Citing Sources

Citation is something that we do almost every day, whether or not we’re aware of it. We may think of citation as a requirement for papers and assignments, which is one function of citation, but it has several purposes. In the sciences, what does it really mean to cite your sources and why bother?

Locating Information

Whenever we share a story or link on social media, we’re citing—including information about the source—such as where it can be found online. Very simply, this information allows others to find the original source and identify where it came from. If someone is curious about the story you shared, they can read the original post and possibly follow links in that story (citations) which will lead to other discoveries. Citation helps us to find information. If you’re reading a news article about a scientific study, check to see if the article provides a link to the scholarly journal article where the study was published. This link is a form of citation that will help lead you to the original information.

Scientific Conversation

Citation also serves to show a record of how other sources impacted the current source. Scientific research articles published in scientific journals always provide a list of citations, which show where the ideas, techniques, and studies that were built upon by the current research came from. This reference creates a sort of paper trail that helps other scientists better evaluate the new study and see how it fits with previous research. By providing a list of references, an author invites other scientists to see for themselves if the ideas the author cites are supported by evidence, if the assumptions he or she makes are justified, and if the techniques described by others have been properly implemented. In this way, citation functions as a record of a conversation: how other scientists’ work speaks to and informs new work.

Copyright Infringement and Credit

Another important function of citation is to identify the original creators of information and to give them credit. In science, credit matters. A magazine or newspaper article only sometimes acknowledges the sources of its arguments—the books the author read or the interviews conducted. Science, on the other hand, is scrupulous about giving credit where credit is due. The bibliography or list of citations that you find in scientific research articles serves to credit other scientists for ideas, techniques, and studies that were built upon by the current research.

Legally and ethically, It’s important to not give the direct or indirect impression that someone else’s work or ideas were written or created by you. When you hear the term plagiarism, it refers to this phenomenon. For example, some of the content in this chapter was created by people other than the listed authors, and to avoid plagiarism, we’ve given credit to the original authors through citation at the end of the chapter in the “References” section. It’s crucial to use proper citation to indicate where that source material or idea originated. If you use copyrighted work in your own creations without citation, it’s a copyright infringement—a legal issue—in addition to the ethical issue of plagiarism.

Finding Sources

There are many ways to find both popular and scholarly sources, including Google and Google Scholar. You also have the option of beginning your search through your school’s Library website (e.g., MSU Libraries). There are two main advantages to using the Libraries’ search as your starting point, especially for scholarly or journal articles. The Libraries’ search can make it easier to narrow and sort your searches by type of article or subject. You will also have automatic access to articles for which the library subscribes. Often when you’re using Google or Google Scholar, you may be asked to pay or log in to view the whole article (full-text). If you start at the Libraries’ page, you typically just need to enter your school ID and password to get access.

Citation Guidelines

When citing your sources, your instructor will specify which citation style they would like you to use. For each source that you use, you will want to keep track of certain types of information to include in your citations.

The following is an example of a scholarly journal article with the pieces of information that you’ll need to create the citation listed and highlighted. The example comes from Marcyk and Moll’s Information Literacy Badges.

Scholarly Journal Article

To cite a scholarly journal article, you’ll need to collect the following pieces of information:

• Author(s)
• Date when the article was published
• Title of the article
• Title of the journal
• Volume and issue number
• Page numbers where the article appears
• DOI (alphanumeric code) or URL (website address) of the article

These pieces of information are highlighted in the following image, and the completed APA-style citation is listed beneath the image.

Completed APA Style Citation:

Fritt-Rasmussen, J., Wegeberg, S., & Gustavson, K. (2015). Review on burn residues from in situ burning of oil spills in relation to arctic waters. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 226(329), n.p. https://doi-org.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/10.1007/s11270-015-2593-1

For more practice with citations, you can go through the Information Literacy Badges‘ self-guided lesson.

References

Marcyk, E. & Moll, E. Citation as conversation. Information Literacy Badges. https://informationliteracybadges.org/

Attribution

This chapter is a modified derivative of the following article:

Understanding Science. 2020. University of California Museum of Paleontology. 11 June 2020 <http://www.understandingscience.org>.