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Research Overview Guide: Citations

General guide for students in English courses at SCC

Citation Help

A citation is when you acknowledge someone else’s ideas and give them credit for it. Citations show your reader, viewer, or listener where you got your information. This is an important part of using information responsibly. 

Giving proper credit empowers and uplifts the authors and creators whose work you are sharing. It also gives your reader the information they need to read or view the same source and learn more from it.

On this page you will find:

  • Resources to create citations in APA, MLA, and Chicago Style formats
  • Information on why and how to cite your sources

Why Cite?

Works Cited Video

Citing your sources

Citation and Artificial Intelligence

Any words, images, or ideas that are not your own must be cited in academic work. This includes words and images generated by artificial intelligence. Always check with your instructor to see if and how AI may be used for a specific assignment. 

The following guides provide more detailed information on how to cite generative AI tools:

Related Guide

For more information on formatting your citations, visit the SCC Library's Citation Tools guide.

Information Has Value

What is a Citation?

A citation gives information about where quoted or paraphrased information came from. When data, statistics, graphs, or charts are used, a citation tells the reader about where the research came from and who published it.

What Does a Citation Include?

This is a general list of what to expect when you are making a citation entry for a bibliography, works cited, or references list. 

  1. Creator(s) or Author(s) of the work
  2. Editor(s), Translator(s), or other contributors
  3. The Title
  4. Publisher
  5. Date of Publication
  6. Page Numbers (for printed works)

What Does a Citation Look Like? 

Larsen, Erik (w,p,i). "Revenge of the Sinister Six." Spider-Man v1 #18-23 (Jan.-Jun. 1992), Marvel Comics.

How Do I Make a Citation? 

Each citation will be different, so you will have to start with the type of citation you are making (MLA, APA, or Chicago), and then you should use a resource that helps you build the citation based on what kind of source you have (book, journal article, newspaper, documentary, etc.).

Citation Generators

Books in The Library

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