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GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SCIENCE: Cite Sources

Why Cite?*

To Become a More Mature Thinker  |  To Recreate a Sense of Lively Debate  |  To Give Credit Where It's Due  |  To Lead Us to Further Research

When you cite a source, you show how your voice enters into an intellectual conversation and you demonstrate your link to the community within which you work. Working with sources can inspire your own ideas and enrich them, and your citation of these sources is the visible trace of that debt.

*An excerpt from the Yale College Writing Center's Using Sources

How to Cite Maps, Data, and Other Resources

When citing maps and other less-traditional sources, start with the citation style (e.g., APA, MLA) recommended by your professor, then build or modify as necessary. As the researcher, you'll have to decide how you'll cite your resources and which citation elements you'll need to include. Providers of information sometimes specify how they want their sources cited; check to see if such instructions are available.