Citations and Bibliographies

What to Cite

Citation Tools

Plagiarism

What to Cite

Part of any research project is providing accurate documentation for references you have used. The purpose for this is two-fold: 1) to give credit where credit is due and avoid plagiarism; and 2) so that anyone wanting further information from a source you have used knows where to find it.

You must provide documentation for:

someone else's ideas
exact quotes and phrases
information obtained from interviews
re-prints of diagrams, pictures, photographs, or charts

You do not need to provide documentation for:

your own words or ideas
information that is considered to be 'common knowledge' or generally accepted facts
your own experimental results

(adapted from Purdue University's Online Writing Lab)

Citation Tools

There are a number of tools or 'citation management programs' available which will keep records of your citations, organize them, and help you format citations and bibliographies properly.

Zotero is a FREE citation management program, available for the Firefox browser. Zotero captures citations from databases, websites, Google Scholar, catalogs, etc., with one click. When you're writing your paper, Zotero will correctly format your citations and bibliography.
There are several "citation generators" available (some require registration) which will format citations for you one at a time, based on information you put in. Try BibMe, Citation Machine, or Citation Center.

Academic Dishonesty & Plagiarism

As a community of scholar-practitioners, Antioch University New England seeks to live and promote the principles of academic integrity. Accordingly, plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are causes for concern and possible disciplinary measures. To plagiarize is defined in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary as “...to steal and pass off (the ideas and words of others) as one's own; to use (a credited production) without crediting the source; to present as new and original an idea or product from an existing source...” Plagiarism includes not only taking direct quotes from written or oral sources without citation, but paraphrasing others' ideas as well. Students found to have plagiarized or engaged in other acts of academic dishonesty may receive a no-credit for the course and be subject to other disciplinary sanctions through regular academic department and institutional procedures for misconduct. [from the Student Handbook]

For more information about plagiarism and guidelines for determining when to give credit to another person or source, visit:

Avoiding Plagiarism Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Examples of Plagiarism from Princeton University

Need help? Ask a librarian!

Last Updated: 8/20/10