Research Guides: Art Research Guide: Citing Sources

Avoiding Plagiarism

Properly citing sources is integral to avoiding plagiarism. The following websites clarify what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.

OCAD U Academic Integrity
Outlines OCAD U's academic integrity policies, consequences, and ways to avoid plagiarism. A good place to start for an overview of how to avoid plagiarism at OCAD U.
University of Guelph Plagiarism Guide
An excellent guide that explains plagiarism in detail, including when to cite sources and the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing. Includes quizzes to test what you've learned.

Online Style Guides

Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) has easy-to-use online style guides for MLA, APA, and Chicago Style. These are a great place to start if you are looking for help with a particular citation style.

Each guide outlines basic rules for in-text citations, works cited lists, and bibliographies. This includes how to cite different kinds of books, journal articles, websites, videos, images, and much more.

Citing images correctly is just as important as citing written sources in your work. The following guides provide specific guidelines for citing images from some of the most common sources.

Finding and Using Images Online: Citing
Includes guidelines for APA, Chicago, and MLA styles (Simon Fraser University Library)
Citing images -- MLA style
Scroll down for section: "Images, Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph" (Purdue University Online Writing Lab).
Creative Commons -- Best practices for attribution

Citation Management Tools

Citation management tools are an excellent way to keep track of art and design research, including images, and can help create works cited lists and bibliographies.

There are several popular citation management tools:

Zotero
Free. The easiest to use and get started with. Works with a variety of media.
Mendeley
Free. Excellent for use with PDFs and provides more storage than Zotero.
Papers
Pay for license. Excellent for managing, searching for, and reading PDFs.
EndNote
Pay for software. Steepest learning curve but highly customizable. Excellent for large projects like theses and book-length works.