Research Guides: Citing Sources & Style Manuals: Why is citing sources important?

Why is citing sources important?

Citing your sources is important for a variety of reasons, including:

It gives credit to the authors of the sources you used
It provides your reader with more information about your sources
It shows your credibility
It prevents plagiarism!

The easiest way to prevent plagiarism is by correctly noting your sources during research and citing your sources in your writing and presentations.

According to the ERAU Student Handbook (2017-2018),

Students may not plagiarize as it is an act of academic dishonesty and is defined as taking the ideas, writings, and/or words of another and representing them as one’s own. Two common forms of plagiarism involve the use of written or oral work of another person without giving proper acknowledgment and the use of the work of another person as one’s own. Over-sharing, which is copying numerical solutions, code, or lab experiments outside of collaborative assignments, is also considered plagiarism (p. 25 - 26).

When to cite your sources

When you use an exact quote
When you restate or paraphrase an idea from a resource
When you summarize a work
All sources you use should be included in the References page, except those mentioned in Sections 6.18 and 6.20 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.)