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Milner Library

MGT 223 - Introduction to Small Business

Reasons to Cite Sources

When you research a topic you may use information from articles, books, or the Open Web to support your ideas. Building upon the ideas and knowledge of other people is the way we as individuals build and contribute to the knowledge around us.

When you integrate other peoples' ideas and work into your own, it is important to give those authors credit for their hard work. This enables others, who see your work, to also look at those peoples' ideas that have contributed to your project. To cite means that you state where you found the information so that others can find the exact item again.

Tips for researching and citing:

1. Take clear, accurate notes about where you found specific ideas.

2. Write down the complete citation information for each item you use.

3. Take advantage of online citing tools.

4. Use quotation marks when directly stating another person's words.

5. Always credit original authors for their information and ideas.

APA Style

  • How to Use APA Style (7th ed.)
    A quick overview of how to use APA style.
  • APA 7th Edition Quick Guide
  • Examples
    Includes both in-text citing and reference format examples of a variety of source types.
    • Books
      Examples for books with different number of authors, edited books, book chapters, and multiple editions.
    • Articles
      Examples for journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.
    • Web & Social Media
      Examples for web pages, blogs, podcasts, social media, and online video.
    • Other Sources
      Examples for sources that do not fall into the other source type categories like interviews, government documents, and encyclopedias.
  • Other Resources
    Links to supplemental resources that can help you with using this style.
  • Books at Milner
    Links to books in Milner Library that provide additional information on how to format references and do in-text citing.
  • Why Cite Overview
    Overview of the reasons to cite a source, the basic structure of a reference, and when to cite a source.

When to cite

So how do you know when to cite? A few basic rules apply.

1. If you quote a resource, cite it.

2. If you paraphrase someone else's idea or statement, cite it.

3. If you state a fact that is not common knowledge, cite it.

4. If you're unsure, cite it.

Managing Sources and Generating References (Tools)

Source Managers Citation Generators
EndNote Basic (formally Web) is free to to ISU students, faculty, and staff, is a web-based service similar to RefWorks. Both programs help organize your sources and prepare bibliographies Citation Machine
Citation Machine is a free site that automatically produces MLA, APA, Turabian or Chicago style citations for a variety of sources (but not bibliographies). Users can copy and paste citations into Word. 
Zotero is a free browser-based program for managing Open Web sources. Find out more from the Quick Start Guide. It was developed at George Mason University. KnightCite
KnightCite is a free site that automatically produce MLA, APA, or Chicago style citations for 25 types of sources. 
  The APA Wizard 
This free site automatically produces APA style citations for 6 basic types of sources. There is excellent help on each screen to walk users through the processing of citing a source.

 

Additional Links