You’ll never be accused of plagiarism if you know both when to cite and the few times you don’t have to.
Hi, if you don’t know me, I’m Dr Theresa Orr.
You’re welcome to learn more about how I help students succeed at university with my Uni Pro Accelerator Course.
Most of us already know it’s important to cite when we use other peoples ideas, words or data. But there are so many different ways that we use research papers when we’re writing assignments that it’s not always that straightforward.
In fact, not everything needs a citation, so here’s a full guide on when to cite and when not to…to make citing and referencing at university less confusing.
You can also watch my video on when to cite (and when not to) here:
When You Do Need To Cite
Most of our writing and images will need citations, and that’s because at university we rarely come up with new things. More often than not we’re just writing about what others have already found.
Follow these citation rules, and you’ll protect yourself from plagiarism while keeping your writing clear and professional. You can also read my complete guide on academic writing here.
1. Using Someone Else’s Data
If you use data that comes from another study, you have to reference it every time you use it. This is one of the most common citation situations in reports, literature reviews, and essays.
- Cite it in your text when you describe or discuss the data.
- Cite it again in the figure caption if you turn that data into a graph.
- Cite it in the table caption if you display it in a table.
One study can end up being cited multiple times throughout your assignment, which is completely normal. If you have a look at most journal articles (or research papers) they repeat the same citations throughout their text and captions too.
Example
If you write about it in text:
- Rainfall variability in East Africa has increased over the past 200 years (Smith et al., 2020).
If you then make a graph showing Smith et al.’s rainfall data, you must also write:
- Figure 1. Rainfall variability in East Africa (Smith et al., 2020).
If you include Smith et al.’s rainfall data in a table you also need to write:
- Table 1. Rainfall variability in East Africa, data sourced from Smith et al. (2020).
What counts as “data”?
“Data” are not just numbers – yes, I know that’s what you’re thinking, but it’s more than that: Data are any:
- Numerical results: re.g., ainfall totals, test scores, population sizes.
- Experimental findings: e.g., lab measurements, chemical concentrations, gene sequences.
- Observational data: e.g., survey responses, interview transcripts, field notes.
- Statistical outputs: e.g., regression results, charts, or tables from published studies.
💡Tip
Always make it obvious which part of your assignment is yours and which part came from someone else.
Re-labeling data or copying a graph without citation is plagiarism, even if you’ve mentioned the study earlier in your text.
When in doubt, cite!
2. Paraphrasing or Summarizing
When you rewrite someone else’s words into your own, you need to cite the original source. Even if the sentence is completely different, the idea isn’t yours. So, ultimately we’re really citing someone else’s idea, and not just how they phrased it in text.
Example
Original (from a source):
“Climate change is increasing drought risk in Australia.”
Paraphrased (in your own words):
“Research shows that drought events are becoming more frequent in Australia due to climate change (Jones, 2021).”
Both sentences look different, but the idea is the same. That means you must include the reference.
This is the most common form of citation in essays and literature reviews. They’re important because it shows that you’ve understood the material and can explain it in your own words. So, it’s a good citation to have.
💡Tip
A good paraphrase isn’t just swapping words for synonyms.
- Try changing the sentence structure, shortening the idea, or combining it with related points.
This shows real understanding and avoids patchy, half-copied text that still looks suspicious.
3. Direct Quotes, Images, and Videos
When you copy the exact words from a source, you must give full credit. That probably seems obvious, but this also applies to visuals like images, graphs, and videos (because they are ‘direct’, or unaltered).
The rules are simple:
- Use quotation marks around copied text.
- Add the citation immediately after the quote.
- Include a page number if your referencing style (e.g., APA, Chicago) requires it.
- For images, graphs, or videos, provide the full reference in the caption as well as the reference list.
It’s the exact same as if you were stiching someone’s content on Instagram, you would always tag the person (otherwise you would be ripping off their content).
Example
Direct text quote citations:
“Climate change is the defining challenge of our time” (UN, 2019, p. 3).
Image citation:
Figure 1. Average rainfall in Australia, adapted from Bureau of Meteorology (2022).
The key word in the image citation is “adapted”, it means you didn’t make it yourself. You can also write “sourced from…” instead if you didn’t change the image or video at all.
Keep direct quotes short and rarely use them. Most of your assignment should be in your own words.
I know it can be tempting to just whack an entire sentence in from a paper and then put quotation marks around it and add a citation. It seems easier than bothering to paraphase it. But to give you an idea, I probably only used direct quote two or three times, in my entire undergrad.
💡Tip
Quotes are best used for:
- definitions
- key phrases (e.g., “beyond a reasonable doubt”)
- when the original wording is too important to change
- when changing the orginal wording is impossible because the words are very specific or accurate (e.g., “climate-change induced”).
- technical terms or names, such as when a method, model, or technique has an official name that can’t be changed, e.g., the “capsule method” in EA-IRMS analysis)
4. Using Someone Else’s Method
If you use someone else’s method or technique for your study then you need to cite them. Even if you change a method slightly (e.g., you use the same first three steps, but change the last one), you still need to credit where it came from. This is common in most research reports, lab work, or dissertations.
In fact, in some papers you might read “completed following the method of XYZ”, and there would be almost no other method details.
Example
Text citation:
“We conducted soil nutrient analysis following the procedure of Smith et al. (2015), but reduced the sample size from 50 to 30 cores due to site limitations.”
Lab report citation:
“DNA extraction was performed using the Johnson and Lee (2018) protocol, with modifications: buffer concentration was doubled, and centrifugation time shortened from 10 to 7 minutes.”
Here are the citation rules to follow in this situation:
- Cite the original source of the method.
- If you made changes, explain what you changed (e.g., adjusted the sample size, swapped a material, shortened the timeframe).
- Always make it clear that the method is based on someone else’s work, not fully your own.
💡Tip
Think of methods like recipes.
If you follow a recipe from a cookbook, you’d credit the cookbook author. Even if you tweak the seasoning, it’s still their recipe.
Which, by the way is how you write the method section of a scientific report – like a recipe.
You can read more on how to write a scientific report here.
When You Don’t Need To Cite
There’s only a couple of times that we don’t need to cite, but they’re just as important:
1. Accepted or General Knowledge
If something is considered universally accepted, then you don’t need a reference. These are facts that are so well known, they belong to everyone (or rather, they don’t belong to any one person).
Examples of general knowledge you don’t need to cite:
- The Earth is round.
- World War II ended in 1945.
These are basic facts that don’t “belong” to any one researcher or study, so no citation is needed. If you ever tried to find the original person to say these things you would be looking for a long time!
What’s not general knowledge and would need citations:
- “Climate change is increasing the frequency of heatwaves in Australia”.
This is based on research. Even though you might have read it many times, it still needs a reference. - “Exercise improves mental health”.
This feels “obvious,” but it’s only obvious because lots of studies have shown this same result. You must cite one of them.
💡Tip
A good test:
- If you can’t find a single “first” person who said it (because everyone already knows it), it’s general knowledge.
- If you can trace it back to research or a particular author, cite it.
2. Your Own Work
If the material you’re writing about comes directly from you, then there’s no need to cite anyone else. This includes your own data (from experiments, surveys, or studies etc), your own experiences (like in reflective or narrative essays), and your own images (photos, graphs, or diagrams you created).
Think about it, if someone else didn’t make or produce it, then you don’t need a citation.
Example
Don’t cite when it’s:
- Your own data → e.g., results from a lab experiment or survey you conducted
- Your own experiences → e.g., a story from your personal experience in a reflective essay
- Your own images → e.g., a graph you created from data you collected
The only exception to this is if you’re re-using your own material. Then you would need to cite yourself. For example, if you reused an image from a previous assignment in a new one.
Re-using your own work without citing yourself is called self-plagiarism, and universities take it just as seriously as plagiarizing someone else’s work.
💡Tip
If you change or reuse someone else’s work (e.g., change a method, redraw a diagram, use their data), you still need to cite the original source.
And when in doubt, follow my golden citation rule…. if you didn’t write it, cite it (yes, I know…it rhymes).
