The academic world relies on citations to build knowledge and inspire intelligent conversation. In today's society, where respect for intellectual property is often seen as not very important, the academic authority that comes with the demonstration of original thought is stronger than ever. We know, or at least we should know, that when we use someone else's idea, we must give them credit for having that idea. Not only does this practice of signing our work with the names of those whose ideas we have borrowed help to maintain the illusion of the academic "family" in which each of us passes on our work to the next and builds upon it (maintaining the integrity of what's called "the long now"), but it also prevents our society from venturing into the territory of "plagiarism."

References position your research among established theories and findings, showing where your work fits and what it adds to the existing body of knowledge. When you cite, you signal to your reader which parts of your work are supported by others and which parts—if any—are departing from the established scene. This is important because a massive amount of knowledge is generated every minute of every day. Even a relatively isolated academic area generates a staggering investment of research.

Understanding Citation Styles

Methods for documenting a source in academic writing tend to be standardized, and they can serve as useful models when a writer is unsure how to record uneven or difficult-to-cite sources. Of the many different citation styles that exist, the three most prominent and widely used are APA, MLA, and Chicago. These styles are not interchangeable; each has its own conventions and serves different academic disciplines. When you use a citation style, you record not only your sources but also your entry into a conversation that spans time and space, a conversation that includes everyone who ever recorded a source in a citation style.

Style Guidelines and Tools

The contemporary technological landscape has dramatically streamlined the process of producing citations, thanks to a plethora of digital tools and resources. Citation management software such as EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley not only perform the basic automation of formatting but also fulfill a good number of citation needs online. These resources serve as lovely little helpers, and we should thank the heavens above for them. However, as with all digital tools, a user must know a requisite amount for the tools to work beneficially—even more so when the digital tools in question are working to achieve and maintain academic integrity.

Building Research Skills

Citations: not the most exciting topic in the world. And yet, they are like the air we breathe. When they vanish from our work, our world becomes a dark, suffocating place. Research is not possible in the absence of proper citation. Our scholarly community runs on the fuel of citations. Why? Because a citation says to a reader, "Hey, I can take this path, too, if I want." Or, "This path was taken before; maybe I should see where it leads." Or even, "This path is a dead-end; don't go there." Without these kinds of signs marking the way, research becomes an utterly formless endeavor.

Source Evaluation

To identify and use credible academic sources is the basis of good research. Many students have not been taught the necessary skills to find and use credible sources, and this is very unfortunate. It is important to be able to look at a piece of information and judge whether it is reliable or not. Information that is reliable usually has an author who is an expert in the field, the publication itself is reputable, and it has been through some sort of rigorous evaluation. Once a source is found to be reliable and is used in a piece of writing, it must be cited properly so that readers can find the source if they want to read it for themselves.

Academic Integrity and Ethics

The foundation of scholarly work is laid in academic integrity, with citation practices serving as its essential pillar. In academic writing, citations are not just a good idea; they are absolutely necessary. And why? Because without them, you would not be keeping academic integrity, which you must keep to avoid the perilous pit of plagiarism. Plagiarism, as you probably already know, is not just the copying of someone else's text but also the use of someone else's ideas, methods, or even research findings without proper attribution. Whence came these practices that keep your writing (and you) safe? They come from common law, which respects and upholds the rights of writers to the content they create, as well as the long-standing, deeply held values of academia. Those values require that we respect not just the content but also the conversations in which the content participates when we are in the act of writing.

Best Practices

To sustain their integrity, academics should not only ensure that they are not plagiarizing but also provide a model for others to follow. The first step in establishing your integrity is to take it to heart and understand what it is and what it is not. Next, because we will often be citing in a secondhand way (that is, not as a direct quotation), we must understand the citation style favored in our discipline. Seeing the citation as a kind of handoff to the reader is key to understanding the nature of unacknowledged work(MyBib). And anyway, who doesn't like a nicely formed reference? More on our favorites below.

How can PaperGen help you

Citation management has become more important than ever, especially in this age of digital messiness. With PaperGen, the work of managing citations can be reduced to nearly nothing on your part. You still get to be the author, but the thoroughly digital PaperGen will serve as your helpful ghostwriter and will ensure your paper is riddled with citations that are both accurate and consistent. If you fancy yourself as a credible entity and uphold the standards of academic integrity, PaperGen is a service you can trust that will help you manage your citations with ease and grace.

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