Why cite your sources?
- Intellectual integrity: Citing sources clearly distinguishes your information and ideas from those of other authors.
- Verifiability: It allows readers to consult the original sources to verify how accurate the information is.
- Added value: Citing your sources shows that you are thorough in your documentary research and are adept at using the conclusions of others to support your own work.
- Academic positioning: It helps you situate your work within the context of existing research in your field.
- Compliance with the law: By citing your sources, you respect intellectual property and comply with copyright law.
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
