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The foundation of scholarly communication is academic writing, and its lifeblood is citation. The complex society that is academic discourse runs in good part on the principle of intellectual honesty, and citation is a key to that. It is also a key to my understanding of what happens when I read texts and what I am expected to do when I write my own. The simplest version of the story is that I read the words, I understand the author's point (in this case, I hope with as much or more clarity than the author had when writing), and I go ahead and write my own point. If the author's point is crucial to mine (and sometimes it is), I will go ahead and "cite" the author, which is a way of saying that the living-and-writing sphere of the academic community is as much mine as the author's.

Academic Integrity and Ethics

The very foundation of scholarly work and intellectual discourse in our colleges and universities is formed by academic integrity. At its heart, proper citation honors academic honesty and upholds the intellectual property rights of those who produce knowledge. When students and researchers use the words of others, they must use them in a way that acknowledges the others’ contribution. In doing so, they uphold the very purpose of citation while also maintaining the scholarly rigor and ethical conduct necessary for a professional academic life. Failure to do any of this can lead to significant consequences, including damaged reputations and the very potential for "academic dishonesty" that citation is supposed to ward off.

The quality of academic scholarship suffers when scholars are dishonest, especially when they resort to plagiarism and improper citation. This is not only a problem for the immediate academic community; it also has consequences for society at large. When scholars defraud society in this way, they undermine the trust that is essential for the kind of intellectual work that leads to both "conversations" and "advancement." Additionally, as is by now well understood, pathways of citation and reference serve as essential roads for "tracing and verifying" in the work that is done within the enormous collective intellectual undertaking that is "our civilization."

Academic institutions create an environment where original thought and ethical scholarship can flourish when they live up to these standards. They prepare students for the kind of responsible professional practice that is just as necessary in the private sector and in government as it is in the nonprofit world.

Benefits and Impact

Building Credibility

The very foundation of research writing, as well as the very foundation of academic integrity and scholarly authority, is constituted by citations. They are what confer authority upon not only individual statements but also whole bodies of work. And when they are not done right, it is not merely that the result has a somewhat shoddy appearance; it is much worse, for it goes to the very heart of what research writing is in our culture.

Research writing is a way of having a conversation with other scholars. When you have a conversation, you signal to your audience the points at which you are engaging with a conversation they might have had. You show that you understand their language and that you are fluent in the dialect of the conversation. That is what citations do.

Research Foundation

Creating pathways and knowledge for academic goodwill is no small feat. This is precisely what citations do—they create pathways for the flow of academic knowledge. The citation, as it were, is the very currency of academic progress. And yet, there is a special responsibility for the Golden Rule of "Do unto others" when it comes to citations: You must first acknowledge others' work before you can justifiably use it to further your own ideas. Indeed, the citation practice is rooted in this basic ethical obligation. But why do researchers in the world of academia really need to stay on the straight and narrow when it comes to citations? Because they are providing a model for all levels of academic society, including at the K–12 stage. And because the outcomes of their research, in so many cases, have "real world" implications beyond the academic sphere.

Practical Implementation

In today's scholarly writing, knowing how to cite properly is not just common sense; it is essential and takes some serious understanding of both tools and styles. Academics use many different citation styles, but the ones you hear most often are APA, MLA, and Chicago. They serve long and varied purposes, across many disciplines and sub-disciplines, and their conventions could fill a book. Indeed, they do fill books. So, instead, I will give you just a few basics about each style, and then I will let you know when you might see them.

The organization of references has been transformed by digital tools. Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote are favorites among many researchers. These software programs allow you to collect, store, and nearly format your citations all at the same time. Eliminate formatting errors with almost zero effort. All three tools can work smoothly with your favorite word processor, and two can generate annotations as you write. Best practices with these tools and with citations in general amplifies their usefulness.

It is vitally important to check that all the citations in the text match up with the entries in the reference list. And does the formatting of the in-text citations and the reference list appear to be consistent throughout the whole document? This is a good time to ask those vital questions; otherwise, the next wayward question will be: "Why isn't my document building correctly?" And when no one wants to deal with such a situation, we'd all do well to keep our citation software updated for both the sake of accuracy and for the sake of looking like we're on top of things.

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