How to cite

Below are some guidelines and real-life examples for in-text citations and references in your papers in the APA, Chicago, Harvard, ISO 690 and Vancouver citation styles. In addition to providing an indicator of quality, by citing correctly you respect copyright and avoid plagiarism. 

A girl looking at books in a library

Basic concepts

When embarking on an activity, project or piece of research, the likelihood is that someone else has written about the same subject before and you need to do some research. You must always identify the sources used so that readers know where your ideas came from. 

In order to do this, you need a very clear understanding of these key concepts:

This is a mention in your paper of something that was written or said by someone else. This could be, for example, an article, a podcast or a tweet. It must follow a citation style or standard and include a minimum amount of information identifying the source. For example:

90% of students have no problem successfully completing the first stage (Sánchez, 2010).

This is all the basic data needed to identify the sources used. It must follow a citation style or standard. The full list of references must be included in the bibliography at the end of your work, and every citation in the text must have a reference in the bibliography. For example:

Garita, R. [Renato]. (2010). Modelos y teorías computacionales de la memoria humana: Un estado de la cuestión y análisis crítico. Revista Educación, 34(2), 75–94.

A citation style is a set of guidelines for citing and referencing sources in your work. There are many different citation styles.

This involves taking someone else's idea and passing it off as your own. Copying and pasting a text from the internet without citing the source can be considered plagiarism. This is a serious offence at the UOC.