It's important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

• To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
• To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
• To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
• To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list
• To demonstrate how your own voice fits into the larger scholarly conversation

Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify the published (or even unpublished) content you used to build out your own work.

While citations are a way to help your readers immediately identify when an idea or text comes from somewhere else, it's typically just a short entry to catch your attention. The full list of all referenced materials is typically found in a bibliography, works-cited or reference list at the end of the paper, or in the footnotes/endnotes (each discipline has their own preferred way to manage all this information).

Citations and full references consist of standard elements, and contain all (or most of) the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:

• author name(s)
• titles of books, articles, and journals
• date of publication
• page numbers
• volume and issue numbers (for articles)
• Web URL or Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Citations and references may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. Choose an appropriate style guide for your needs.  Here are examples for an article's in-text citation and reference using four different styles.  Notice the common elements as mentioned above, but also remember that even within a certain style, there are a number of variations. These are only brief examples.

• Authors - Amita Chawla and Elizabeth A. McCullagh
• Article Title - Auditory Brain Stem Responses in the C57BL/6J Fragile X Syndrome-Knockout Mouse Model
• Source (Journal) Title - Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
• Volume and issue - Vol 15
• Publication Date - 2022
• Page numbers - 1-10
• DOI - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2021.803483

American Chemical Society (ACS) style:

In-text citation

"Chawla and McCullagh (1) found that male FXS mice exhibited a trend towards high frequency hearing loss.

Reference list entry

1. Chawla, A.; McCullagh, E. A. Auditory brain stem responses in the C57BL/6J Fragile X syndrome-knockout mouse model. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 2022, 15, 1–10. DOI:10.3389/fnint.2021.803483

Council of Science Editors (CSE) style (9th edition):

In-text citation

Male FXS mice exhibited a trend towards high frequency hearing loss (Chawla and McCullagh 2022).

Reference list entry

Chawla A, McCullagh EA. 2022. Auditory brain stem responses in the C57BL/6J Fragile X syndrome-knockout mouse model. Front Integr Neurosci. 15:1-10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2021.803483  

American Psychological Association (APA) style (7th edition):

In-text citation

Male FXS mice exhibited a trend towards high frequency hearing loss (Chawla & McCullagh, 2022)

Reference list entry

Chawla, A., & McCullagh, E. A. (2022). Auditory brain stem responses in the C57BL/6J Fragile X syndrome-knockout mouse model. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 15, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2021.803483

Modern Language Association (MLA) style (9th edition):

In-text citation

Male FXS mice exhibited a trend towards high frequency hearing loss (Chawla and McCullagh 1).

Works cited entry

Chawla, Amita, and Elizabeth A. McCullagh. “Auditory Brain Stem Responses in the C57BL/6J Fragile X Syndrome-Knockout Mouse Model.” Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, vol. 15, 2022, pp. 1–10. doi:10.3389/fnint.2021.803483.

You must cite:

• Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge
• Ideas, words, theories, or exact language that another person used in other publications
• Publications that must be cited include:  books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, etc.

• Another person's exact words should be quoted and cited to show proper credit 

When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!

Plagiarism occurs when you borrow another's words (or ideas) and do not acknowledge that you have done so.

Plagiarism can be a serious offense. If it is found that you have plagiarized -- deliberately or inadvertently -- you may face serious consequences. In some instances, academic integrity violations such as plagiarism may result in consequences such as failing a course or program dismissal.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to cite your sources - both within the body of your paper and in a bibliography of sources you used at the end of your paper.

Some useful links about plagiarism:

• OSU Academic Integrity 
• Plagiarism: What It IS and How to Recognize and Avoid It
• Plagiarism: An Overview