Why cite your sources?
- Intégrité intellectuelle : La citation distingue clairement vos idées et informations de celles provenant d’autres autrices et auteurs.
- Vérifiabilité : Elle permet aux lectrices et lecteurs de consulter les sources originales pour vérifier l’exactitude des propos rapportés.
- Valeur ajoutée : Citer vos sources démontre une recherche documentaire approfondie et une capacité à utiliser de manière pertinente les travaux d’autrui pour appuyer vos propres analyses.
- Positionnement académique : Cela vous aide à situer votre travail dans le cadre des recherches existantes de votre domaine.
- Respect des lois : En citant vos sources, vous respectez la propriété intellectuelle et vous vous conformez à la Loi sur le droit d’auteur.
What needs to be cited?
You need to cite any content you reproduce and use in your work, whether it be text, an image, a drawing, a photograph, or a graph, if it has been created by a third party or generated by an artificial intelligence tool. It can be:
- Direct: reproducing the original content exactly, usually in quotation marks or indented
- Indirect (paraphrased): rephrasing original ideas or content in your own words, while retaining the meaning
The purpose of citing sources is to give credit to the original authors, to buttress an argument or analysis, and to allow readers to find the source. It is essential for avoiding plagiarism and upholding intellectual integrity.
Tools and resources available:
INRS has a recommended bibliographic format and provides a template for EndNote software. Although you are not required to use it, you are required to remain consistent and uniform in the bibliographic format of your documents.
To learn more about the different ways of citing sources:
- Consult the SDIS’s guides to theses and dissertations: Guides de présentation des mémoires et theses de l’INRS
- Contact the SDIS librarians for advice and resources
Bibliographic management software
Bibliographic management software such as EndNote or Zotero is an essential tool for organizing, managing, and effectively using the references you need for your research or academic work. These tools simplify source management and ensure consistency in citation and bibliography creation. Here are their main features:
- Reference creation and management: Build a searchable database of all your references by downloading them directly from databases or websites, or by adding them manually.
- Sharing and collaboration: Share your references and collaborate with other researchers by creating workgroups (if a web version of the software is available).
- Attachments and annotations: Attach full texts (in PDF format) and add annotations for more efficient tracking of your reading.
- Integration into writing: Automatically insert citations into your text as you write.
- Automatic bibliography generation: Create bibliographies formatted in a standard (or custom) citation style with a single click.
- Simplified updating: Easily update your references, avoiding inconsistencies.
Support and training
Consult the staff of the Service de documentation et d’information scientifique (SDIS) for training, recommended and available tools, and technical support for certain bibliographic management software.
Learn more
