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Citation Information

Citation Information

In today’s information age, it is easy to find and access information. However, it is important to remember that any information that you did not know before beginning your research must be cited when including it in any projects or else it can be considered plagiarism. This includes any information you get from AI that appears in your final project. 

 

Definition of Plagiarism (according to the Oxford Dictionary): 

  • presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without the consent of the original author

 

When there is no citation, you are telling the reader that the words and ideas presented in your work are completely original to you; you did not require any help in coming up with the ideas or information. Therefore, citations must be present in any and all situations where you quote and where you paraphrase information from a source other than yourself, including AI.  

MLA Citations

The cover of the MLA Handbook, ninth edition, features a colorful rainbow design.MLA (Modern Language Association) Citations FAQ

Q: What subjects use MLA?

A: Any subjects considered to be part of the Humanities (Literature, Language, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, etc.)

Q: What makes MLA unique?

A: MLA has similar requirements as other formatting styles, but they use terms like Works Cited, and they are more focused on citing the exact location in the text of any information used. 

Q: Where can I find information on how to correctly format my paper using MLA?

A: The Official MLA Website and Purdue OWL MLA Guide

In-Text Citations

Where do they go?

  • At the end of a sentence that contains information from any of your sources.
  • Must be included after quote AND paraphrased information.Sample in-text citations reads: (Armstrong 7) ("Cultural Diversity" 7)

What do they include?

  • The author’s last name
  • The page number where the information was found

What if the information is from a website with no author?

  • Use the first 2 words of the article title, and put the words in quotation marks

What if the website doesn’t have page numbers?

  • Do not put anything where the page number normally goes.

Works Cited Page Citations

What is it?

  • The last page of your page

What goes on it?

  • A list of all the sources you used in your paper
  • Detailed information about each source

How do I know what information to put into the citations on the Works Cited Page?

  • Use a citation generator website (linked at the bottom of the page). It will tell you what information is needed. Include as much of the information as you can find.
  • Check the Purdue OWL website for more detailed information of what needs to be included, and how it should look. 

How do I format a Works Cited page?

A Note on Citing AI in MLA Format

Use the following information to create MLA citaitons for AI:

  • Author: Do not include an author
  • Title/Article Title: The prompt you typed into the AI generator
  • Title of Container/Website Title: The name of the AI tool used (SchoolAI, ChatGPT, etc.)
  • Version: The version of the AI generator used (all chatbots have a version number)
  • Publisher: The name of the company who owns the generative AI tool (this is often not the same as the website title)
  • Date: The date you generated the information
  • Locations/URL: Give the general URL of the tool

APA Citations

The cover of the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, a guide to APA style.APA (American Psychological Association) Citations FAQ:

Q: What subjects use APA?

A: APA is typically used in Education, Psychology, and all of the Sciences

Q: What makes APA unique?

A: APA and MLA are quite similar in terms of their requirements, but APA uses terms like references and relies more on the publication date to track where information comes from.

Q: Where can I find information on how to correctly format my paper using APA?

A: The Official APA website and the Purdue OWL Quick Guide

In-Text Citations

Where do they go?

  • At the end of a sentence that contains information from any of your sources
  • Must be included after quoted and paraphrased information

What do they include?A list of example APA in-text citations reading (Armstrong, 2025) (Concord High School, 2025) ("Cultural Diversity", 2025)

  • The author’s last name
  • The publication year

What if it doesn’t have an author?

  • Use the publisher, if the website lists them as an author
  • Use the first 2 words of the title in quotation marks

What if it doesn’t have a date? 

  • Write n.d. instead (stands for no date)

Reference Page Citations

What is it?

  • The last page of your paper

What goes on it? 

  • A list of all the sources you used in your paper
  • Detailed information about each source

How do I know what information to put into the citations on the Reference page?

  • Use one of the citation generators (linked at the bottom of the page). It will tell you what information is needed.
  • Check the Purdue OWL website for a list of what to include. 

How do I format a Reference page?

A Note on Citing AI in APA Format

Use the following information when citing generative AI in APA:

  • Author: The company who owns the generative AI (this is usually not the name of the AI)
  • Date: The year the version of the AI you used was released
  • Title: The name of the generative AI tool you used, the version number of the AI tool in parentheses after the name, and a description of what type of generative AI tool it is in brackets. See the example below: 
    • Claude (3.5 Sonnet) [Large language model]
  • Publisher: Leave blank, the publisher is already listed in the author slot
  • URL: A link to the AI tool

In addition to the citation, APA requires that in the paragraph where you are using the information from generative AI, you must include the prompt in at least one sentence in that paragraph. It might look something like the following:

When asked “Why are the Concord High School Spiders better than the A.L. Brown Wonders?” School AI referred to the originality of the mascot (SchoolAI, 2024).

Chicago/Turabian Citations

The cover of the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, a guide for writers, editors, and publishers.Chicago-Style Citations FAQ

Q: What subjects use Chicago-style?

A: Business, History, and the Fine Arts often use Chicago-style.

Q: What makes Chicago-style unique?

A: Chicago-style is actually split into two different varieties of citaions. The most commonly used is the notes and bibliography system, which instead of using parenthetical citations, it uses a footnotes system. The other variety, the author-date system, is similar to APA in using parenthetical citations with the author and date. 

Q: Where can I find information on how to correctly format my paper using Chicago-style?

A: The Offical Chicago-style Website and Purdue OWL Chicago Guide

Notes and Bibliography System Footnotes

Where do they go?

  • At the end of a sentence, quote, or phrase that contains information from one of your sources.
  • Must be included after any quoted AND paraphrased information.

What do they include?A sample sentence with a superscript and a footnote.

  • A superscript number is inserted after the information from the source is included.
  • A note, labeled with the corresponding superscript number from the text, is added to the footer of the page. This note should include either the entire bibliographic citation OR at least the author’s last name, the first 4 words of the title, and the page number(s) the information came from, depending on the style/teacher specifications.

What if the information is from a website with no page numbers or author’s?

  • For websites, leave blank any areas where the information is not available.

 

Notes and Bibliography System Bibliography Page Citations

What is it?

  • The last page of your paper
  • Depending on teacher instructions, this page might not be required; instead, the teacher might require the full bibliographic information for all sources to be included in the footnotes instead. 

What goes on it? 

  • A list of all the sources you used in your paper
  • Detailed information about each source

How do I know what information to put into the citations on the Bibliography page? 

  • Use a citation generator website (linked at the bottom of the page). It will tell you what information is needed. Include as much of the information as you can find. 
  • Check the Purdue OWL website for more detailed information of what needs to be included, and how it should look. 

How do I format a Bibliography page?

A Note on Citing AI in Chicago-Style

When using information from AI in Chicago-style writing, include a phrase such as “according to a custom chatbot from SchoolAI” or “the following information was generated from ChatGPT,” in your writing.

Use the following information to create the citation: 

  • Author: Text generated by (insert name of AI tool here)
  • Title: response to “(insert the prompt you used with AI here)”
  • Publisher: The name of the company who owns the AI tool
  • Date: The date you generated the information
  • If you paraphrased the information, or you continued to edit your prompt to AI after the original response, include a brief description of the edits you made at the end of the footnote citation. 

Chicago-style only includes citations for AI in footnotes. Since the AI response cannot be directly linked to and veiwed by readers, Chicago-style does not want AI to be included on the Bibliography page. 

Citation Generators

Citation generators are a great tool, but they are not flawless. Citation generators will try and autofill any information about your source that they can find online; however, they do not check to make sure the information is correct. Also, they do not fix spelling and capitalization. Therefore, it is up to you to verify that all of the information is correct, and it is up to you to fill in any of the missing information the citation generator was unable to find.