BSC 292: Citing Your Sources

Q. How do I format my paper according to APA style?  What spacing and font should I use?  What should my title page look like? How do I use headings throughout my paper?
A. General APA Formatting Info  |  APA Headings  |  Sample Paper 

Q. How do I cite information in the body of my paper?  What should a quote or paraphrase look like in my paper?
A. In-Text Citation Basics

Q. What should my Reference list at the end of the paper look like?  What should the header for this page look like?  In what order should my references be listed? 
A. Reference List Basics

Q. How do I cite a book, article, website, etc. on my References page?
A. Books  |  Articles  |  Websites and Other Electronic Resources

Many of the library's resources include an option to cite articles in a variety of formats. However, not all of them do. And some resources have a "cite" button or link but it will only export the citation to citation management software.

What you should look for is a link or button that says cite or citation and which allows you to choose a specific format, like APA, from a list. With this type of service you will be able to highlight, copy, and paste the citation directly info your References list.

WARNING: These citations are generally mostly correct. By this, I mean that all of the elements of the citation (author names, article title, journal information, etc.) will be present and likely in the correct order, but some of the important formatting may be lost in the process of pasting the citation info a Word or Google doc. Some of the things that you will need to review carefully, and possibly edit, include:

• Making sure the individual citations have a hanging indent.
• Ensuring that your citation list is in alphabetical order by author last name.
• That your font and spacing are consistent throughout the list and match the rest of your paper.
• That you include a title on the page. For APA, this would be References.
• You check for proper punctuation and formatting such as italics by comparing your citations to sample citations from a site like the Purdue OWL (see links in the Q & A box above).
• Look out for entire article titles or author names in ALL CAPS. This is incorrect in any format and should be corrected (except in the case of an acronym like UNESCO or NASA).

In-text citations and the list of sources

It is very important to cite information used in your papers that comes from another source. Not only does this keep you from plagiarizing (which is a very serious offense that could result in you failing the assignment or even the course), but it also tells readers where you found that information and gives your writing and work more credibility. 

In order to properly cite information, you need to use both in-text citations and a source list at the end of your paper. In-text citations tell the reader on what page of which item on your sources list this quote or paraphrase was found. This information is placed adjacent to the quote/paraphrase. The reader can then use the corresponding citation on your sources list to find that original work for themselves and read, watch, or listen to what else the author had to say about your topic. 

The pair of citations would look something like this (in APA for this example):

In your paper: 
Reseach by Baniya and Weech (2019) indicates that service-learning students...blah blah blah.
 

The information I am sharing here came from the article by Baniya and Weech in my sources list at the end of the paper.

In your sources list:
Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented digital research with service-
     learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement, 6(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979
 

I can use the information in this citation to get a copy of the article if I would like to read more of the author's analysis.

It should be noted that the title for the list of sources at the end of your paper is different for each citation style. For all three the title appears at the top of the list of sources, is centered, and first letters are capitalized.:

• In APA, the list is titled References.
• In MLA, it's called Works Cited.
• In Chicago/Turabian the title is Bibliography or Reference List depending on whether you are using the Author-Date method or the Notes and Bibliography method.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a type of academic dishonesty that involves using another person's ideas, words, music, images, etc. as your own without proper attribution. Plagiarism comes in a variety of forms, each of which is considered to be cheating. Northern Illinois University has an excellent resource describing several types of plagiarism, showing what each looks like, and showing a correction that properly credits the source and/or rewrites the problem section of the paper.

Pay close attention to this information from Central Penn College about patchwork or mosaic plagiarism, as this is a common form of plagiarism committed by students early in their research writing careers, often without realizing it. 

This guide from the Miami University Libraries has additional information about Plagiarism & Paraphrasing.

Please watch this short video about Why Citations Matter

Here is tutorial about Academic Integrity.

Another tutorial about the Value of Information.

Here is a video about Plagiarism.

For more information about citations and how they impact academic integrity, visit the Miami University Libraries' Academic Integrity guide.