Library Services: Biology 101: General Biology: Citing your Sources

Why Citing is Important

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

To support your research and give your work a factual basis
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 provide your reader all of the information needed to track down the sources you used

Citing your Sources

Citations consist of standard elements, and contain all 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)

It doesn't matter where you get the information you are using- When in doubt cite it:

Direct Quotes
Paraphrases (rephrased or summarized material)
Ideas from another work
Graphs, diagrams, drawings

You do not need to cite:

Proverbs, sayings example
Common knowledge or facts*

*Widely-known, generally-accepted information that is not attributable to one source.

Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. The citation style usually depends on the academic discipline involved.

AMA Citation Style Guides

Print Resources

AMA Manual of Style by JAMA and Archives Journals Committee (Editor)
Call Number: WZ 345 A43 Reference
Publication Date: 2007

Online Resources

AMA Style Guide (Purdue Owl)
These resources provide guidance on how to cite sources using American Medical Association (AMA) Style, 10th Ed., including examples for print and electronic sources.

AMA manual of style ( University of Washington)
Provides information and tips on using AMA style.

Disclaimer: These online sites are maintained by third parties outside of ACPHS Library Services and are only intended as guides to citation format.. Your professor is the final authority.