APA Citation Style: Home

In all types of research and scholarly writing, it is important to cite your sources in order to:

• Help readers identify and locate the source you used.

Readers may want to locate a source you have cited to verify the information or to learn more about the topic. A proper citation includes all of the information necessary for a reader to locate a source.

• Provide evidence that your position is well-researched.

Scholarly writing is grounded in research. Citations allow you to demonstrate that your position is thoroughly researched.

• Give credit to the author of ideas which are not your own, and thereby avoid plagiarism.

Giving proper credit to those whose ideas, words, and thoughts you use is not only respectful to those authors, but is also often required to avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism occurs when a student submits work in respect of which ideas or words are taken from another source and presented as if they are the student’s own, without appropriate acknowledgement of the original source.  It is the act of presenting another’s materials as one’s own without appropriate acknowledgement that constitutes plagiarism, whether or not the student does so intentionally.  Included in the concept of plagiarism are:

1. Presenting a work as the work of a student without acknowledging that it is wholly or partly the work of others.
2. Presenting words, ideas, images or data of others as those of the student and failing to identify the original creator and/or source.
3. Submitting the same work for assessment for more than one assignment or course, without written permission from all of the instructor(s) involved.
4. Failing to recognize and acknowledge the substantive contributions of others.
5. Presenting work for a SAIT course, program or examination that in any way compromises the integrity of the evaluation process.
6. Submitting for grading work that the student has been given by, or has bought from, someone else.

Note: A student who assists another student in an act or attempted act of academic misconduct will be considered to have committed an act of academic misconduct.