Why is it so important to cite your sources?

Citing your sources is not just an ethical requirement, it's a professional obligation. It means you are engaged in a scholarly conversation. You are giving credit to those who came before you and, in doing so, providing a breadcrumb trail so that others can look at the same sources that you used. Each scholarly contribution builds on the previous one (or, sometimes, tears it down to build an alternative structure). 

But, let's be honest-- citing can feel like a chore! Here are some tools that can help make it more manageable.

  1. Pen and paper (or your favorite equivalent!). Keep a record of where you've searched, and capture the names of authors, articles, and book titles so that you can find them again. This makes it so much easier to keep track of notes written in your own words and distinguish them from notes that are quotations from books. It's especially important to keep track of how you've used AI tools, if they're allowed by your instructor. Your prompts, results, and use of AI likely need to be cited. We have guidelines for citing AI-generated content. 

  2. Citation management tools (also called "citation managers"). The library supports these tools, which help capture information from databases that is needed for your bibliography and to format references more easily. Citation managers are preset with information to format in thousands of citation styles, with a few clicks. (Proofreading is always needed, but it's much easier than formatting every reference by hand.)

  3. Citation manuals. Find out the citation style required for your assignment, and become familiar with the manual. Some commonly used styles are APA, MLA, Chicago, and AMA. See style manuals for more information.