Citing your Sources

When you use other authors' ideas and words in your own writing, it is important to credit them - even if you do not quote their words exactly as written.

Citing your sources allows your reader to identify the works you have consulted and to understand the breadth and scope of your research. Footnotes, endnotes, and lists of works consulted provide substantiation for your own findings and ideas.

Practicing "cite as you write" and keeping track of ideas and quotations that you use in your own writing helps you to avoid plagiarism or charges of research misconduct.

When you reproduce an author's exact wording and phrasing, you must place the text within quotation marks or set off the text in block quotes or other formats recommended in various style manuals.

Even if you re-word the material in your own terms, a practice called "paraphrasing," you must credit the source of the information.

You can find guidelines for quotation practice in many style manuals or guides for researchers. A useful introduction can be found in chapter 12 of The Modern Researcher by Jacques Barzun and Henry Graff (5th ed., 1992 in REF LB 2369 .B28).

Plagiarism is defined in the University of Arkansas Catalog of Studies as "offering as one’s own work the words, ideas, or arguments of another person without appropriate attribution by quotation, reference or footnote" (section on "Academic Regulations: Academic Honesty").

The consequences of plagiarizing another's work can be very serious for one's course grade or for one's entire academic career. Plagiarism and academic dishonesty go beyond simply cutting and pasting text from an article or book into your paper without attribution; they can include paraphrasing without attributution or even citing sources that you have not consulted in your Works Cited list.

Citing your sources is the first step to avoiding plagiarism. You might also review our plagiarism detection and prevention links for more information.

There are hundreds of citation styles. Your instructor, department, college, or editor may recommend that you use a particular style -- or they may ask that you simply be consistent. Three of the most commonly-used citation styles in academic writing are:

• MLA (Modern Language Association) Style
• APA (American Psychological Association) Style
• Turabian or Chicago Notes and Bibliography Style

You may also wish to consult our quick citation guide (PDF).

Links for additional style formats are also available.

Search for more citation style manuals in the online catalog, InfoLinks. Common subject headings used for style manuals include "Authorship--Style Manuals" or "Authorship--Handbooks."

RefWorks is a web-based bibliography manager that the University Libraries provide for the entire campus. RefWorks allows you to save citations to a personal database and then format those citations in footnotes, endnotes, or bibliographies.

Once you create your own personal RefWorks account, you can access your database of citations from any computer, anywhere with an Internet connection. You can easily import citations from dozens of different library databases. Your citations can then be exported directly into your paper in dozens of different citation styles.

Want to get started with RefWorks? Visit our RefWorks page for more info and to sign up for your account online. Contact the Reference Desk or your subject librarian for information on setting up an account or to schedule a training session. A RefWorks quick guide is also available (PDF).

EndNote software allows you to save citations to a personal database and then format those citations in footnotes, endnotes, or bibliographies.

EndNote is available as client software for PC-Windows or Mac computers. EndNote can be purchased at an academic discount from the UA Campus Computer Store.

A web-based version of EndNote is now also available through the Web of Science and Current Contents databases. To use EndNote on the Web, you will need to create a personal profile in these databases.

Since the University Libraries pay for a campus-wide subscription to RefWorks, we recommend that you try that bibliographic manager program first. Ask a librarian if you need help with RefWorks.

If you are an EndNote user who needs help with custom connection filters for UA subscription databases, please contact the Electronic Resources Librarian.

The University of Arkansas Quality Writing Center offers tutoring and instructional materials to help you with paper composition and documentation. You can even submit a draft online for comments.

The Enhanced Learning Center and Quality Writing Center will offer six workshops during the 2007–08 academic year entitled Understanding & Avoiding Plagiarism. A flyer of this series (PDF), with dates and times, is available. Students can register online at http://elc.uark.edu.

The Graduate School has an online style manual for theses and dissertations.