Citation | How to cite?

Citation | How to cite?

A citation is an important step in academic honesty where it essentially means to refer to the source of the content. Whenever you cite some entity you basically mean you had referred that source may be its concepts, ideas and used it in your own work.
You can read about the act of Plagiarism | What is Plagiarism? Understand this concept is very important. Ask yourself the question, Did I plagiarize?
You should always follow the Golden Rules of Reseach before focusing on any content.

Can I use other's content in my work?

No, you cannot use any content directly in your work but you can refer to the ideas and concepts, understand them and then use them to help in your work. Also, need to properly cite the work in order to promote academic honesty.

It can be one of the ways to remove Direct Content Plagiarism. If you use citation improperly it can lead to very unethical behavior of Self Plagiarism or Self-Citation.

You can cite almost everything starting from websites, articles, newspapers, books, magazines, journal. Basically, you can cite anything from where you can get your thoughts and ideas. It is up to you then to use these thoughts and concepts to develop something new and discover the true essence of knowledge.

What does a Citation contain?

It provides a way to uniquely identify a source so that other people can refer to it quickly when they are studying your work. 

A Citation must include:

• Name of the Author
• Source of Publishing
• Date of Publishing
• Any Unique Identifier

IEEE Style Citation

The Unique Identifier is different for different sources. For Books, we have International Standard Book Number (ISBN), for research papers on the Internet we have Digital Object Identifier (DOI) etc.

All of them are not the same, meaning there are many styles of writing it. The usage of these styles varies according to the domain of the research. For example, a Science researcher will use a different style than a Language researcher.

What are the types of Citations?

They are basically two types, In-Text Citation and Reference Citation.

Both of them are extremely important in your article and you must give in order to ensure the honesty and integrity of your article.

Who discovered these citations?

Well, in the early 18th century Frank Shepard a publisher discovered the first style system – The Shepard’s Legal System. After this discovery, several International bodies also founded their own citation system in order for their benefits.
Such rules are still followed by modern-day researchers and today we have Automated Machines which can easily provide them in any system within minutes.

Drawbacks of Citations

Although they have our work a lot easier, there are a lot of issues with the ongoing systems of citation.

Self Citation

This is one form of Plagiarism used unethically by many researchers in order to promote their articles and improve their Citation Metrics. Also, a Professor can enforce his students to cite his/her articles in the student ’s work and sometimes many researchers pay for them to be included.

Errors in Citation

Correctly formatting a reference according to a particular system is a difficult task. Someone can easily make a mistake and ultimately such an incident can make a negative impact on the author in front of the publishers and may reject the author’s article. Today modern day Citation Machines are available which can do such hectic task within minutes.

Unethical Use by Publishers

They can be unethically used by publishers in order to rank their journals. They can enforce new article contributors in their journal to put references of previous authors and then only that article will be selected for reviewing or publishing. This form of ranking is very common by new publishers who are trying to gain a spot in the market.

What not to Cite?

When you refer your original work, there is no need to site that issue, but if you are frequently using your previous work, you can cite some portions of it (if required utmost).
If you are using common sense and facts that everybody knows then there is no need of citing such facts like “The age of the Earth” or “The invention of X-rays”. All these facts are well known and previously established and it will be redundant to site those.

Conclusion

Academic Research itself can promote us, we do not need to explicitly promote our work. Instead, we should focus on finding the right problem and actively make noble solutions which ultimately benefits society as a whole. Focus on the problem first, understand it then only you can succeed.

If you need any kind of help, do shout out.