If you have the relevant information listed above you will be able to create your bibliography. Saving this information will generally allow you to put together your reference page at the end of your paper in any format needed. When looking at a source, such as a book or a magazine article, save enough information so that you can find the material again. Noting the information above for any material you use will allow you to find it again AND cite it.
Many databases and some websites often provide citation information formatted that you can either save or email to yourself.
In addition, you can use citation generators to help you construct your citations lists.
Selected Citation generators:
Per Skyline College's Course Catalog, "Plagiarism is representing the work of someone else as his/her own and submitting it to fulfill academic requirements." Plagiarism is cheating and is viewed as "academic dishonesty" and therefore, "academic misconduct." For more information, see Academic Integrity/Honesty.
You have plagiarized when you...
To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit by citing sources whenever you use
another person’s idea, opinion, or theory
any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge
quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words
paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words
You don’t need to cite sources when the information you write about are common facts, your own original research, and/or your own opinions and evaluations.
Some tips to avoid unintentional plagiarism