A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018
Reasons for citing your sources
General introduction to citation practices
Source citation
15.1 Reasons for Citing Your Sources
15.2 The Requirements of Citation
15.2.1 Situations Requiring Citations
15.2.2 Information Required in Citations
15.3 Two Citation Styles
15.3.1 Notes Style
15.3.2 Author-Date Style
15.4 Electronic Sources
15.4.1 Sources Consulted Online
15.4.2 Other Electronic Media
15.5 Preparation of Citations
15.6 Citation Management Tools
Your first duty as a researcher is to get the facts right. Your second duty is to tell readers where the facts came from. To that end, you must cite the sources of the facts, ideas, or words that you use in your paper.
15.1 Reasons for Citing Your Sources
There at least four reasons to cite your sources:
1. 1. To give credit. Research is hard work. Doing it well can bring rewards—good grades and a degree and, later, money and promotions. But no less important is recognition, the pride and prestige of seeing your name associated with knowledge that others value and use. In fact, for some researchers that is the only reward. So when you cite the work of others, you give them the recognition they have earned.
2. 2. To reassure readers about the accuracy of your facts. Researchers cite sources to be fair to other researchers but also to earn their readers’ trust. It is not enough to get the facts right. You must also tell readers the source of the facts so that they can judge their reliability and check them if they wish. Readers do not trust a source they do not know and cannot find. If they do not trust your sources, they will not trust your facts; and if they do not trust your facts, they will not trust your argument. You establish the first link in that chain of trust by citing your sources fully, accurately, and appropriately.
3. 3. To show readers the research tradition that informs your work. Researchers cite sources whose data they use, but they also cite work that they extend, support, contradict, or correct. These citations help readers not only understand your specific project but connect it to other research in your field.
4. 4. To help readers follow or extend your research. Many readers use sources cited in a research paper not to check its reliability but to pursue their own work. So your citations help others not only to follow your footsteps but to strike out in new directions.
You must never appear to take credit for work that is not your own (see 7.9), and proper citation guards against the charge of plagiarism. But it also strengthens your argument and assists others who want to build on your work.