WR151: Sociological Perspectives on Aging and Health in the United States

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. Failure to acknowledge sources of information properly may constitute plagiarism.  For an explicit definition of plagiarism, see the Boston University Academic Conduct Code.

For detailed instructions on how to cite within the text of your paper, please consult a style manual listed in this guide. Please also note: some of the resources listed do not cover every possibility you might encounter when trying to cite your sources. For this reason, it is suggested that you consult a style manual to create your bibliography.

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. There are other such tools.

Finally, please also see our separate citation guides for Business students or for Science students.

**A reminder from your WR151 instructor** "List all sources cited throughout your research paper in the reference section. For this course, the American Sociological Association (ASA) citation style is preferred to maintain uniformity across all submissions. If you are more familiar with a different citation style that is standard in your specific discipline, please feel free to use it, but ensure that it is applied consistently throughout your paper."