Citing Sources of Information

When you find some useful ideas in your research and want to use them in your paper, whether they are from books, government documents, magazine or journal articles, non-print materials, internet sources, TV interviews, or other forms of materials, you need to let your readers know the sources of these ideas, i.e., provide proper reference to each source that you have used, because:

• it is an ethical practice and is part of academic honesty
• the credit belongs to the author or creator of the sources
• this will enable readers to locate the original sources and learn more about the subject
• it shows your effort in locating and exploring the sources and, in turn, provides credibility to your own writing
• using the ideas of others without acknowledging the authors is plagiarism

You need to cite each source that you used twice.

1. In the text of your paper at the point where you use someone else's ideas, give brief information of the source -> In-text citation
2. Provide the full citation of the source in the list of Works Cited, References or Bibliography

Main principle - The reader should be able to easily track down the information sources that you cite.

A citation is formatted in accordance with a recognized, appropriate citation style. As preferences for citation style vary, you should ask your professor or instructor which style you should use.

The following are some commonly used citation styles:

• ACS [used in Chemistry and Physical Sciences]
• APA [widely used in Social Sciences]
• Chicago [widely used in Natural and Social Sciences and many other disciplines]
• CSE [used in Natural and Applied Sciences]
• Harvard [widely used in Social Sciences]
• IEEE [used by IEEE Transactions, Journals, and Letters; Engineering]
• MLA [widely used in Humanities]
• OSCOLA [widely used in law schools]

This site helps you understand the Rules on Academic Honesty that you are expected to follow in your academic work at CityU.