Citing Sources & Plagiarism

The purpose of a citation is to provide the reader with information necessary to find the source of the author's statement. A citation is a standard way to describe a published or unpublished source, such as a:

• book or book chapter

• journal article

• website

• a figure

• image

A citation makes it easy to find the source and provides some consistency. They are found in bibliographies, references and work cited lists at the end of articles and chapters in books.  A citation may look different depending on the type of source you use and the citation style.  Most citations consist of these common elements:

• author's name

• publication date

• title of the source

Example:

   Angelou, M. (1995). A brave and startling truth. Random House.

   Edwards, K. S., & Shin, M. (2017). Media multitasking and implicit learning. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 79(5), 1535-1549.

• To distinguish between what is your work and those of others. 
• To acknowledge someone else's work and ideas.
• To receive credit for the work you have done (shows off your research and writing skills).
• To provide your readers with specific information to verify your sources or pursue a topic further.
• To avoid plagiarism.