Citation Policy

Citations serve three purposes.  They allow the reader to verify your information; they allow the reader to follow up on your discussion; and they give credit where credit is due, to people whose work you are drawing on.  These three purposes should be kept in mind when deciding when to cite.  Your should cite the source of any specific information, so that the reader knows where it comes from and can verify it.  You should cite background material that you drew on to allow readers to pursue the subject further on their own.  And you should cite other authors either when you quote them directly, when you paraphrase them, or when you use their ideas, in order to give them due credit for their work. This latter function also serves to distinguish analysis that you yourself are making from that you are using from others, and thus emphasizes which of your points are original.

Citations can be in any commonly accepted format.  The two most common formats are footnotes and parenthetical citations.  When using footnotes, give the full bibliographic information the first time you cite a specific source; thereafter, you can use the author’s last name and the title along with page numbers where appropriate.  When using parenthetical citations, include the author and year of publication in the parentheses, as well as page numbers where appropriate.  Give a complete list of references, organized alphabetically by author, at the end of the paper, with full bibliographic information.

In either case, full bibliographic information means:
    -In the case of a book, author’s name, title, publisher, and place and year of publication.
    -In the case of a chapter from an edited book, the author’s name (the author of the specific chapter), the chapter title, and the title, name of editor, and publisher, place, and year of publication of the volume.
    -In the case of an article, the author, title of article, name of journal, magazine, or newspaper, volume number, and page numbers.
    -When citing a website, includestandard citation information, such as author, title, and publisher (this will usually be the owner of the website, unless otherwise indicated). Include as well the full URL, the date the information was posted on the site (if available) and the date on which the site was viewed.
    -When a specific author is not named (usually in newspaper articles or websites), begin with the title.