How to cite sources

You must use citations whenever you include information or ideas that are not your own.  This includes, but is not limited to, quotes.  Any non-original idea that is not cited is considered plagiarism.  Plagiarism can result in failing the paper and/or course.

In-text citations

If you include the author’s name in the sentence, follow the name with the year in parentheses.

….Smith (1988) argues……

if it’s a direct quote:

……Smith (1988:32) states……

If author’s name is not included in the sentence, insert last name and year in parentheses after the sentence.

…….(Smith 1988).

If it’s a direct quote, the page number should follow the year of publication after a colon:       ……..(Smith 1988:32)

If you have joint authors use both names (Smith and Curry 1988).  If there are more than two authors, use all last names on first citation and then use ‘et al.’ thereafter.

(Smith, Curry, and Thomas 1976)…….and later……(Smith, et al. 1976)

when you cite an article from an edited book, be sure to cite the author of the article, not the editor of the book

separate a series of references with a semicolon.  Put earliest publication first (Smith 1998; Jones 1992)

Bibliography

Put at the end of your paper.  Place items in alphabetical order by author

• For books
  • Rambo, L. 1993. Understanding Religious Conversion.  New Haven: Yale University Press.

• For edited books (different authors)
  • Eichhorn, D.M., and Jakobovits, I. 1995. “Shall Jews Missionize?” Pp. 131-147 in Readings on Conversion to Judaism, edited by L. Epstein. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc

• For journal articles:
  • Barker, I. and Currie, R. 1985. “Do Converts Always Make the Most Committed Christians?” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 24:305-313.

• For electronic sources:
  • Author’s name or alias (if known), the title of the work in quotes, the title of the full work in Italics (if known), date of publication, relevant site address, date of visit. 

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