Q. What is a Citation?

Citations

When you research a topic you may use information from articles, books, or the Web to support your ideas. However, you must credit the original authors of these sources by citing them. To cite means that you state where you found the information so that others can find the exact item again. In this way you build upon the ideas and knowledge of other people.

Citations explained

Researching & citing best practices

• Take clear, accurate notes about where you found specific ideas.
• Write down the complete citation information for each item you use.
• Use quotation marks when directly stating another person's words.
• Always credit original authors for their information and ideas.

Parts of a citation
As you do your research, keep a list of your sources--books, articles, and the internet. This includes:

• Author (or editor, artist, speaker, lyricist, etc.)
• Title of article (or book chapter, blog entry, web page, artwork, song, etc.)
• Title of periodical (or book, exhibit, conference, web site, album, etc.)
• Dates (of publication, of lecture, of blog entry, of interview, of accession, etc.)