LibGuides: Citing Sources: Why?

What is a citation??

A citation reflects all of the information a person would need to locate a particular source. For example, basic citation information for a book consists of name(s) of author(s) or editor(s), title of book, name of publisher, place of publication, and most recent copyright date.

A citation style dictates the information necessary for a citation and how the information is ordered, as well as punctuation and other formatting.

A bibliography lists citations for all of the relevant resources a person consulted during his or her research.

In an annotated bibliography, each citation is followed by a brief note—or annotation—that describes and/or evaluates the source and the information found in it.

A works cited list presents citations for those sources referenced in a particular paper, presentation, or other composition.

An in-text citation consists of just enough information to correspond to a source's full citation in a Works Cited list. In-text citations often require a page number (or numbers) showing exactly where relevant information was found in the original source.

Citation Generators

If you only need to write one quick citation, then you can use one of these generators to do so. BUT, using a full citation manager will save you a lot of time in the long run.

Bibliography.com
Excellent generator that can take an ISBN or doi to create your citation for you.
KnightCite
Noodle Tools Express
Ottobib
This one is for books only and uses the book's ISBN.
Type Cite
New citation site that does MLA, APA, and Harvard. Unlike other sites, this will correct the title case for the citation styles.
ZoteroBib
To add a source, paste or type its URL, ISBN, DOI, PMID, arXiv ID, or title into the search box, and it will create a quick citation for you.

"Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction" by Anne Burke, Daria Dorafshar, Kyle Langdon, Andreas Orphanides, and Kim Duckett is licensed CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0

Why all the fuss?

REMEMBER:

√ Everything written is someone's intellectual property.

√ You must give credit to the owner.

√ You may paraphrase, summarize or quote directly.

√ Websites, photographs, charts, illustrations are all copyrighted materials.

Plagiarism: Take and use as one's own (the thoughts, writings, inventions, etc., of another person) improperly without acknowledgement; passing of the thoughts, work, etc., of another person as one's own.