A citation is the documentation you provide about where you got specific information or ideas. You need to include enough documentation about each source so that a reader can find these sources on their own. (This means that, in academic writing, we need to include more than just the link!) Usually you incorporate this information as in-text citations (or hyperlinks on web sources), footnotes, or endnotes.
You will often be asked to compile a list of citations for the sources you've used at the end of a research paper or other assignment. Depending on the citation style you use, this list is called a "Bibliography," "Works Cited," or "References" page.
Your instructor may ask you to use a particular citation style, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago. Citation styles provide guidelines that help you present citation information with consistent formatting and punctuation. If you need to look up guidelines for a particular citation style, our Citation Help page can direct you to various print and online style manuals. We also recommend the Purdue OWL for helpful guidelines and examples. Since different disciplines tend to favor some citation styles over others, check with your instructor to see if there is a style you should use in their class.
Any time you reuse, reference, or make a call out to someone else's ideas or work you need to add a citation. Usually this includes any time you include direct quotations, paraphrase an idea, or summarize someone else's work!
Citing your sources is a fundamental research skill and a crucial step in avoiding plagiarism. Citing your sources also helps demonstrate that you understand the scholarly conversations and conventions within your discipline. By including citations, you:
Watch the following video for a short introduction to citation:
“Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction” by North Carolina State University Libraries is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license.
Plagiarism, copyright, and citation are just as important when creating multimedia as when you are writing a paper. Video, podcasts, online digital exhibits, and more all have the same requirements as a written paper to cite sources and make sure you aren't incorrectly using something that is protected by copyright. On our Video in the Curriculum and Podcasting and Audio in the Curriculum pages we have resources to help you think through these topics, such as:
Please contact a librarian or Instructional Technology Specialist with questions!
The library catalog, many library databases, and resources like Google Scholar have built-in citation generators or "Cite buttons." These tools or buttons provide a quick and easy way to create draft citations for your sources. Since computer-generated citations may contain formatting errors, though, it's important for you to check any computer-generated citations against an online or print style guide to make sure they "follow the rules" for the particular citation style you are using.
In the library catalog, look for the Cite button in the listing for your book or article - it's often in the upper right-hand corner.
When you click on the Cite button, a pop-up box will let you select the citation style you're using. Then you can copy and paste the provided citation into your assignment or draft bibliography.
Different databases might put their Cite icons or links in different places. In an EBSCO database like Academic Search Premier, article records include a Cite option under the Tools menu on the right-hand side of the page:
The Cite button displays a pop-up window listing computer-generated citations for the article in several citation styles. Scroll through the list to find the style you want and then copy and paste the citation into your draft bibliography:
