"The purpose of a research paper is to synthesize previous research and scholarship with your ideas on the subject. Therefore, you should feel free to use other persons' words, facts, and thoughts in your research paper, but the material you borrow must not be presented as if it were your own creation."

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th Edition. New York: MLA. 55. Print.

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

• To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
• 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 allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list

Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site).  They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases. 

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)

Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. Choose an appropriate style guide for your needs.  Here is an example of an article citation using four different citation styles.  Notice the common elements as mentioned above:

Author - R. Langer

Article Title - New Methods of Drug Delivery

Source Title - Science

Volume and issue - Vol 249, issue 4976

Publication Date - 1990

Page numbers - 1527-1533

American Chemical Society (ACS) style:

     Langer, R. New Methods of Drug Delivery. Science 1990, 249, 1527-1533.

IEEE Style:

     R. Langer, "New Methods of Drug Delivery," Science, vol. 249, pp. 1527-1533, SEP 28, 1990.

American Psychological Association  (APA) style:

     Langer, R. (1990). New methods of drug delivery. Science,249(4976), 1527-1533.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style:

     Langer, R. "New Methods of Drug Delivery." Science 249.4976(1990): 1527-33.

What is a Citation Generator?

Many different tools exist to assist you in the process of creating a citation entry. Many credible websites and library databases include citation generators for each source.  Examples include the following:

• EBSCO databases
• JSTOR
• Google Scholar
• BibMe
• EasyBib
• KnightCite

There are advantages and challenges to working with these tools. 

Common mistakes include:

• Selecting the wrong type of information source
• Inputting information incorrectly or leaving information out
• Misplaced or incorrect punctuation
• Improper capitalization

The biggest mistake is in completely trusting a citation generator to make no errors. Make sure you closely review all citations created in this way. You'll also still want to refer to your citation style guide to learn how to format your works cited/reference page.