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.
A citation (or reference) is a short, multi-part description of a source. A good citation will lead the reader to the source of the writer's information. See this video on How to Read a Citation for assistance in understanding the parts of a citation.
When you use other authors' ideas and words in your own writing, it is important to credit them - even if you do not quote their words exactly as written.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.
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. Four of the most commonly-used citation styles in academic writing are:
Citation managers are software programs or browser tools that allow you to collect and organize citations to books, articles, or other materials that you have used in your research. These tools make it easy to "cite while you write" by allowing you to insert citations into your writing in hundreds--even thousands--of different styles.
RefWorks is a web-based bibliography manager that some 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.
EndNote Web is another web-based bibliography manager that some university libraries provide for the entire campus. EndNote Web 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 EndNote Web 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.
Zotero is a Firefox add-on that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use and open source (free!). A new standalone version also works with Google Chrome or Safari. Zotero allows you to attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations, organize them into collections for different projects, and create bibliographies. Although Zotero itself is free, you may find that you need to pay for additional cloud storage if you save a lot of PDFs to your Zotero library. Prices start at $20 a year for up to a Gigabyte of online storage.
EndNote Client enables you to move seamlessly through your research processwith flexible tools for searching, organizing and sharing your research, creating your bibliography and writing your paper. You'll save hours building and maintaining reference libraries and creating bibliographies. With unique features to maximize your time like automatically finding full text and updating records, EndNote lets you spend less time in the details.
Plagiarism is defined as "offering as one’s own work the words, ideas, or arguments of another person without appropriate attribution by quotation, reference or footnote.”
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 attribution or even citing sources that you have not consulted in your Works Cited list.
Citing your sources is the first step to avoiding plagiarism.