Why Should I Cite?

There are some very practical reasons for citing your sources:

  1. Use your citations to keep track of your own research process
  2. Enable other researchers to corroborate and verify your sources
  3. Scholarly decorum: Give credit where credit is due! Provide clear citations to acknowledge the work of your peers.
  4. Enable more exact citation analysis. (Some databases, like Web of Knowledge, allow you to select a topic, author, article, etc. and then create a citation report.)