Integrating and Citing Sources
Citation, or the practice of documenting the sources you use in your writing, is a core element of academic research and writing, regardless of discipline. Citing sources not only allows you to document the scholarly conversation into which you’re entering. This is part of producing knowledge; documenting what and who you’ve read in the course of writing your paper is a mark of effective scholarship that meets the expectations of academic integrity.
What and When to Cite
It can be difficult to know when and what to cite. You always need to cite:
- Ideas, concepts, opinions of others
- Direct quotes, summaries, and paraphrases
- Facts used as evidence
- Tables, graphs, or figures produced by anyone but yourself
- Specific statistics or data
You may have heard that you don’t need to cite your source when the information you’re including is common knowledge. Generally, common knowledge can be understood as information that an average reader would accept without having to look up. This includes:
- Information that most people know (such as that water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius),
- Information shared by a cultural or national group (such as the names of Canadian prime ministers)
- Knowledge shared by members of a field or discipline (such as that a double bond is stronger than a single bond)
However, it can be difficult to know what counts as common knowledge, because an “average reader” is audience and discipline specific. What might be common knowledge in one cultural group or academic discipline may not be common knowledge in another. Here are some ways to determine if something is common knowledge or not:
- Ask: who is my audience and what can I assume they already know?
- See if the information is cited or not in academic scholarship. If the information is cited in at least three different sources, it’s probably common knowledge
- If you are not sure, assume the information is not common knowledge and cite. It’s always better to over-cite than under-cite.
Citation Formatting
Proper citation includes two parts: in-text citations and a complete reference list of sources from which these arose. In-text citations show the reader the specific information you have used in your paper and where exactly you draw on these sources in your discussion. The list of sources at the end of your paper gives the exact references you used, which allows anyone to easily find and refer back to them.
In STEM disciplines, there are different ways to format and organize citations, and these “style guides” are discipline-specific (and sometimes course-specific) (Hochberg, 2019, p. 14). Be sure to check with your instructor about which style they would prefer before you write your first lab report or paper.
| Chemistry | American Chemical Society | ACS Citation Style Guide |
| Mathematics | American Mathematical Style | AMS Style Guide |
| Psychology and many other social science disciplines | American Psychological Association | APA Citation Style Guide |
| Some Engineering disciplines | American Society of Civil Engineers | ASCE Citation Style Guide |
| Various STEM disciplines | The University of Chicago Press | Chicago Manual of Style |
| Biology and other various STEM disciplines | Council of Science Editors | CSE Citation Name-Year Style Guide |
| Various engineering disciplines including:
Civil Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering |
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | IEEE Editorial Style Manual |
| Medical and Scientific journals; various Engineering disciplines | International Committee of Medical Journal Editors | Vancouver Style |
| Physics | American Institute of Physics | AIP Citation Style |
When deciding which style of citing to use, make sure you follow any directions you were given. Once you choose a style, you must stick to it throughout your whole article. It is very important to be consistent with your formatting; it makes it easier for the reader to follow!
Check out UBC’s Library Tutorial on Citing Sources for a series of helpful videos!
Some Examples
These examples are designed to highlight how each style of citing can be used. Although there is sometimes flexibility when citing, remember to check with your instructor which style you should use. If he/she is happy for you to use either one, make sure you are always consistent in your formatting style (i.e. don’t mix the two styles in one piece of writing).
Expanded Referencing:
- A) Blue, left-handed widgets are actually wodgets (Smith, 1993).
- B) Bloggs et al. (1995) confirmed that …
- C) Smith and Jones (1995) wrote that…
Abbreviated Referencing:
- A) Blue, left-handed widgets are actually wodgets3.
- B) Bloggs et al.2 confirmed…
- C) Smith and Jones [2] wrote that…
Advantages
Table 2: Advantages of expanded and abbreviated referencing
| Style of citing | Advantage |
|---|---|
| Expanded Referencing | • author/researcher is found in text (easily recognizable for a researcher in the field) • show date of research (current) |
| Abbreviated Referencing | • saves time • saves space (no extra words- names, dates) |
When deciding which style of citing to use, keep in mind the advantages of both, but make sure you follow any directions you were given. Once you choose a style, you must stick to it throughout your whole article. It is very important to be consistent with your formatting; it makes it easier for the reader to follow!
Paraphrasing and Quoting
Paraphrasing means putting something that someone else has written into your own words, phrasing and sentence structure.
- Because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas (even though you’re not saying it in exactly the same way), it’s important to acknowledge this with a citation.
- Paraphrasing is useful because it shows that you have an understanding of the material and it allows you to keep your writing concise.
Quoting means reproducing the same words that someone else has written.
- Not only does a quotation need an in-text citation with a page number, but it also needs to be presented in quotation marks.
- Use quotations if a piece of information is well-phrased or unique and cannot be simply rephrased to have the same effect. For example, don’t write: Cliff et al. (1989) reported that “A total of 591 great white sharks Carcharodon carcharias were caught between 1974 and 1988 in the gill nets which are maintained along the Natal coast to protect bathers from shark attack” (p. 77). Instead, write something like: Nearly 600 great white sharks were caught in gill nets along the Natal coast between 1974 and 1988 (Cliff et al., 1989, p. 77).
Reporting Expressions
One way of making sure that you’re signalling to your reader when you’re including someone else’s work is to use something called a “reporting expression.” Reporting expressions signal that you are summarizing or reporting what someone else has written. Examples of reporting expressions include words such as writes, argues, finds, demonstrates, suggests, claims, explains, or shows.
Reporting expressions also allow you as a writer to take a position. For example, writing “Reilly (2010) shows that more than one cup of coffee slows response rates in people” is different than writing “Reilly (2010) suggests that more than one cup of coffee slows response rates in people.” Here, “shows” implies that you agree with Reilly, whereas “suggests” implies that you might have some uncertainty about Reilly’s research. It’s important to choose your reporting expressions carefully!
A helpful hint with citing: if you’re using a reporting expression, you still need to include an in-text citation. This is because you’re reporting what someone else has written, and you need to be sure to credit them for their work.
Further reading:
- Thompson Rivers University Writing Centre's Reporting Words/Phrases
- University of Adelaide's Writing Centre Learning Guide on Verbs for Reporting
Video Resource
For a recap and for some extra information on citing and integrating sources, please watch Grammar Squirrel’s video on the UBC Science Writing YouTube channel.
We then suggest you complete the quick quiz (below) to see whether you have mastered some of the important skills relating to effective use of citing and integrating sources.
Integrating and Citing Sources Quick Quiz
1. Read the following pieces of information taken from real sources. First decide whether they should be quoted directly, or paraphrased and cited (1 mark each). Then use the ‘Expanded Referencing’ style of citing to credit the source correctly with an in-text citation (1 mark each).
A) ‘Furthermore, although there are no demonstrated health benefits from having selenium intake above physiological requirements, there is a general perception that increased selenium ingestion is beneficial, which has led to a flourishing market in selenium supplements.’
This information was written by Kevin Andrew Francesconi and Richard Pannier in 2004.
B) ‘Telomeres are specialized structures found at the natural ends of eukaryotic linear chromosomes.’
This information was written by Vicki Lundblad and Jack Szostak in 1989.
C) ‘I’m so excited – this new discovery blows the old belief clean out of the water.’
This information was written by Mitchell Tonker in November 2007.
D) ‘Changes to the conformation of coding and non-coding RNAs form the basis of elements of genetic regulation and provide an important source of complexity, which drives many of the fundamental processes of life.’
This information was written by Elizabeth A Dethoff, Katja Petzold, Jeetender Chugh, Anette Casiano-Negroni and Mustoe and Hasham M Al-Hashimi in 2012.
2. Decide whether the pieces of information below should or should not be cited (1 mark each, 4 marks total).
a) You are writing a paper to a chemistry audience on the effects of hydrogen bonding in DNA. Should you include a citation for a basic definition of what hydrogen bonding is?
b) You have been working with a Bessel beam optical trap to determine the changes in aerosol particles in relation to relative humidity changes. As you write your paper, you decide to include background information on Bessel beam traps and previous research into the change in aerosol particles against different relative humidities. Should you cite these?
c) You are doing the research for a paper on the separation of chiral compounds and come across a repeated reference to ‘Pirkle phases.’ This term is new to you and it has never been discussed in class, but you have encountered references to it in several articles. You notice that each author actually cites an original article by Pirkle, the chemist for whom it was named. You include the ‘Pirkle phases’ in your paper. Should you cite this paper?
d) You are writing a newspaper article about the most devastating earthquakes of all time. Should you cite a source that says the Valdivia quake (the greatest magnitude in history) occurred on May 22, 1960?
Quick Quiz Answer Key
To check your answers and see whether you are now a wizard at integrating and citing sources effectively in your science writing, you should access the answer key here.