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Academic Integrity - Citing Sources

Integrity is a bedrock value of the University community... (UO Office of Student Life)

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

When directly quoting another author, the writer must:

  • Accurately quote the original author's words.
  • Enclose the quotation within quotation marks.
  • Follow quotation using an in-text citation [e.g., p. 276]
  • Introduce the quotation with phrase that includes the author's name
  • Provide a list of references with full citation information at the end of the paper. 

When paraphrasing another author, the writer must:

  • Paraphrasing or summarizing doesn't mean just changing a couple of words from the original work.
  • Use words or have a sentence structure different from the original work, while maintaining the gist of the original author's idea.
  • Acknowledge the source through in-text citations immediately following the paraphrase.

What is Common Knowledge (or, do I have to cite every little detail in my paper)?

Therefore, common knowledge does not need to be cited - the difficulty is knowing when something is, in fact, widely known. An added twist is that each discipline has its own common knowledge, e.g. psychologists will be familiar with the work of Jean Piaget so you do not need to establish who he was. If you are not sure whether or not something is common knowledge, ask your instructor/GTF.

Citation Style Guides

The UO Libraries have developed a quick guide to citation style formats, as well as citing electronic resources. The examples cover the most widely used citations formats, e.g. journal articles, books, newspaper articles, and government documents.



Maintained by Barbara Jenkins jenkins@uoregon.edu
Last revision: 20 September 2009