COLLECTIONS: Pollock-Krasner Study Center

A citation is important for many reasons.

• It attributes information to the creator of that information.
• It provides authority and context for the audience.
• It makes it possible for others to find and/or replicate research.
• Finally, information creators often feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in their list of citations because it documents a research journey. The citation list shows what survived and remained relevant to the project after all that searching and evaluating, and it is a way to "show off" what you found.

Plagiarism is taking text, ideas, images, sound recordings, or other creative expressions that belong to someone else and representing them as your own. When you effectively cite your sources, you avoid plagiarism.

For more resources and information, see the Citations and Plagiarism guide.

Remember, many online resources now provide citations formatted for your Works Cited or References page. Look for them when using databases and online encyclopedias. You can often find them by clicking on the "Cite" tool. However, you should always be aware that these citations are produced with algorithms that often create mistakes. Double check every citation, and remember that you are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of your citation format and content.

Don't forget to include in-text citations too.

Zotero is "a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself."

Stony Brook University has a site license for EndNote, a bibliographic tool which enables users to quickly organize references while automatically building bibliographic documentation.

The library provides free EndNote workshops each semester. Check the library homepage for upcoming dates.

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University provides easy to read and understand guides for different citation styles.

Use the menu on the left to navigate through the guide.

The library has various style guides available to answer citation format questions.