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Citing in AMA Format: Citing in AMA

What are Citations (and Why Do We Need Them)?

Citing your sources allows people to follow up on your research -- people can look at your references to find similar research, but your citations need to be correct so other people can use that research as wel! Citing your resources correctly also will help you avoid plagiarism, an issue that has serious consequences. Students found plagiarizing may fail a course or even be asked to leave the program, while faculty and researchers have been known to lose careers over it. So citing your resources is very important!

A citation is not simply a copied URL or the title of an article. URLs change, and sometimes there are multiple articles with the same title. Having all of the details, including volume, issue and page number can help researchers decipher between similar works with the same title.

When to Cite

You will need to cite your sources every time you are presenting information that is not an original thought or "common knowledge."

Information that is assumed common knowledge, such as "George Washington was the first President of the United States," does not need to be quoted -- you and most of the people that would be reading your paper already know that, so you don't need to search for a source to back up your statement.

Anytime you have to look up information for your paper, you should be inserting a citation. For a literature review, it might feel like you are citing a lot... That is good! Unless you are writing an essay or describing original research, you should have many citations throughout your paper.

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