LibGuides: Criminology: Citations

Citing Your Sources

Avoid Plagiarism!

Plagiarism is the act of using another person's ideas or writing as your own. Typically, when you write a research paper, you use primary and secondary sources to support your original ideas and interpretations. Consulting such sources and using them to help you write your paper is appropriate—as long as you keep a few simple things in mind.

1. Try to paraphrase.

Your interpretation of findings shows more of your understanding than using blocks of direct quotes.

2. Put quotation marks around others' original ideas.

Sometimes though, you can't actually say it better than they can. That's fine! Just make sure your readers know it's directly quoted from the article.

3. Always cite the source.

If it's not your original idea or observation, cite the source! This goes for both paraphrases and quotations.

Pay Attention to Citation Styles

While it would be great, there isn't just one way to cite a source. This section is to help you cite your sources properly, using ASA (American Sociological Association) or more common styles like MLA (Modern Language Association), Chicago, etc.

Not sure which style to use? Always ask your professor! Often they'll specify which they'd like to see in your paper, but it never hurts to double-check.

Citation Generators in Search Tools

Some databases and other library search tools can generate citations for sources that they index. They don't provide the same help with collecting and organizing sources, but this can be a quick and easy way to generate a few references. Be sure to check these automatically-generated citations to make sure they are correct before using them in your paper!