Citation

About Citation

What is a citation?

Citation is one of the major requirements for all research papers written and intellectual works created.

Citation is the mechanism used to provide  the readers information about the sources you have utilized in that specific work.

Citing your sources is essential to maintaining your academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism.

Why Cite Sources?

It is important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

• To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
• To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
• To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list
• To support your ideas and reinforce your arguments' strength.

For articles, a complete citation generally includes:

• The author's name
• The title of the article
• The name of the magazine or journal in which it is located
• The volume number of the magazine or journal (and sometimes the issue number)
• The page numbers on which the article is located
• The date when the article was published

For books, a complete citation generally includes:

• The author's name
• The title of the book
• The publication date
• The book's publisher

Citations are also used to help readers of your papers go to the information you used.