Citing Sources
Introduction | Plagiarism | Citing Sources
Citing is the process of giving credit to the sources you used to write your paper. Citations can be located in the text or at the end of the work in a bibliography. It can be difficult to figure out what needs to be credited.
Use this rule: If you knew a piece of information before you started doing research, generally you do not need to credit it. You also do not need to cite well-known facts, such as dates, which can be found in many encyclopedias. All other information such as quotations, statistics, and ideas should always be cited in your papers.
BibMe is a fully automatic bibliography maker that auto-fills. It's the easiest way to build a works cited page - and it's Free! Navigate to to be on your way to citing your sources and making your research or paper plagiarism-free!
BibMe cites for you and can help you learn!
Even though BibMe may be very helpful in automating the process of creating and formatting citations, it's still important that students understand how to cite sources "the old-fashioned way." Knowing the rules and guidelines that each style guide outlines is an important part of writing a paper and compiling a bibliography. Using our "Citation Guide", you can look up the formatting guidelines and rules for all the source types we support for the MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian style guides. By learning these guidelines, you will understand just what exactly BibMe is doing when it is creating your bibliography - and then, you can use BibMe not only as a helpful tool, but as a hands-on learning resource, as well!
To start using the "Citation Guide" and look up specific formatting guidelines, use the left-hand panel to select your desired guide. First, select the formatting style (e.g. MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian) and then the type of source you are referencing.
The guidelines on this page adhere to the following editions of the style manuals:
- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition
- The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition
- A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th edition
Citing: noting the source of a quote, paraphrase or idea as a proof or an authority.