INFOhio Citation Guide

Technology makes it easy to copy and share ideas and information. Learn how to maintain academic integrity while you are doing your research.

These tools include lots of helpful information on gathering, evaluating, and citing your sources.

• GO! Ask, Act, Achieve Includes resources and support tools for students as they work through the inquiry process.
• R4S: Research for Success Includes resources and support tools for students working on research projects.
• Just getting started with your research? Try a search in ISearch. ISearch Search your school library and nearly all INFOhio resources from a single search box.

Why Cite Your Sources?

When you use outside sources for a project, you need to cite them. Your sources could be books, primary source documents, magazines or newspapers articles, or encyclopedia articles, but they may also include videos, images, audio recordings, or websites. You must cite them to:

• Give credit to the people whose ideas or words you've used.
• Establish that you've used credible sources.
• Help your readers find your sources.

Different subject areas have different needs when it comes to citing sources. Because of that, there are numerous different citation styles. The most common citation styles are:

• MLA (for arts and humanities)
• APA (for social sciences)

Check with your teacher to find out which citation style is required for your project.

MLA

The official source for MLA style is the MLA Handbook by The Modern Language Association of America, 2016. For free, online information on using MLA style, see these resources:

• Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide Provides examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
• MLA Style: What’s New in the Eighth Edition Find out what has changed with MLA8.

APA

The official source for APA style is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by American Psychological Association Staff, 2010. For free, online information on using APA style, see these resources:

• Purdue OWL: APA General Format Provides examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.

Get Your Citations Built for You!

Many INFOhio resources have citation helpers. When you select a book or article, look for a link labeled Cite/Citation/Citing and click it to get a rough draft of a citation. Treat all citation helpers as a starting point for a rough draft of a citation.

Be Careful! Computer-generated citations and citation helpers can be very good, but treat them like you would a rough draft. You (the student) are responsible for making sure your citations are correct. Check your citations against the style manual or the Purdue OWL site.

Is it a book, a book chapter, or an article?

To cite your source correctly, you need to know what kind of source it is. Play Citation Tetris, a computer game designed by Ohio academic librarian, Ken Irwin. Identify whether the citation block is for a book, book chapter, or article before it lands.

What is Plagiarism?

If you don't cite the sources you use, that's considered plagiarism. Whether it's done on purpose or by accident, plagiarism is against the rules. This information will help you recognize plagiarism, so you can avoid it and its consequences.

• Watch the video "What is plagiarism and how to avoid it"
• Visit Citing Sources: A Quick and Graphic Guide for more information on the "Magical Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism" poster and for advice on notetaking.

Tutorials on Citing and Document Sources

• Research 4 Success: Module 4, Learn Take a quiz on plagiarism. Your results might surprise you. Practice your notetaking skills with exercises on Paraphrasing, Using Direct Quotes, and Summarizing.
• Carlos and Eddie's Guide to Bruin Success with Less Stress Help Carlos and Eddie (and you!) learn how to document sources properly by completing this tutorial from UCLA Library.

Categories of Plagiarism

Plagiarism takes a lot of different forms. Here are a few of the most common faces of plagiarism:

• Borrowing: Whether it's a paper you got from a friend or one you found online, submitting someone else's work as your own is plagiarism.
• Citing inaccurately: Citing sources inaccurately or citing sources that don't exist is plagiarism.
• Cobbling: Piecing together an entire paper of quotes and paraphrases from others' work—even if you've cited them—fails to demonstrate your understanding of the material. That's plagiarism.
• Paraphrasing excessively or without citation: When you put ideas you learned from a source into your own words, that's called paraphrasing. In that case, you don't need to use quotation marks, but you still need to cite the source of the ideas. This webpage offers guidance on paraphrasing: Successful vs. unsuccessful paraphrases.
• Quoting without punctuating or citing: If you use another person's exact words in your paper, you must use quotation marks and cite the source of the quote. If you don't do both, that's plagiarism.
• Recycling: In each class, your teacher expects you to build new knowledge through fresh effort. Recycling your previous work—turning in one of your old papers, presentations, or projects—is self-plagiarism. And self-plagiarism is plagiarism.

Useful Web Resources on Plagiarism

• Avoiding Plagiarism - Hamilton College
• "Should I Cite This?" Poster - Purdue OWL
• Best Practices to Avoid Plagiarism - Purdue OWL
• Plagiarism.org (by the plagiarism-checking software company Turnitin)

Evaluating sources is one of the most important parts of research. Download and use the CRAP Test Website Evaluation Checklist to evaluate the books, articles, websites, and other sources you find on your topic.

For more information on the CRAP Test, visit these sites:

• Colorado Community Colleges Online Library: Learn about Evaluating Sources: CRAP Test
• South Mountain Community College: CRAP Test: Evaluating Websites
• Houston Community College Libraries: Evaluating Sources: CRAP Test

What is Copyright?

Copyright is the exclusive legal right to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.

Online copyright resources

• Watch the video "Copyright Basics" for a copyright crash course with Jim the librarian, as he explains the basics of U.S. copyright law and how it affects you. By Copyright Clearance Center.
• Visit Can I Use That Picture? for terms, laws and ethics for using copyrighted images.
• Want to know what can't be copyrighted? See The Surprisingly Long List of Things That Can't Be Copyrighted.

More About Copyright

Copyright Basics

• Copyright Basics PDF from the United States Copyright Office.
• Copyright Brief Notes for Students PDF from Iowa Area Education Agencies.
• Copyright Flowchart: Can I Use It? Yes? No? If This… Then…
• A Copyright-Friendly Toolkit for Makers and Other Media Creators - Joyce Valenza
• Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright FAQ from the United States Copyright Office.

Copyright and Fair Use

• Strategies for Fair Use - Purdue OWL
• Copyright & Fair Use - Stanford University Libraries

Copyright and Creative Commons

• A Guide to Copyright and Creative Commons A guide to help you understand your copyright options as an online content creator and publisher as well as how you can share and protect your work with the online world in a way that’s comfortable for you. This guide is not meant to be a legal guide or documentation.
• Wanna Work Together? Video about Creative Commons.
• Shared Creations: Making Use of Creative Commons - Emily Puckett Rodgers and Kristin Fontichiaro Activities and instructions for using Creative Commons.

Copyright and the Classroom

• Copyright Lesson Plan - Laura Kaemming Lesson plan for middle school students on the ins and outs of copyright.
• ReadWriteThink: Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing - Contains plans for three lessons that deal with plagiarism, copyright law, and how to paraphrase correctly. 
• ReadWriteThink: Students as Creators: Exploring Copyright - Gives students the tools they need to consider the ethical issues surrounding the use and ownership of copyrighted materials.
• Taking the Mystery Out Of Copyright - Library of Congress Short videos to share with students on a variety of copyright issues. Includes links to standards.
• Teaching Copyright Includes lesson plans, assessments, and resources for teaching copyright issues in the classroom.
• Welcome to Copyright Kids Includes the basics of copyright, interactive activities, sample permission letters, and more.