Tutorial: What are citations?
- Understand what citations are
- Recognize why they are important
- Create and use citations in your papers and other scholarly work
Preventing Plagiarism
A very basic definition of plagiarism is to take someone else's work or ideas and pass them off as your own. Plagiarism can be intentional (like buying a paper from someone else or purposefully using another person’s ideas without giving them credit) or unintentional (accidentally forgetting that an idea in your notes isn’t your own and not citing it when you include it in a paper or project). It’s important to take detailed notes so you’ll always remember when and where to give credit to your sources!
By citing the sources you use for your research, you’ll be accomplishing three things:
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You’ll avoid plagiarizing and give proper credit to your sources, thereby demonstrating academic integrity.
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You’ll demonstrate the scope of your research and establish your credibility on your topic.
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You’ll provide your reader with a trail to follow to locate the sources you used so they can read more about your topic.
The two most important parts of citing your sources are
1) To provide your reader with all of the information they need to find the source you're referencing; and
2) To be consistent in your formatting of citations in both your in-text citations and in bibliography entries, found at the end of your paper.
Use these tools and services to learn how to incorporate outside researchers' thoughts, concepts, words, and phrases into your own work:
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APA Style: Check out the official American Psychological Association's style website, their Handouts and Guides, and the APA Style Blog (a searchable database of answers to specific questions from APA editors).
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Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) APA Guide: Explore this resource to find example citations and templates.
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University of Minnesota Student Writing Support: Make an appointment for a one-on-one writing consultation and explore more writing resources.
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University of Wisconsin-Madison's Writing Center's Guide to Quoting and Paraphrasing: Check out tips on how to improve your paraphrasing.
Tutorial: What is a citation manager and when to use one
- Identify the features of citation managers
- Recognize when citation managers are important to use
- Tutorial: What is a citation manager and when to use oneUnderstand the benefits of using a citation manager when conducting your research.
Some things to know about citation managers and other formatting tools
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Many databases (and even the Libraries catalog) include a “Cite This” button, but these automatic citation generators often make mistakes. Be sure to double-check the formatting of the citations they create using the examples in this guide!
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If you’re using a citation manager like Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley to keep track of your sources and create citations, double-check the formatting – these programs often make formatting mistakes when generating citations.
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New to citation/reference management software and not sure how to get started? The Libraries offers free workshops to help you get started! Visit z.umn.edu/workshops and use the filter to limit to "Citation Managers" to see when they're happening and sign up:
