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School of Natural Resources and the Environment

What is a Citation? 

Citations are used to acknowledge the sources of information you are using. They give credit where credit is due. In addition to avoiding plagiarism and demonstrating how your writing builds upon previous work, citations help you meaningfully engage in academic discourse. They also help enhance the credibility of your writing.

Source: A (Very) Brief Introduction. This video provides a short introduction to how and when to use citations. Created by NCSU Libraries under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license via YouTube.

Citations

check icon Describe books, journal articles, websites, or other published items 

check icon Give credit to the originator of an idea, thus preventing plagiarism 

check icon Enable the reader to retrieve the item you refer to 

check icon Include the author, title, date, source, and DOI if available 

Why should you cite your sources?

check icon To avoid plagiarism and its serious professional repercussions (example 1; example 2)

check icon Be an ethical writer

check icon Give credit to your sources

check icon Make your sources easier for others to find

Scholarly Articles Are Not Created in a Vacuum

Source: https://vimeo.com/michellenolan

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