Citing your sources

1. Citing your sources
LIBR 2100 - Introduction to Research in the Information Age

2. Citing your sources:
• Citing your sources allows your readers to view the
materials that you used when researching your
paper
• Citing means providing information that will allow
those articles, books, or websites to be found
• Everything you use in research, (books, an article
from a full text database or a page from the
Internet) must be cited.

3. Citation elements
• A citation consists of brief information like
• author,
• title,
• Publisher & place of publication,
• publication date,
• Volume and issue number, for journals
• and, in the case of electronic information, a URL.
• This information can be found on the book, article, webpage,
report, etc.

4. EDITION Citation elements can be
found on the item
TITLE
PUBLICATION YEAR
PUBLISHER INFORMATION
AUTHOR

5. Citation elements can be
found in your database results
Citation elements: article
title, author, journal title,
date, volume, issue, page
numbers, DOI

6. Citation elements can be
found in the item records of online journals
Journal title, date, volume, issue, page
numbers.
DOI (digital object identifier)
Journal article title
Authors

7. Where do you use the citation elements?
• In your text when using quotes and
paraphrasing
• Author, date and page are required next to the quotation
(or use a number for endnotes or footnotes)
• At the end of your paper in your
bibliography or reference list
• The reference list or bibliography is the place where you
are required to provide a full citation.

8. Citation styles
Different disciplines require different formats.
• APA – Psychology, Education, Information Technology,
Business Administration
• MLA – English
• Chicago - History

9. MLA Style
MLA=Modern Language Association. Used
especially in English.
(author’s last name + page #) + Works Cited
Example: One author comments that “Writing well is a skill,
just like skiing well or playing the saxophone well” (Rooke
ix).
Works Cited
Rooke, Constance. The Clear Path: A Guide to Writing
English Essays. Toronto: Nelson, 1995.

10. APA Style
APA=American Psychological Association. Used
in the social sciences.
(author’s last name, date of publication, p. page
number) + References
Example: One author comments that “Writing well is a skill,
just like skiing well or playing the saxophone well” (Rooke,
1995, p. ix).
References
Rooke, C. (1995). The clear path: A guide to writing English
essays. Toronto: Nelson.

11. Chicago Style
Footnotes or endnotes, usually in addition to a
bibliography.
For notes, order them numerically, in superscript1
For the bibliography, order them alphabetically.
Example: One author comments that “Writing well is a
skill, just like skiing well or playing the saxophone well.”1
Endnotes
1 Constance Rooke, The Clear Path: A Guide to Writing
English Essays (Toronto: Nelson, 1995), ix.

12. Chicago Style (cont.)
For subsequent references to the same work, a
shortened version is acceptable:
5 Rooke, Clear Path, 12.
6 Ibid., 21.
Bibliography
Rooke, Constance. The Clear Path: A Guide to Writing
English Essays. Toronto: Nelson Canada, 1995.

13. A tip & a warning
• Citation software and citation tips can help with managing
citations and creating bibliographies. They are great tools!
• However, automated software tools will always be susceptible
to errors especially when citation requires your judgement.
• Always check your bibliographies!

14. Factors to look out for in all the citation styles,
or why we must always consult our citation guides
• The number of authors of a work will affect the way an in-text
citation is written
• Where you found your article (or chapter), whether in print,
from a subscription database, or from an open access journal
site will affect your bibliographic entry
• MLA makes a distinction between journals with continuous
pagination between issues and those where each issue begins
at page 1.
• ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR CITATON GUIDE!!!

15. Paraphrasing:
Many people inadvertently commit plagiarism when
paraphrasing others' words and ideas, believing
they only have to change a few words around. Not
true. Paraphrasing is OK when:
– you do not follow the original source too closely AND
– you give credit to the original writer
Hint: If you are going to paraphrase a section, read
the passage over several times very carefully and
then write your notes from memory.

16. Paraphrasing example
Original passage:
quot;But life is never all hardship for a growing boy. The
surrounding country was wild enough for any imaginative
youngster to find adventure in” (Bryce, 1997, p. 25).
Unacceptable paraphrase:
For a growing boy, life is never all hardship. For anyone with
imagination, the countryside was wild enough for adventures.
Acceptable paraphrase:
According to Robert Bryce, in a countryside like the one Cook
grew up in, an adventurous boy could compensate for life's
hardships. (Bryce, 1997, p. 25)
This example is modified from:
www.montgomerycollege.edu/library/paraphrasing.htm

17. Paraphrase or Quote?
Either method may be acceptable. Some general
tips:
- Cite the original source when paraphrasing.
- Different disciplines often favour one method over another
- Do not overuse direct quotes.
- Long quotes are formatted differently.

18. When not to cite:
• When you are writing up your own original
observations, thoughts, or opinions.
• When you are discussing items of common
knowledge such as the year of Canadian
confederation or the fact that Ottawa is the capital
of Canada.
• Common knowledge is subjective and will vary by
discipline.