A great citation management and note-taking tool. Sign in with your BMS Google account.
Everyone, of course! We cite sources all the time - including a link in a social media post or text is citing a source. As students and scholars, when we're working in an academic or professional context, there are specific rules, formats, standards, and conventions that help us to make sure we're citing sources in the proper way for our purpose.
Citing a source just means saying where a piece of information came from originally - where you found it. That piece of information could be a quotation, statistical data, even an image.
Any time that you share information or ideas that are not of your own invention or experience. Some types of information considered to be "common knowledge" do not need a citation, for example, "George Washington was the first president of the United States" does not require a citation. Sometimes it is not that easy to determine, so when in doubt, cite!
This can depend on the type of work you're doing and the academic subject you're working within. Generally, you will include a list of sources at the end of your work (a bibliography, works cited, or references list). You will also provide an in-text citation within your work for each piece of information that you use. In-text citations can be parenthetical or they can be footnotes - this depends on the citation style you are using, so pay attention to which style you've been instructed to use.
There are three important reasons:
What's with all of these different styles, anyway? Why can't I just include a URL for this source? Why can't I use MLA for my history paper? Academic disciplines value different aspects of sources in evaluating their relevance, usefulness, and reliability. For example, scientists usually want to cite the latest research related to their area of interest, whereas a historian might not need recently published information. You can see this reflected in the bibliographic citation formats. When citing online sources, a url or link is not sufficient because links can change or break. Your reader needs to be able to find the source no matter what. Scholars are familiar with the styles, formats, and conventions of their disciplines and this helps them to read and assess information efficiently. Pay attention to what your instructor says, and use a citation manager as well as this resource guide to help you.