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Albert S. Cook Library

How to Start Your Research

Why are Citations Important?

Citations allow you to distinguish your work from the work of others. While this includes citing direct quotes of text-based information, it also includes citing works when you paraphrase or summarize as well as citing non-text based works like images, videos, data sets, etc.

Citations are also important because they...

  • ... can be used to show how information supports your arguments
  • ... allow readers to identify and verify your information
  • ... give credit to the creators of ideas
  • ... are required for academic assignments

In-text vs. Bibliographic Citations

Citation styles all follow different rules, but in general they will require some type of in-text citation and some type of matching bibliographic citation.

In-text Citations

In-text citations occur within the body of your work and tell your reader where within your paper or project you use someone else's information. In-text citations may occur within parentheses, or they may occur as footnotes. See the Library's citation guides for in-text citation examples.

Bibliographic Citations

Usually found at the end of your paper or project, bibliographic citations provide the full citation details for your information sources. Depending on the citation style, you may be asked to create a "Works Cited," "Bibliography," or "Reference List" - these all refer to bibliographic citations. See the Library's citation guides for bibliographic citation examples.

Academic Integrity in Research

Academic integrity is a shared expectation at our university, and every course syllabus links to the official Student Academic Integrity Policy. That policy is long, dense, and not the easiest way to learn, so the Office of Student Accountability & Restorative Practices (SARP) created the two infographics below to help you get started. One shows the foundations of academic integrity and how to practice it. The other explains what happens if a violation is reported. Click the arrow to view both.
Have more questions? Contact Associate Director Michael Youngborg via email sarp@towson.edu or phone 410-704-2057.

Office of Student Accountability Guidance

Poster titled "Learn with Integrity" from Towson University, featuring principles of academic integrity and support resources.

Learn with Integrity

The foundations of academic integrity are:

  1. Cite sources: Give credit where it's due with proper citations.
  2. Be authentic: Submit work based on real data, honest research, and valid sources.
  3. Follow rules: Use only authorized notes, devices, and resources.
  4. Support classmates: Encourage others to do their own work independently.
  5. Respect resources: Care for materials so all students can access them.
  6. Submit original work: Don't reuse work without checking with your instructor.

Before submitting any work, ask yourself:

  • Is this allowed by the assignment instructions?
  • Would I do this if my professor were watching?
  • Does this demonstrate my actual learning?

Poster detailing Towson University's academic misconduct violation process with steps and contact information.

Academic Misconduct Violation Process

  1. Conversation: Your professor will meet with you to share their concerns.
  2. Official communication: You’ll receive their formal report and a letter from Student Accountability & Restorative Practices (SARP).
  3. Response: You may appeal up to three times—starting with the department chair, then the associate dean, and finally the Student Appeals Committee.
  4. Impacts of a first violation: You’ll face an academic penalty and an educational task. There’s no disciplinary record.
  5. Impacts of a second violation: A formal disciplinary record is created and suspension is possible.
  6. Note: You cannot drop a class a violation has been reported.

Beware of Citation Generators

Many of our research databases include tools to help you collect citation and reference information. While these tools can be useful, they can also be wrong, as you can see in this example. Author names and article titles might be in all-caps, information can be missing or extra information added, and typos show up regularly.

Errors from auto created database citations, including wrong capitalization for authors' names and article title, missing end of page range, and missing DOI or URL.

Tools like this can help you keep track of important information, but you can't copy-paste these citations into your paper without double-checking all the elements. Capitalization, typos, and other editing errors you can check yourself - you can also use the Library's citation guides to be sure all the right information is there.

Cook Library Citation Guides

Need help citing your sources? These guides from Cook Library should get you started.