What are the best practices for citing and acknowledging sources in academic publishing?

4 When to cite sources?

You should cite sources whenever you use or refer to someone else's ideas, words, data, or works in your paper. You should cite sources when you quote, paraphrase, or summarize them, as well as when you use their concepts, theories, models, frameworks, or methods. You should also cite sources when you use their facts, statistics, graphs, tables, figures, or images, as well as when you compare, contrast, or evaluate them. You should not cite sources when you state your own opinions, observations, or conclusions, or when you use common knowledge, such as widely accepted facts, dates, or definitions.

5 How to acknowledge sources?

Besides citing sources, you should also acknowledge sources that have influenced or supported your research, but are not directly used or referred to in your paper. You can acknowledge sources in different ways, such as in the acknowledgements section, the footnotes, the preface, or the appendices. You should acknowledge sources that have provided you with funding, grants, scholarships, or awards, as well as sources that have given you access, permission, or assistance with your data, materials, or equipment. You should also acknowledge sources that have offered you guidance, feedback, or advice, such as your supervisors, mentors, colleagues, or reviewers.

6 What are the consequences of not citing or acknowledging sources?

Not citing or acknowledging sources can have serious consequences for your academic reputation and career. Not citing or acknowledging sources can be considered as plagiarism, which is the act of presenting someone else's ideas, words, or works as your own, without proper attribution. Plagiarism can result in penalties, such as rejection, retraction, or correction of your paper, as well as sanctions, such as loss of funding, suspension, or expulsion from your institution. Plagiarism can also damage your credibility, trustworthiness, and integrity as a researcher, and harm your relationships with other researchers, journals, and publishers.