The most common use of citations is to give credit to authors whose works you use. You must always credit to both quotations and paraphrases. In sociology, the preferred format is the in text citation. A "citation" is the in text referent to the material you used.  The complete bibliographic information for the citation is placed in the list of references.

Quotations: When you repeat a passage or statement word-for-word, you are quoting another person.  Quotations must be designated as such, usually by placing quotation marks around them.  Longer quotations (more than three lines) should be single-spaced and indented.  All quotations must be repeated exactly and cited exactly.  To avoid plagiarism you must include both the quotation marks and the citation.

Paraphrasing: When you restate a passage, keeping the essence or central idea of the passage intact but altering its form or substituting other words, you are paraphrasing. When you translate the original in order to clarify (or obscure) an idea or concept, you are paraphrasing.  If the idea or statement is presented as your own, or if you do not properly cite the original source, you are plagiarizing.

Plagiarism: Using materials or ideas without proper citation is plagiarism.  It is lying, cheating, and/or stealing.  The usual penalty for plagiarism is a failing grade for the course.  Students may be expelled from the College for plagiarism.  Note that the act of taking and using the ideas or words of another is plagiarism – motivation is not relevant.  Ignorance or sloppiness is no excuse.

Whom to reference: Reference the person(s) whose ideas and/or words you are using. This can be confusing for students when an author quotes material from someone else.  The best rule of thumb is to go to the primary source.  If an author quotes someone else, go to that quoted source.  Similarly, if the ideas and/or words you are using come from a chapter or article in a book edited by another author, you should remember that you are citing the person who wrote the chapter or the article.

• Page numbers are always necessary when quoting or paraphrasing.

• In the first in-text citation of items with three or more authors, list all names. Thereafter, use the first author's last name plus the words "et al."  List all names only when "et al.." would cause confusion.  In citations with two authors, list both the authors' last names.

• When two authors in your reference list have the same last name, use identifying initials, as in (J. Smith 1990).

• For institutional authorship, supply minimum identification from the beginning of the reference item, as in (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1944:123).

• When you cite more than once source, alphabetize citations within parentheses and separate with a semi-colon, as follows:
              ... issues that both faculty and students are expected to
             address (DeMartini 1983; Lynch and Smith 1985; Rippertoe 1977).

• Ampersand (&) should not be used as a substitute for "and" in citations and references.

• Do not number the references.

• Type the first line of the reference flush to the left margin. Indent any subsequent lines at least three spaces.

• Single space the references with a blank line between reference entries.

• The reference section must include all sources cited in the text. Name every author in each source; "et al." is not acceptable in the reference list.

• Use authors' first names, not initials.

• Only the first author is listed last name followed by first name. All other authors for the reference are listed first name then last name. 
           Example:  Duley, John S. and Jane E. Permaul. 1984.

• The title of the book, journal, or periodical should either be italicized or underscored.  The title of an article should appear in "quotation marks." Notice that the period or comma always appears inside the quotation marks.

• For a journal article, the volume number should appear following the title of the journal (or other periodical) followed by a colon and the page numbers on which the article appears. Do not insert a space after the colon. Example: American Sociological Review 85:362-87.

• If a journal numbers the pages consecutively within a volume year, you can omit the issue number or month. Include the issue number or month only when each issue in a volume year begins with page number 1.

• List publisher's name as concisely as possible without loss of clarity, as in "Wiley" for John A. Wiley and Sons.

Journal article with a single author:
Mundi, Gloria. 1988. "Bluffing in the Classroom." Teacher's Bulletin 43:129-36.

Journal article with two authors:
Duley, John S. and Jane E. Permaul. 1984. "Participation in and 
     Benefits from Experiential Education." Educational Record 65:18-32.

Book:
Amott, Theresa L. and Julie A. Matthaei. 1991. Race, 
     Gender  & Work: A Multicultural Economic History of 
     Women in the United States.  Boston, MA: South End.

Mason, Karen O. 1974. Women's Labor Force Participation
     and Fertility. Research Triangle Park, NC: National 
     Institutes of Health.

Book with edition number:
Brown, Charles. 1989. Writing Programs in American Universities. 8th ed.
     Lexington, MA:  Lexington Books.

Edited Books:
Thompson, Grahame, Jennifer Frances, Rosalind Levacic, and
    Jeremy Mitchell, eds. 1991. Markets, Hierarchies & 
    Networks. London: Sage.

Item in an edited volume:
Dynes, Russell and Irwin Deutscher. 1983. "Perspectives on Applied Educational
     Programs." Pp. 295-311 in Applied Sociology, edited by Howard E. Freeman, 
     Russell Dynes, Peter H. Rossi, and William F. Whyte. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Government Documents
U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1960. Characteristics of the Population.
     Vol 1. Washington, D.C.:  U.S. Government Printing Office.

Some general guidelines:
• The date provided in electronic information is not necessarily the original date of publication for the resource. The date may be when it was added to the database.

• The goal of the reference is to allow the information to be retrieved again. Check to make sure that the information you provide will allow the reader to go directly to the source you cite.

• Punctuation and capitalization, especially the electronic address of the resource, should appear exactly as it is used in the database.

•Always indicate the date of publication when it is available. If there is no file date found, give the date when the user retrieved the file. Example: Retrieved January 7, 1997. 

An on-line journal article:
Jacobsen, John W., Jane A. Mulick, and Anne A. Schwartz. 1995. "A History 
    of Facilitated Communication: Science, Pseudoscience, and Antiscience."
    American Psychologist 50:750-65. Retrieved January 25, 1996
    (http://www.apa.org/journals/jacobsen.html).

An on-line book:
National Congress of American Indians. 1983. Tribal Populations and 
    International Banking Practices: A Fundamental Conflict Over 
   Development Goals. Retrieved October 15, 1997.
   (http://www. halcyon.com/FWDP/indig.html) (File: BANKPOLY.TXT).

On-line government documents:
Citing a .txt or .html file: 
U.S. Census Bureau. June 1993. "Advance Data from the Quarterly 
     Financial Report for Manufacturing, Mining, and Trade 
     Corporations--First Quarter 1993."
     (http://www.census.gov/agfs/qfr/view/qfr931mg.txt).

U.S.Census Bureau. September 25 1996. "1995 State Tax Collection Data by State." 
    (http://www.census.gov/govs/www/sttax95.html)

Citing a specific table: 
U.S. Census Bureau. October 4, 1996. "The Foreign-Born Population, (Table) 1. Selected Characteristics of the Population by Citizenship: 1994."  Retrieved September 1, 1998.
(http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/foreign.html).

Citing a .pdf file:
U.S. Census Bureau "Population Projections of the United States by Age, Sex, and Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2050." Retrieved January 10, 1997.
(http://www.census.gov/prod/www/titles.html#popest)

Citing ftp files:
give the file name (M20a9611.wk1) and the ftp address

U.S. Census Bureau. January 7, 1998. M20a9611.wk1
(ftp://www.census.gov/pub/industry/M20a9611.txt). 

U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved January 12, 1998. stp222.06
(ftp://ftp.census.gov/housing)

Other on-line texts:
Boynton, Charles B. 1867. "A duty which the colored people owe to themselves. A sermon delivered at Metzerott hall, Washington, DC." In African American Perspectives, 1818-1907. Retrieved August 14, 1996.
(http://lcweb2.loc.gov/aap/aaphome.html; lcrbmrp t2002).
 
 

¹This guide, including examples, is based on the American Sociological Association Style Guide, 2nd ed., guidelines for contributors in Teaching Sociology,  the USM Sociology Department "Guide to Referencing," the U.S. Census Bureau "Suggested Citation Styles for our Internet Information," the Library of Congress "Citing Electronic Sources," and the Sarah Byrd Askew Library, William Paterson College "Guide for Citing Electronic Information."