Citing Sources

Citing the sources of information you use in your research is important for several reasons:

• You are giving credit to the person's whose ideas, words, or images you are using;
• You avoid plagiarism;
• Your list of sources allows other researchers to look up the information that you used.

Full citations (a listing of the author, title, publisher, etc.) must be provided in your bibliography or list of sources, for all types of sources including books, articles, government documents, interviews, Internet sources, software and other nonprint material (videos, graphics, sound recordings, etc.).

This information lets other researchers know what information sources you used and where you found them, so that they can also review and use the information.

Examples

Examples of MLA style citations for various types of sources are shown on the library's MLA citation page. 

Examples of APA style citations for various types of sources are shown on the library's APA citation page.