George A. Spiva Library

All research sources should be identified and cited in your research report/paper whether they are print resources or electronic articles or Web sites. Not only does it enable others, as well as yourself, to find the source listed, but it also gives credit to the person whose work you quoted or paraphrased, or whose ideas you incorporated into your own report.

Academic communities demand that writers credit others for their work, and that the source of their material clearly be acknowledged. Not to do so is to plagiarize, to intentionally or unintentionally appropriate the ideas, language, key terms, or findings of another without sufficient acknowledgment that such material is not one’s own.

When you do research for a paper, write down all the necessary information needed to locate the material in a citation format. When accessing Internet resources, be sure to write down the URL.

Depending upon the class or professor, you may use one of the following style manuals:

• American Psychological Association (APA)

• Chicago

• Modern Language Association (MLA)

• Turabian

Copies of each of these style manuals are kept on reserve at the Main Circulation desk.

Many of the online databases available via our web page (ex. Academic Search Premier, Lexis-Nexis) contain examples on how to cite articles obtained through them. Look in the “help” section on the website or ask for assistance at the reference desk.

The Univeristy of South Carolina @ Columbia has a page devoted to Style Manuals and Guides that provides more information along with printable handouts containing examples from 4 of the most popular formats.

To view this page click on or type the following link in your Browser's address field:

http://www.sc.edu/library/styleresources.html