To avoid plagiarism, you must cite your sources with the help of referencing tools such as ACS Citation Generator, whether you’re writing a blog post, a research paper, or a new webpage.
You have a lot of options, fortunately.
There are various styles to select from, including MLA and AMA, and many tools to help you get your citations
correct.
Here I’ve assembled to assist you in understanding how to cite the sources and the many styles and examples.
What does it mean to cite sources?
When you cite sources in your writing, you notify the reader that the quoted words or ideas originated with someone else. You risk portraying the work as your own if you don’t properly cite your sources, which is known as plagiarism.
Plagiarism is ethically incorrect and can lead to a slew of issues for the one who plagiarizes another’s work. It’s also possible that it’s an illegal practice in some circumstances. If you remove a citation for a source that is protected by intellectual copyright, you could suffer legal repercussions.
Fortunately, you can avoid plagiarism by giving credit where credit is due to your sources. Citing your sources isn’t just about avoiding plagiarism. Citations convey to your viewers that your work is credible because you did your homework. It can also direct your viewers to resources that they might find useful. Furthermore, if the reader doubts the legitimacy of the mentioned material, they can double-check the information.
You can cite a variety of various types of sources. Unfortunately, most people make the mistake of believing that only books should be acknowledged. However, this is only one of many mistakes.
Among the most prevalent sorts of materials that can be listed are:
- Books, periodicals, trade publications, and journal articles are all printed.
- Blog entries, articles from databases, websites, social media posts, source code, emails, whitepapers, and ebooks are all examples of digital or electronic articles.
- An interview, a conversation, a lecture, and a presentation at a university.
- Images, tables, artwork, illustrations, charts, tables, and architectural designs.
- Podcasts, lectures, blogs, and television are all viable options.
- Census data, survey data, statistics, and geographical data are all examples of data sources.
When you cite a source, you’ll be asked to include information about the source, such as the original author’s name, the date of publication, the name of the publication, the book title, the edition number, and issue numbers, according to your selected citation style standards.
Often, an abbreviated citation will be included in the text, followed by a full list of source information at the conclusion that the reader can refer to.
The accessible information you can provide and the method you put up your citations will differ depending on the source. This is the reason you must stick to the citation format you’ve chosen.
We’ll go through some of the citation methods that can be utilized to acknowledge your sources in the next section, including three of the most used reference styles: MLA, AMA, and ACS.
Methods for citing a source
Depending on the type of writing, you’ll need to employ different citation systems. There are many different styles to pick from, but the citation style you’ll need to use in academia is frequently dictated by the topic you’re studying or working in.
The information you need to include depends on how you cite your source. Also, pay attention to punctuation, detail order, and other formatting concerns.
Modern Language Association (MLA) Citation Style
MLA is frequently use in the humanities by students, scholars, and professors. These fields are optional if you want to utilize MLA-style citations. MLA and APA are both widely use, and the two are frequently compare. We’ll concentrate on the most recent edition of the guidebook, the 8th edition, published in 2016.
In MLA, you’ll use both in-text citations and a Works Cited list, comparable to the APA reference page. Each source cite in the paper is liste in-depth in the Works Cite list. You’ll want to make sure your entire work follows MLA formatting rules, in addition to citation and reference guidelines. This consists of:
- 1″ margins are used
- Double spacing throughout
- MLA heading at the top of the first page
- Paragraphs with indents
A bibliography or reference list can be found on the Cited page of an MLA-style manuscript. It includes the following nine aspects in addition to a comprehensive list of detailed sources:
- Author
- Title
- Issue
- Additional contributors
- Version
- Number
- Publisher
- Publication date
- Location
MLA style in-text citations work similarly to APA style in-text citations. They relate to a work that has been cite, and the full source information is include in the bibliography.
In-text citations frequently include the author’s surname and a page number in parentheses.
American Medical Association (AMA) Citation style
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and other AMA publications utilize an AMA Style version of the Vancouver system. The 11th edition of the AMA style guide is currently in use.
The AMA style is a documentary-note style, in which you use numbers to identify sources of information in your text, and the reference list is organize numerically. AMA citation generator can help you do this citation within a click of your blink.
Citations in the text are in superscript1 and citation order. You preserve the same number if you utilize the same source again. For example, the source you cited for the first citation is always 1, no matter how many times you use it after that.
Follow the pointers:
- Authors are the most important components of a reference. Part’s title. Whole’s title. Details about the publication (including copyright and the year it was publish). Details can be find on the internet. A full stop separates each component.
- The author’s names are separate by commas and follow the pattern of surname initials (e.g., Brown JA).
- If there are more than six writers, only list the first three, then shorten with et al. o If there are more than six authors, only list the first three names, then shorten with et al. (For example, Smith AA, Jones BA, Bloggs JC, and others.)
- The part’s title (journal article, book chapter, or web object) is always writte in sentence case.
- Except for websites and unpublished material, the entire title (book or magazine) is normally in Title Case and Italics.
- The publishing information varies depending on the sort of source you’re citing (journal article, book chapter, etc.). For further information, see the guide’s full details.
- Online details: if you have a DOI for an electronic source, you should always utilize it. If not, if it is relevant, use a URL.
- If you utilize a URL, you must provide the date it was access.
ACS (American Chemical Society) style
The American Chemical Society develop the ACS style, which is utilize in academic science writing.
The American Chemical Society has both a numbered and an author-date system:
Citation in the text:
In the text, references should be mentione in one of two ways:
By number:
Either italic numbers in brackets or sequentially numbered superscript numbers
Include reference numbers in increasing order, separated by commas, when mentioning more than one source at a time.
By author-date:
Surname and year of publication in brackets
List of references:
If cited by number, the list of references appears after the work in numerical order; if cited by author-date, the list appears in alphabetical order.
Only use the writers’ given names’ initials. Between the initials, use full stops and spaces.
Finally,
Remember that citing your sources is the greatest method to avoid plagiarism. There’s no excuse to exclude citations from your writing as there are so many citation generators available. Experiment with several citation tools until you find one that suits your needs.
