Anthropology 

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Photo by Ken White, U.S. State Dept.

Unsure of how to cite sources in your papers?  Follow the steps below to create plagiarism-free research papers.

1. Find out which citation style is required

If you're a student, ask your professor which style you should use.  If you're preparing a manuscript for publication, visit the journal's web site and find the submissions guidelines.  Below are links to help guides for popular citation styles in anthropology.

• American Anthropological Association Style 
• APA (American Psychological Association) Style 
• Chicago Style 
• MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

2. While writing, cite sources within the text

Some citation styles use footnotes, which lead readers to full citations at the bottom of each page.  Others use in-text citations, which often consist of the author's name and the year of publication or page numbers within parentheses.  For example, in-text citations may look like (Stewart & Wang, 1993) or (Kochinski 247-248), depending on the style your are using.  Make sure you cite each piece of information from another source that you quote directly or paraphrase.  You should also cite any graphics you've borrowed.  If you don't know whether the information you use is worth citing, consult your style guide or ask a professor or librarian.

3. Keep track of the sources you've used, and create your bibliography/works cited list

As you're citing sources in the text of your paper, add the source to your list of works cited, which is sometimes called a bibliography or a reference list.  Each citation style prescribes its own way of citing sources, and sometimes this can be confusing, especially for web resources.  If you don't know how to cite a source, contact a librarian for help.

4. Proofread your paper...

...and ask yourself the following questions:

• Is each quote or paraphrase cited?
• Could someone else use my bibliography to find the sources I used?
• Do all my in-text citations correspond to full citations in my bibliography?
• Are all the charts, graphs, and images cited?

The answer to each question should be yes.  If not, may need to contact a librarian for help.  For help with writing (grammar, structure, word choice, etc.), contact the UNLV Writing Center.