6 Reasons Why Citation of Sources is

Important When Writing

Neeraja Sankaran, Ph.D. | 2016-11-17
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The proper acknowledgement of sources

might seem like a no-brainer, as indeed it should, to a scientist, and yet there are altogether too
many instances where improper attribution goes unchecked.
Sir Isaac Newton’s famous words in a l675 letter to Robert Hooke, “If I have seen further, it is
by standing upon the shoulders of giants,” may serve as a pithy reminder that even the most
famous scientists depended on their forebears.
But, in fact, it is even inadequate because Newton did not explicitly name those giants. (As a
historical aside, Newton’s comment was not as benign in intent as the words might indicate. The
two men had been embroiled in a bitter dispute over certain optical discoveries and the
handsome upper-class Newton was likely taking a dig at his lower-class rival’s physical
deformity. Regardless of intent, however, the statement has come to represent the importance of
giving credit where credit is due).
There is a vast literature on the issues of proper citation, academic honesty, and the potential
pitfalls of plagiarism, and the list of references for further reading at the end of this article offers
a few suggestions. We will address these issues in future posts, so be sure to subscribe to our
email list below!
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But aside from these self-evident reasons, there are other perhaps less-considered arguments for
scientists to be meticulous about citing sources properly. Some of these reasons are for the good
of the entire research community, whereas others are more personal. This article discusses some
of those less obvious, yet compelling, arguments for reserving a block of time specifically for the
purposes of attending to citations.

1. Attribution serves as a fact-checking tool.

Accuracy is all important in any writing, especially when we write about science. The very act of
looking up a reference for verification serves as an accuracy check, e.g., to double check a direct
quote, to ensure the fidelity of a passage that you paraphrased, or to cite another study that is
related to your study.

2. Citation makes you a better researcher.

Some of the hallmarks of good research include attention to detail and the ability to discern
patterns and make connections. Good citation practices can help with both. The proper
attribution of sources entails many details, such as correct page numbers, the spelling of author
names, and of course, the accuracy of facts that you are presenting in your own article or other
work.
Becoming detail-oriented in one aspect automatically instills good habits across the board in
your research. As for the ability to spot trends and patterns, preparing a good bibliography trains
you for this task (which is crucial in scientific analysis) because of the vast amount of
information it condenses into a short space.

3. Good citation practices make you a better writer.

All of us aspire towards that elegant paper in which the prose is as compelling as the content and
good attribution habits build a strong foundation towards that goal. Citing specific sources for
the various facts that we present removes the hallmarks of intellectual laziness, vague thinking,
and sloppy writing as generalizations, clichés, and outright false claims, e.g., as when the
phrases, “everyone knows” or “they say,” are replaced with specific sources.
When you cite sources properly, you leave no question in your readers’ minds regarding your
point. Furthermore, by citing, you can easily use active language and avoid raising the dreaded
red flag of passivity to journal editors and reviewers. Cite well, and you may forever expunge the
phrase “It is said” from your academic paper.

4. A good bibliography shows off your scientific knowledge.

A bibliography is simply the compilation of the various sources that you have read and cited in
your own manuscript, dissertation, book, etc. Thus, an extensive bibliography is naturally a
hallmark of a widely read and well-informed scientist.
I can remember at least one occasion when my peers offered more compliments on my
bibliography than on the content of the paper (though they liked that too). In blind reviews, the
matters for which I’ve drawn the harshest critiques are for errors of omission, i.e., for not having
read or cited certain references. The last thing you want is a reviewer that says that you do not
know your field because you forgot to cite a critical and well-known piece of scientific literature!

5. Careful citation practices will build your credibility as a scientist or scholar.

This point is a simple corollary of the previous one. Indeed, showing off scholarship is simply
the icing on the cake of what a well-cited article has to offer. A deeper, more meaningful role
that a good bibliography plays for researchers is to establish a writer‘s credibility among peers in
their field. The better documented your research and arguments, the more credible you are to
your scientific colleagues.

6. Citation enables better verification of your work.

Any piece of academic writing gets vetted several times over before it finally makes it into print
or onto a website. Whether one is a peer reviewer, editor, or editorial assistant whose job is
simply to track down sources in the bibliography and make sure that the citations are accurate,
life is simply easier when there is less busy work. So, your paper is much more likely to be
passed through these multiple rounds of editing with minimal criticism and positive feedback if
you have already taken the trouble to attribute your information correctly and cite all your
sources.

In a future article, we will discuss strategies for integrating good citation practices when writing
and revising your articles. You are also encouraged to view our related article on Important
English Academic Style Guides. Until then, incite yourself to cite when you write!

For further reading:

The following is a list of suggested readings on the subject of citation. The citation style used in
this bibliography is that adopted by the American Psychological Association (APA), 6th edition,
which I chose because it is one commonly used in many scientific journals.
Bryson, D. (2012). Using research papers: citations, referencing and plagiarism. Journal of
Visual Communication in Medicine, 35(2), 82–84.
Clarke, R. (2006). Plagiarism by academics: More complex than it seems. Journal of the
Association for Information Systems, 7(2), 5.
Culwin, F., & Lancaster, T. (2001). Plagiarism issues for higher education. Vine, 31(2), 36–41.
Karami, M., & Danaei, G. H. (2016). A brief review of plagiarism in medical scientific research
papers. Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Research, 2(2), 1–8.
Klompien, K. (2001). The Writer and the Text: Basic Writers, Research Papers and Plagiarism.
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and
Communication, Denver, Colorado. (Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED452547).

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 About the author:
Neeraja Sankaran is a historian of science (Ph.D., Yale University, 2006) specializing in the
recent history of biological and biomedical research. She came to this field with a background
and experience in science writing (Grad. certificate, 1993) and microbiology (M.Sc., 1990).
Author of two general reference-style books on the topics of micro-organisms and the human
genome as well as numerous articles on science and scientists for general audiences, she has also
published a number of papers in peer-reviewed academic journals on various aspects of the
history of biology and medicine, including but not limited to, virus research, immunology, and
origin-of-life theorizing. She is currently an independent scholar working on a scholarly
monograph that is expected to be published in 2018 by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Evaluating Information Resources

Learn About: Criteria used to evaluate print and Internet information resources, differences between print and
Internet resources, characteristics of scholarly vs. popular periodicals, and the scholarly publication cycle.

Evaluating information sources is a important part of the research process. Not all information is reliable or
true, nor will all information be suitable for your paper or project. Print and Internet sources vary widely in
their authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, and coverage. Users must be able to critically evaluate the
appropriateness of all types of information sources prior to relying on the information.

The Internet, especially the World Wide Web, has surpassed most libraries in the quantity of information it
makes available. However, the Web has not surpassed libraries in the overall quality of information it makes
available. Traditionally, a main component of library collections has been print (paper) materials. Today,
however, many online resources are being added to supplement collections, replace printed (paper) items, or
improve access. Although online sources are accessible via the Internet, many originated in paper form and
follow the same publication criteria. Therefore the quality of print and online information sources are similar
and will be considered the same in this discussion. A look at a few characteristics of print and Internet sources
will identify major quality distinctions between print and Internet information sources.

Print Sources vs. World Wide Web

Print Sources

 Quality standards of printed materials are controlled through a system of checks and balances imposed by peer
review, editors, publishers, and librarians, all of whom manage and control access to printed information. This
assures that published materials have been through some form of critical review and evaluation, preventing
informal, poorly designed, difficult-to-use and otherwise problematic materials from getting into the hands of
users.
 In academic and other research libraries, most books and periodicals are a product of the scholarly
communication system. This system ensures that authors present information in an orderly and logical manner
appropriate to the topic.
 Printed information in books and periodicals follows established linear formats for logical and effective
organization.
 Materials in printed form are stable. Once in print, information remains fixed for all time. New editions and
revisions often are published, but these are separate and distinct physical entities that can be placed side by
side with the originals.
 World Wide Web

 On the web, anyone can, with no supervision or review at all, put up a web page.
 On the Web, there is no systematic monitoring of much of what appears, except, of course, for articles
published in the online forms of otherwise reputable scholarly journals and books. Biases, hidden agendas,
distorted perspectives, commercial promotions, inaccuracies, and so on are not monitored.
 There is no standard format for web sites and documents. Web pages exhibit fewer clues regarding their
origins and authoritativeness than print sources. Important information, such as dates, author(s), and references
are not always easy to locate. While a reader can easily note this information in a book or periodical article, the
web user must often search through several pages, if the information is provided at all.
 Internet sources are also not stable. Web documents can be changed easily. And once changed, the original is
gone forever unless a specific effort is made to preserve it. In fact, many Web documents are intentionally
designed to change as necessary, and with automatic changes as with manual changes, the original disappears.
 Web resources use hypertext links and need not be organized in any linear fashion. One can easily be led
astray and distracted from the topic at hand. But, of course, one can also be led to additional information of
value.
 The changing nature of the web and web documents create major problems with the stability of information
and with links between different units of information. Dead or broken and links on the Web are common and
others just disappear or are not updated.
See Online Subscription Databases vs. Web Sites to learn how to quickly differentiate between subscription
(library-selected) and Internet sources.

For print sources, quality control is sought through critical evaluation during the publication process. However,
on the web, anyone with access to the Internet can publish. Web pages are easy to create with little or no
training. And there is no overriding organization or governing body ensuring the validity of web page content.
There is a good deal of high-quality information on the web, but there is also much that is of questionable
quality. Do not assume that information on the web is more current or accurate. Each web page will have to be
examined critically.

It is the user's responsibility to evaluate information sources, in print and on the web, that they find during the
research process before using it in a paper or presentation.

Five Criteria for Evaluating Resources: AAOCC

For this brief introduction to evaluating sources in LS101, we will use a list of five critical criteria. You might
want to remember AAOCC (Authority, Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency, and Coverage), if for no other
reason than you might be asked to list these criteria and describe them briefly. The same basic questions should
be asked of all information sources: books, journal articles, web pages, blogs, videos, sound recordings and e-
books.

1. Authority
o Who is the author or creator (who is responsible for the intellectual content) and what are his or her
credentials? Is there any indication of the author's education, other publications, professional affiliations or
experience?
o Is there a note or paragraph in the back of the book or on the jacket (cover, jewel case, or supplementary
brochure) describing the author's credentials?
o Is the author's e-mail address, postal address or phone number provided?
o Has the author been cited in other bibliographies?
o Sometimes information about an author is available in sources other than the document at hand. Instructors
assigning research topics might focus on a particular author. Many authors can be looked up in such resources
as:
 Who's Who in America
 Current Biography
 The International Who's Who
 Who's Who in Science and Engineering
 American Men & Women of Science
 Who's Who in the World
 Dictionary of Scientific Biography
 Look for additional information in directories of Professional Associations or Biography Index (FirstSearch)
Noted resources are accessible via the Databases by Title page.

For Web Sites:

o Be sure to distinguish between the author of the information and, if separate, the Webmaster who put it up.
o In the case of Web material provided by committees, organizations, businesses, or government agencies (rather
than individuals), similar questions concerning the authority of these bodies need to be asked. Be sure to
consider whether information provided by corporate bodies is likely to be objective, factual and carefully
researched or whether it is biased toward the particular objectives of those bodies or the causes, movements or
agendas they support.
o Analysis of the URL sometimes provides an indication of identity of the web site sponsor.
o Look for an "about us" or "FAQ" (frequently asked questions) page.
2. Accuracy/Quality
o Is the information provided specific?
o For research on any topic dealing with things and events in the real world, accuracy is, obviously, of highest
importance. Data and information must be based on observations, measurements, analyses, interpretations and
conclusions. In the arts and humanities, where imagination is the primary creative force, accuracy is still
important in recording names, dates and places from which creative works, ideas, and opinions originated.
o In all cases, all information should be verifiable. Are conclusions based on research or actual figures that can
be checked in other sources?
o Are methods of scientific research explained in such a way that it could be reproduced?
o Are sources of information listed in foot/end notes, bibliographies, or lists of references? How reliable are the
cited sources?
o Are critical reviews available (for books, films, literature, music, art)? Check resources such as:
 Humanities Full-Text, Social Sciences Full-Text, MLA Bibliography, Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature
 Academic Search Premier
 Gale Literature Resource Center
Noted resources are accessible via the Databases by Title page. Check with a librarian for other useful
databases.

o Does the article appear in a scholarly journal that is peer-reviewed? Review the tips for identifying Scholarly
vs. Popular Periodicals.
For Web Sites:

o High-quality writing, including good format, grammar, spelling and punctuation, can enhance the appearance
of accuracy and bolster a reader's confidence in the accuracy and reliability of a Web document. It is easy
however, to produce a website that appears "professional;" that's a good start, but not sufficient evidence to
conclude that the information provided is accurate. Use the other criteria as well.
3. Objectivity
o Authors often have their own agendas, for example to sell products, influence legislation or capture converts.
There probably is no absolute objectivity upon which everyone could agree. When using any information
 resource, you must decide whether the information is sufficiently objective for your purpose or whether it is
biased. Of course a highly biased presentation can be included in scholarly research as long as that bias is
described and weighed against alternative views or interpretations.
o Is there any advertising or solicitation for donations associated with the source? This financial support may
skew the subject coverage by the publication.
o Does the author provide more than one point of view?
o Does the writing use inflammatory or biased language?
4. Currency
o Currency is especially important in the sciences where new developments occur frequently.
o In the arts and humanities, currency needs to be judged as appropriate. In some cases, a study written years ago
may be essential to understanding.
o Consider whether or not the timeliness of the information will affect its usefulness.
o In all cases, there should be some indication of the date of the material. If research results are given, consider
not only the date of the publication but also when the research was actually conducted.
For Web Sites:

o Obviously it is important for information found on the web to be up-to-date. However, its appearance on the
web is not a guarantee.
o There should be some indication of the date of the material, as in the "last updated" statement at the end of
many Web documents. Be aware that the "Last updated" date of the web page may differ from the date of the
content. This may mean checking three dates, the date the page was last updated or posted to the web, the date
of publication, and the date of the research or statistics used.
5. Coverage
o Decide whether the information source adequately covers the topic. Documents may cover only part of the
topic, and you may need more sources to have a more thorough understanding.
o Consider how coverage from one source compares with coverage by other sources.
o Look for a statement describing the purpose or coverage of the source and consider if the information is in-
depth enough for your needs.
o Does the information source leave questions unanswered (ask the "five W's and H" to check: who, what, when,
where, why and how)?