5. CONDUCTING RESEARCH
5.5 Citing Sources
Regardless of whether you are quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing, you must cite your source any time you use someone else’s intellectual property, whether in the form of words, ideas, language structures, images, statistics, data, or formulas.
Perhaps more than ever before, it is critical to give the reader confidence in the reliability of the information you are sharing. Citational Practice — or citing and documenting your sources — is a crucial component of using research in your writing in both academic and professional contexts. Citing sources is required as part of maintaining Academic Integrity, and is also required in professional practice to acknowledge how you have used someone else’s intellectual property and give credit where credit is due. In addition to simply abiding by rules and expectations, there are significant benefits to citing your sources:
- By giving credit to the experts who have helped you build an argument, you show that you have done the appropriate reading and research to write confidently and credibly about this topic. This strengthens your credibility and shows how you are engaging in this scholarly conversation.
- By synthesizing research sources effectively, you save your reader considerable time and allow them to digest a lot of complex information quickly
- By distinguishing your ideas clearly from those of your sources, and providing thorough references, you make it easy for your reader to follow up if they want to review those sources in more detail.
Using IEEE Style
Different disciplines use different “styles” to cite sources, and the conventions used within each of these styles are designed to meet the needs of those using them.
MLA Style (Author page number) is generally used in the Humanities
APA Style (Author, date) is often used in Social Sciences
IEEE Style [#] is generally used in Engineering and Computer Science.
Explanations and examples used here will focus on the conventions used in IEEE Style. If you want to learn more about APA style, I recommend reading Citing in APA Style by Natalie Boldt and Loren Gaudet.
Citational practice is essentially a cross-referencing system made up of two parts: the in-text citation within the body and the References list at the end of the document
In-text citations: when you (a) first refer to a source, (b) quote, paraphrase or summarize a source, or (c) use data or graphics from a source, you must place an in-text citation referring to that source within paragraph or caption. The citation takes the form of a number in a square bracket [1] typed inline with your sentence text (generally not super-scripted). Citations are numbered in chronological order as they appear in your paper. Thus, the first source that you cite is [1]. The second source is [2], etc. Once a source is given a number, it always retains that number. So if you cite the first source later on in your paper, it is still (and always) cited as [1] throughout your paper.
References List: include a numbered list of all the sources you have cited in your paper in chronological order, documented properly in IEEE style, at the end of your paper. A reader familiar with academic conventions will be able to tell what kinds of sources you have referenced by the way you have formatted the information, and will be able to find the source based on the information included. Be sure to include the URL and/or DOI for each source, so that the reader can easily click and go to the source.
In-text Citations FAQ
1. Where should I place the citation?
In-text citations alert the reader that you have used source material. Thus, it is crucially important to place the citation strategically so that your reader can distinguish the source material from your ideas. You have several choices of where to place the citation, depending on context:
At the end of the sentence (default position):
This theory was first put forward in Johnson’s 1996 study [1].
When referring directly to sources:
Several recent studies such as [2], [3], [4]-[7] have further developed Johnson’s theory…
Immediately after the author’s name:
For example, Chan and Stuart [2] claims that…
Immediately after the quotation or paraphrase:
Smith concludes that “insert a quotation here” [3], but other scientists [4]-[7] argue that her conclusions are flawed. Indeed, Mehta et al. call for a complete “reworking” of the theory [4].
Some critical thinking is necessary to determine the best place to insert your citation (and where to place punctuation) to clearly indicate what information comes from the source, and avoid confusing the reader about where source information ends and your ideas begin. For example, following sentence would likely confuse a reader, as the sentence clearly presents the author’s own opinion, yet ends in a citation:
Confusing Citation:
I believe it is essential that our team create a Team Charter during the “forming stage” [1].
What is being cited here? This seems like a “random act of citation.” If a citation is needed, make sure that you are clearly indicating where the information comes from by using a narrative signal phrase:
Clear Citation:
I believe it is essential that our team create a Team Charter during what Tuckman refers to as the “forming stage” [1].
2. Should page numbers go in the citation?
When citing a direct quotation from a print source, your citation should indicate the page where that quotation can be found:
[2, p.7]. or, if referring to 2 or more consecutive page [2, pp. 7-8]
If the source is a web based or does not have pagination, you don’t have to indicate page numbers (nor paragraph numbers).
When citing equations, figures, tables, and appendices, use the same format you use for citing the page number:
[3, eq. (2)]
[3, Fig. 7.2]
[3, Appendix B]
If you create your own visual (table or graph) based on the data from a source, then your citation should refer to the source you got the data from. You might include a note such as
… data in Figure 1 has been adapted from [3].
3. Do I need to keep citing a source every time I refer to it?
If you are discussing the ideas in a source at length (for example, in a summary), you do not need to cite every consecutive sentence. Cite the first time you mention the source. As long the following sentences clearly indicate that the ideas come from the same source—for example, you are using signal phrases, such as “the authors further clarify the problem by… they illustrate the importance of the issue with…”—you do not need to keep citing.
If you stop using signal phrases, be sure to include a citation. If you introduce material from another source or add your own analysis between references to that source, you will have to re-cite the source when you refer to it again. Always make sure your reader knows which ideas come from a source, and which come from you, and when you shift from one to the other. If in doubt, cite.
4. What if there is more than one author?
If the source you are citing has one or two authors, use their names in your signal phrase:
- Brady [5] argues that ….
- Mehta and Barth’s study [6] demonstrates that ….
If the source has three or more authors, use the name of the lead author, followed by et al., the Latin term meaning “and the others.” Like all Latin words, et al. should be italicized:
- Isaacson et al., in their study on fluid dynamics, found that ….
NOTE: in your Reference at the end of your paper, it is a courtesy to list the names of all the contributing authors (rather than using et al.). However, if there are more than 6 authors, it is acceptable to use et al. in your reference list after naming the first 6 authors.
References List
The Reference List serves several purposes. Most importantly, it provides complete bibliographical information for each source you have used so that readers can easily find and read them if they want more information. The way each source is formatted also tells the experienced reader, who is familiar with the conventions, what kind of source you have used. A reference to a book is formatted differently from a journal article, which differs from a website, and so on. Below are some of the typical conventions used in IEEE when formatting your reference list.
Guidelines for Setting up an IEEE References List
- Create a bold References heading, aligned with the left margin. If you are using headings, make this heading consistent with other first level headings in your document.
- The references should be presented in chronological order, following the order they are introduced in the body text. Each source has its own unique reference number and thus should only appear once in the References list. Source [1] is always referred to as source [1].
- The numbers in the square brackets should be flush with the left margin, and should form a column of their own, with the text of the references indented so the numbers are easy for the reader to see (use the “hanging indent” function to format this, or use a 2 column table with invisible grid lines).
- Provide the names of all authors (up to six), but only use the first initial. Don’t invert the order (write S. Last, not Last, S.). Separate authors’ names with commas and include the word “and” before the final author.
- Capitalize only the first word (and the first word after a colon, as well as proper nouns) in titles of articles within journals, magazines and newspapers, chapters in books, conference papers, and reports. Only use ALL CAPS for acronyms. These titles should be placed in quotation marks. (think of these as “contained” titles, as they are contained in a larger work and contained in quotation marks).
- Use Title Case for the titles of books, journals, magazines and newspapers. These titles should be italicized. (think of these as the container titles).
- Add a space between references if you single space each reference. Use a hanging indent to create a “column” for the bracketed numbers so they are easily distinguished.
- If you use a citation generating software, be sure to review all references to ensure that they are accurate and complete. Algorithms can introduce errors; you are responsible for reviewing and revising them for accuracy and completeness.
- Be sure to add URLs and/or DOIs to each reference, so that your reader can easily access your sources. Check to make sure the links work before submitting.
NOTE: if you are using Gen AI tools as part of your research process, you must review and evaluate all content it generates to ensure that it has summarized and cited sources correctly (and that it has used sources that actually exist!) If you cite a source in your paper, you are indicating that you have actually read it, or at least portions of it. Citing sources that you have not read yourself is a form of academic dishonesty, and can result in you misrepresenting the source or even fabricating data. In “Tracing the social half-life of a zombie citation,” Ben Williamson, an academic editor, recounts his experience of finding a citation referencing himself as author of a work he did not write (a “hallucinated” or “zombie” source) in a paper submitted to his journal. He searched Google Scholar to find that this source seemed to have been cited numerous times in other publications.[1]
If you cannot find the original source, consider that maybe it does not exist! In such cases, you might ask a librarian to help you. If you are confident that the source actually exists, you can create what is called a ” secondary citation” where you indicate the source that you actually did read, which contains the information you have used. This might look something like (Author A, as cited in Author B, 2007). In older sources (pre 2022), this might be fine; however, in this age of quickly proliferating “zombie” sources, proceed with caution!
Recommended Resources
Murdoch University Library has an excellent IEEE Referencing Guide that provides templates and samples for how to cite various kinds of sources – including AI generated material.
MS Word includes a system for creating, integrating and citing sources and creating your References list within your document. Learning how to use this system will save you time, especially if you are incorporating a large number of sources and writing collaboratively.
- B. Williamson, "Tracing the social half-life of a zombie citation," Code Acts in Education, 30 January, 2026. ↵
