Cite Source

1. What are citations?

2. Why do we cite our sources?

3. What kinds of information do I need to put in a citation?

4. What are style guides?

5. Does all information I include need to be cited?

6. What is Zotero? How can it help me with citations?

7. What is copyright?

8. How do I cite legal sources?

9. What are some examples of citations?

• Citations identify and describe sources of information created by others that you use in your own work
• Citations may be referred to as footnotes, references, bibliographies or works cited pages
• Citations illuminate a trail of evidence that researchers can follow from source to source. This is also known as citation-chaining or engaging in the "scholarly conversation"

• We cite sources to acknowledge the work created by others and to allow researchers to see the evidence used for our own work 
• Citing sources also fulfills requirements for academic honesty and protects writers against the dangers of plagiarism
• The Trinity College Student Handbook outlines the College's formal policies for plagiarism 
• This guide from Purdue University's Writing Lab will help you learn about ways to avoid plagiarism in academic work

• Citations typically contain the following pieces of information:
  • the creator or author of the work 
  • the title of the work
  • the year of publication or creation
  • volume and issue numbers for journals
  • the publisher 
  • for online sources, a link, URL, or DOI
• This can differ somewhat depending on the information source itself and/or the citation style you are using

•  Style guides provide formatting and additional information on constructing citations and general writing guidelines within research papers and projects for specific academic disciplines
• The three most commonly used styles are: Chicago Manual of Style (Humanities), MLA (Humanities), and APA (Social Sciences)
• Two additional commonly used citation styles are ASA (Social Sciences) and APSA (Social Sciences)

• Some facts and information that can be considered as known by a majority of the general population are referred to as common knowledge and do not need to be cited.  Examples of common knowledge include: Tokyo is the capital of Japan and the Moon orbits the Earth
• If you ever have any questions, about whether you should cite something, please consult your faculty or a research librarian, or remember the safe rule is “when in doubt, cite.”

• Zotero is a free online tool to collect, organize, and share your information sources
• Zotero also allows you to create citations within a paper and works-cited or bibliography pages using all of the main style guides
• Check out this short video on how to get started with Zotero
• ZBib is also a freely available tool from Zotero to create single citations

• Copyright is legal protection for textual, pictorial, and other creative works, giving creators the right to benefit from their works and the exclusive legal right to copy--or reproduce--literary or artistic works
• Your own creative and scholarly work is also protected by copyright
• More information about copyright and your rights as a creator, are available at:
  • Indiana University Copyright Resource Center
  • Creative Commons
  • Find copyright free images for your projects

• Citations and notes for legal sources like court cases and other legal government documents can be a little bit different than other types of information.
• For more information, check out these helpful sources:
  • Purdue OWL Bluebook Citation for Legal Materials from Purdue University
  • Introduction to Basic Legal Citation from Cornell University Law School 

• Chicago Style footnote:
  •  ²David A. Bell, "Napoleon in the Flesh," MLN 120, no. 4 (September 2005): 713, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3840653.
• MLA Style full reference in a bibliography or works-cited:
  • Bell, David A. "Napoleon in the Flesh." MLN, vol. 120, no. 4,  2005, pp. 711-715. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3840653.
• APA Style full reference in a bibliography or works-cited:
  •  Bell, David A. (2005). Napoleon in the Flesh. MLN, 20(4), 711-15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3840653.