Immigration

Proper citation is crucial to successful scholarship. By using citations, your reader or audience and find and identify the resources you have used. Most importantly, citations give credit to the authors of quotes or ideas you have used in your writing.

Failure to acknowledge sources of information properly may constitute plagiarism and can result in disciplinary action. For an explicit definition of plagiarism, see the Boston University Academic Conduct Code.

Proper citation is an essential aspect of scholarship. Citing properly allows your reader or audience to locate the materials you have used. Most importantly, citations give credit to the authors of quoted or consulted information. It also allows us to ensure we do not plagiarize other author's writing, ideas, quotes, or findings without credit or attribution. 

All citation styles include the basic elements necessary to identify your sources. The order they go in and the level of detail you need may vary by citation style and the type of material you are citing.

• author
• title
• date of publication
• page numbers
• volume and issue numbers (for journal articles)
• doi (Digital Object Identifier)  

A subject guide to citation managers is available here. BU Librarians often recommend  RefWorks as the best tool to manage citations. Accounts are free for the BU community, and most importantly RefWorks can automatically create a bibliography in hundreds of styles.

Citing Medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers

The official style manual for the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and suggested when citing documents from the associated databases MedLine and PubMed. The online edition supercedes the print edition as the most up to date.