Public Health Research Guide: Organizing and Citing

Citing the work that supports your research is both an ethical issue and a legal issue.

The ethics of citing is based on the scholarly tradition of giving credit for information and ideas that are not one's own. Science has a long tradition of acknowledging priority through citations. You have the ethical responsibility to cite all works that were used to support your research, to give credit to the earlier work and to provide a clear path for those who follow in your footsteps.

As so eloquently expressed by Isaac Newton in a letter to Robert Hooke in 1675 (Merton 1965),

If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants.

The legal issues of citing one's sources are codified in Copyrights, Title 17 of the U.S. Code, which describes the legal protections of authors' and creators' intellectual property rights.

[Merton, RK. (2006). On the shoulders of giants: a Shandean postscript. New York: The Free Press. p. 31]

Plagiarism is defined as:

"the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own."

See Section IV Proscribed Conduct in the University of Hawaiʻi Student Conduct Code for more information.

Reference: Oxford University Press. (2005). Plagiarism. In The  new Oxford American dictionary (2nd ed., p. 1296).

EndNote is an application that imports citations from your searches in web databases and helps you organize your references. It works with Microsoft Word helping you create in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies.

The Guides below provide more information on using EndNote Desktop ($) and EndNote Online ($ and free versions available).

Zotero is a useful tool to help you manage your citations

• Import citations directly from web-based indexes and webpages
• Store documents (PDF copies of articles) in your Zotero folder, usually located on your hard drive
• Generates citations (footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies) within Word and OpenOffice documents

For more information, watch the library's series of Zotero Tutorials and review the library's Zotero Guide.

Examples of Citations

Based on rules from: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). (2020). American Psychological Association. Available at Hamilton Library Reference BF76.7 .P83 2020.

Citing a Journal Article
Safiri, S., & Ayubi, E. (2018). Prospective evaluation of risk factors and clinical influence of carbapenem resistance in children with gram-negative bacteria infection: Methodologic issues. AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control, 46(3), 361–361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.11.004

Citing Books
Zar, J. H. (1999). Biostatistical analysis (4th ed.). Prentice Hall. (Add full DOI link if available)

Citing a Chapter in a Book
Haybron, D. M. (2008). Philosophy and the science of subjective well-being. In M. Eid & R. J. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being (pp.17-43). Guilford Press.

Citing a Dissertation
Lew, M. M. (2017). Hydroxyl, hydroperoxyl, and organic peroxy radical chemistry in forested areas: Measurements, modeling and implications for atmospheric chemistry. (Publication No. 10637837) [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Note: The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual, was released in October 2019.

Additional Resources

The Vancouver style is also known as the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts refers authors to NLM's Citing Medicine to get more information and examples on recommended formats for various reference types.

Example citations based on rules from: Patrias K. Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers [Internet]. 2nd ed. Wendling D, technical editor. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2007- [updated 2011 Sep 15; cited 2011 Oct 11]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine

Citing a Journal Article

Bell KP, Phillips C, Paquette DW, Offenbacher S, Wilder RS. Incorporating oral-systemic evidence into patient care: practice behaviors and barriers of North Carolina dental hygienists. J Dent Hyg. 2011 Spring;85(2):99-113.

Citing a Journal Article on the Internet

Rodda J, Walker Z, Carter J. Depression in older adults. BMJ [Internet]. 2011 Sep 28[cited 2012 Sep 12];383:d5219. Available from: http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5219.full DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d5219

Citing Books

Mason J. Concepts in dental public health. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; c2005.

Citing a Chapter in a Book

Palleschi KM. Dental hygiene care plan and evaluation. In: Darby ML, Walsh MM, editors. Dental hygiene: theory and practice. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Saunders/Elsevier; 2010. p. 372-99.