This page provides general information on citations, including how to identify the citation elements of a library source. For help with APA formatting and writing, explore the resources available in the Writing Center.
A citation is a direct quote, paraphrase, or summary of someone else’s information in a work written by someone else. When you write a paper and reference someone else’s work, you must cite them as a source.
Citing your sources is important for several reasons:
Note! Plagiarism can be intentional and unintentional. Plagiarism occurs when you fail to properly acknowledge an author's work in your paper, effectively claiming their work as your own. If you do not cite your sources, you may face a charge of plagiarism under Chamberlain University's Academic Integrity Policy. Refer to the section on plagiarism (pages 31-32) for more details on what qualifies as plagiarism at the University.
In-text citations are required whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize information or ideas from an author’s work in your paper.
To create a citation for a source, you first need to know what type of source it is. You can identify the type of source by becoming familiar with the parts of a citation. If you cannot find the necessary information in the database result, open the document to determine the type of source.
Consider the images of a record from CINAHL below. You can see:
With this information, you have everything you need to create an accurate citation. If the source includes a DOI, the reference may need that for completeness. Check your reference manual for guidelines on citing articles, books, newspapers, and more.
RefWorks is the premier citation management tool of ProQuest's ExLibris Knowledge Center. To use this tool, you will have to create an account.
Once you create an account, you can:
The Search Everything box on the library homepage searches all library databases at once. The image below shows where to find permalinks in this search system.
From the search results page, select the Chain Link icon next to the article title. A pop-up window will appear below the citation information with the permalink. Select Copy the Permalink to Clipboard to copy and paste it into your document.
The images below show where to find a permalink in the CINAHL database, but you can find the permalink this way in all of the EBSCO databases.
The EBSCO databases include the following:
To find the permalink in one of these databases, follow the steps below.
The image below shows where to find permalinks for articles in the old interface of the OVID database. After selecting the title of an article from the search results page, locate the Tools menu on the right-hand side of the page and select Email Jumpstart. The link in the Email Jumpstart pop-up window is the permalink.
The image below shows where to find permalinks for articles in the new interface of the OVID database. After selecting the title of an article from the search results page, select Share at the top of the page and copy the permalink from the pop-up window.
The image below shows where to find permalinks for books in the old interface of the OVID database. After selecting the title of a book from the search results page, select Email Jumpstart in the upper-right corner of the page and copy the permalink from the pop-up window.
The image below shows where to find permalinks for books in the new interface of the OVID database. After selecting the title of a book from the search results page, select the Share icon in the left-hand navigation menu and copy the permalink from the Share panel.
The image below shows where to find permalinks in the ProQuest databases. After selecting the title of an article from the search results page, go to Abstract/Details in the left-hand navigation menu to open the detailed record. The link next to Document URL at the bottom of the page is the permalink.
The image below shows where to find permalinks in the ProQuest Ebook Central database. After selecting the title of a book from the search results page, select Share Link to Book under the book cover in the record, and copy the permalink from the pop-up window.
In the following databases, the browser URL is the permalink:
You can find the browser URL at the top of your browser window as shown in the image below.
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