I had a conversation this evening with a graduate student about references and citations. Even when students think they have it right, somehow they still seem to miss the mark. That’s because few understand the significance of a citation. Most focus on whether or not the brackets and dates are in the right place, and not on why the citation is needed in the first place.
Let me break it down for you. When you use research to establish or support a point you’re making in your paper, you must credit the source of the research by naming the author(s) and the year the material was published. That is a citation.
It’s important to do this because you don’t want to be called out for using someone’s work and passing it off as yours. That’s the result of not citing when you mention studies and findings and anything that you didn’t come up with yourself.
If you came up with it yourself, then where’s your research to support your claims? Yes, you have to cite yourself if you have done prior research that you’re including in the current paper. If you haven’t done any studies to back up your assertions, then what’s the basis for your conclusions? That’s right, someone else’s research, who you must credit.
The trick with citations, though, is having enough support for the points you’re making. One or two researchers per point are not enough for a graduate level paper. If there are only two studies on the matter, and it’s cutting-edge stuff that no one else is doing, how is this research fitting in with everyone else’s? How are other researchers reacting to this new concept? You still have to place the research in a context.
The bottom line with citations, particularly at the graduate level, is that you must demonstrate that you’re widely read, which means you can connect several studies to support your ideas.
