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Stony Brook University

Citations & Plagiarism

This guide can help you learn how to properly format your bibliographies and papers in AMA, APA, Chicago and MLA citation styles, and avoid plagiarism.

What are we talking about?

A citation reflects all of the information a person would need to locate a particular source. For example, basic citation information for a book consists of name(s) of author(s) or editor(s), title of book, name of publisher, place of publication, and most recent copyright date.
 
A citation style dictates the information necessary for a citation and how the information is ordered, as well as punctuation and other formatting. 

A bibliography lists citations for all of the relevant resources a person consulted during his or her research.

In an annotated bibliography, each citation is followed by a brief note—or annotation—that describes and/or evaluates the source and the information found in it.

A works cited list presents citations for those sources referenced in a particular paper, presentation, or other composition.
 
An in-text citation consists of just enough information to correspond to a source's full citation in a Works Cited list. In-text citations often require a page number (or numbers) showing exactly where relevant information was found in the original source.

Citation Quick Sheets

Quick citation style guides for APA and MLA from Stony Brook University Libraries.

Open Access and More

Discover resources and information about Open Access, Scholarly Publishing, Copyright, Public Access Mandates, Research Data Management and more!

Visit the Center for Scholarly Communication and use the guides below to access collections, information and services.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use

  • another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
  • any facts, statistics, graphs, images—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge;
  • quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or
  • paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.

Here are some links to tutorials that will help you understand more about plagiarism and how to avoid it:

 

Associated Press Stylebook Online

Access the library's subscription to the AP Styleguide Online.

Library

Library Administration: 631.632.7100

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