Public Policy

Citing Sources

Why do we cite?

  • Avoiding plagiarism 
  • Showing readers (and professors) that you have done your research 
  • Providing information that allows readers to find the sources you used 
  • Giving credit to authors and content creators 

How do we cite?

  • Citation style guides provide guidelines on formatting citations
  • Consistent formatting allows for citations to be read and understood easily 
  • In-text citations identify all words or ideas that are not your own 

Citation Tools and Managment

Citation Managers are programs that allow you to

  • import citations in bulk from library databases
  • save and organize citations
  • create and export reference lists and bibliographies in a variety of formats 
  • imbed citations into your documents 

The Libraries support three citation management programs: