Webpages expire, books and articles get lost, photographs and films degrade. Citations are necessary to assure that the next researcher can find the same information through different means.
Citing is important for your scholarly credibility, and for building on previous research. You may have a good idea, but simply stating it does not make it true or believable. Give your ideas validity and support by citing established authors.
Avoiding plagiarism is key to academic honesty. Claiming anyone else's work as your own is fraud, as is claiming (or implying) that your ideas belong to someone else. Failing to cite your own prior work is also considered plagiarism. Citations give authors their due credit and ensure transparency regarding where an idea came from.
You must cite:
When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!
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SOURCE: 2023. Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). This site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License.
For most courses in Education and Psychology, the preferred citation style is APA. APA format is designed to promote clarity and consistency in academic writing and to facilitate the proper attribution of sources. It is essential to follow these guidelines to ensure that your work is easily understood by readers and that credit is given where it's due.
A reference manager application can be a useful tool for anyone doing research. Reference managers allow you to:
While a number of reference manager applications exist, UVA Wise researchers generally use one of three: Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote.
Please look at the descriptions below to decide which is best for you. One thing to keep in mind is that it can be hard to switch from one platform to another. You can export your citations, but transferring tags or folders will be difficult.
More extensive comparisons can be found at:
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Mendeley is owned by Elsevier, a for-profit company with a history of monetizing scholarship in ways that some consider harmful to the academy. Like other “free” platforms operated by for-profit companies, Mendeley provides Elsevier with data about users’ research habits, which it then uses to market its services and metrics to universities. This is part of an overall trend toward vendors serving and monetizing every step in the research workflow. Researchers concerned about privacy or excessive monetization of research might prefer non-profit alternatives.
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Content for Citation Managers is attributed to:
- Citation Managers by University of Virginia Library (Charlottesville).
Citing ChatGPT: Be aware that UVA Wise does not have a campus policy on AI so students should always verify with each individual Professor whether AI usage is appropriate for the various tasks from information seeking or research, problem solving, prewriting including brainstorming, writing, and revising or editing in each course.
Although each citation style has a standard citation method for generative AI tools, your professor may have additional requirements. Always verify and review citation requirements!
