4.4 Citations and references

Why cite and reference?

Academic research and writing is built on the work of others. Citing sources is necessary because it demonstrates that your ideas and conclusions are based on research, a highly-valued scholarly activity.

In preparing your work, you are expected to draw on a wide range of sources. Citing acknowledges your use of these sources, and:

• clarifies ownership of information, ideas or research
• helps your reader to locate and verify the cited information or idea
• gives credit to the original author for their ideas and work
• makes you look professional and authoritative i.e. you know what you're doing.

Not citing sources where necessary is dishonest and may be a breach of copyright or Plagiarism (see 6.1 Plagiarism).

When do I cite a source?

Cite your sources when you do any of the following in your writing:

• paraphrase or summarise an idea, argument or analysis from another source
• quote exact words from another source
• copy or adapt a graph, image, diagram or table from another source
• copy a procedure or method from another source
• present factual information, data or results from another source.

Quoting and paraphrasing is discussed in more detail in 6.1 Plagiarism.

What does not need to be cited?

Sources do not need to be cited for commonly-known facts, quotations or arguments.

For example: in the discipline of electrical engineering, Ohm's Law (which defines the relationships between power, voltage, current, and resistance) is considered common knowledge. Similarly, for physicists, Einstein's theory of relativity (E=mc²) would not need to be cited.

More general examples include:

• facts: e.g. Canberra is the capital of Australia


• widely known ideas: e.g. Adam Smith is regarded as the father of economics


• chemical symbols: e.g. Oxygen = O₂


• scientific names: e.g. Humans = Homo sapiens.

How you cite a source depends on several factors. Strict formatting rules need to be followed to cite and reference correctly.