A Guide to Library Research

Types of Citation Styles

Different disciplines (history, English, biology, etc.) require research papers to be formatted in a specific way.  This includes the formatting of the page (page numbers, line spacing, style and size of font), as well as how to cite the sources used in the paper. The library has guides to assist with how to create citations specific to each style. Some guides also provide assistance with how to format the works cited page.

Why Cite?

Give credit where credit is due. If the information didn't originate from your own mind, give credit to the person, group, etc. who did create it. This prevents you from plagiarizing.

To plagiarize is...

To steal and pass off (the ideas or words or another) as one's own; use without crediting the source.

- Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed.

• Using the words or thoughts of others -- copy & paste (from a website, a book, magazine, etc.)
• Putting your name on someone else's paper
• Paraphrasing (rewriting it in your own words) a source and not citing it
• Lack of quotation marks when using someone else's material 

HCC students are members of the University of Hawaii community and are held accountable to the systemwide Student Conduct Code which prohibits acts of academic dishonesty. In addition to cheating, academic dishonesty includes plagiarism.

Watch the video, Information Ethics: Plagiarism & Copyright [7:32], to get a better understanding of plagiarism.

For off-campus access, please login with your UH username and password.

If video doesn't load in the player, please use this link.

All of the Library's Research Databases will provide the option to cite the source and a way to either save the item or quickly retrieve it. These options make the research process so much easier!

As soon as you find information that could be useful: 

1) Save, print, email, download, copy a link, etc., so you can easily get back to it.

2) Copy and past the citation into a Word or GoogleDoc so that you can quickly start your works cited page/bibliography. Edit the document later to remove unused sources and for the proper citation style format. (Image is of MLA 8 Citation Style)

3) Check the citation for accuracy.

For example, an APA citation from Academic Search Complete mistakenly capitalizes letters in the title.

KEY & PEELE’S COMEDY Syllabus. (2014). Entertainment Weekly, 1331, 48–52.

The citation should look like this:

Key & Peele's Comedy Syllabus. (2014). Entertainment Weekly, 1331, 48–52.