Geog 2002: Citing Sources in a Paper

All good papers rely on research or arguments developed by other authors. Whenever you use information gathered by another author or an argument developed by another author you MUST give them credit by (1) citing them in the text of your paper, and (2) including their work in the bibliography of your paper. You MUST cite an author if you

quote them directly

paraphrase them

use information they have compiled

(1) In-Text Citations

The "in-text citation" should appear at the end of the sentence you have written in which you make reference to the work of another author. In-text citations are shorter than full bibliographic citations, but MUST include (a) the authors last name, (b) the year of publication, and (c) the specific page in their work to which you are making reference. Below are examples of in-text citations (page numbers are random, "et al." is Latin for "and the rest," it is used when there are more than two authors).

One Author: (Watts, 1987: 23)

Two Authors: (Taylor and Flint, 2000: 23)

More Than Two Authors: (Rowntree et al., 2000: 45)

A Selection Within an Edited Book: (Truman 1957, in Blake et al., 1998: 59)

EXAMPLE:

Lake dessication in Central Asia is a serious environmental problem as it involves not just the loss of water in lakes but also an overall decline in precipitation (Rowntree et al., 2000: 412).

(2) Bibliographic Citations

Whenever you cite an author within the text of your paper you MUST include their work in your bibliography. The bibliographic citation is longer than the in-text citation.

For books: (a) all the authors last names and their first initials, (b) the year of publication, (c) the title of the work, and (d) the city of publication and the publisher.

EXAMPLE:

Rowntree, L., M. Lewis, M. Price, W. Wyckoff, 2000. Diversity Amid Globalization World Regions, Environment, Development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

For articles: (a) authors last names and first initials, (b) year of publication, (c) title, and (d) Name of Journal, Volume, Number, and Pages that the article occupies in the journal.

EXAMPLE:

Zimmerer, K. S. 1991. Wetland production and smallholder persistence: agricultural change in a highland Peruvian region. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 81 (2): 443-63.

(NOTE: this reads: volume 81, number 2, pages 443-463)