Citation Management for Business Students & Faculty

Plagiarism is a serious issue in the American academic community.  New knowledge is built on previous ideas and knowledge, and credit must be given to those who ideas are being used.  Failure to do so and to present another's ideas as your own can result in serious consequences, including a lower or failing grade on an assignment or in a course, probation, suspension, or dismissal from the university.

Florida State University defines plagiarism as "Intentionally presenting the work of another as one's own (i.e., without proper acknowledgement of the source).  Typical examples include: Using another's work from print, web, or other sources without acknowledging the source; quoting from a source without citation; using facts, figures, graphs, charts or information without acknowledgement of the source."

- FSU Academic Honor Policy

"Regarding academic assignments, violations of the Academic Honor Code shall include representing another's work or any part thereof, be it published or unpublished, as one's own. It shall also include presenting or submitting any academic work in a manner that impairs the instructor's ability to assess the student's academic performance. For example, plagiarism includes failure to use quotation marks or other conventional markings around material quoted from any source."

- FSU Academic Honor Code

The whole idea is to give credit to or acknowledge the original source when you use other people's ideas or words.

• Use your own words. 
• When you use someone else's words or ideas, present them as a quotation and reference the the source properly. 
• When you use an image, diagram, data, or charts from someone else's work, reference the source properly. 
• Even when you paraphrase, you still need to cite. 

The College of Business does not have a standard style for citing information. It is the professor's prerogative for assigning a citation style required in the class. If there is no preferred style, I suggest either APA or Chicago. Both are straightforward and are commonly used.

To find information on how to cite common business sources, such as:

• articles
• print books
• annual report/10-K
• working papers
• web sources
• images, tables, charts
• lecture notes

Please check out the following libguides:

• APA Style: Citing Guide for Business Majors (from Butler University Libraries)
• Chicago Style or Harvard Business School Style: Citing Guide (from Harvard Business School)