Citation

Citations are used to establish credibility and authority. The failure to cite sources can have serious consequences. They can cause plagiarism and even lead to legal action in both academic and workplace settings.

Citations are usually found at the end of a document. In some cases, they are given as footnotes, while in others, they appear as lists of references. Some citation systems, such as APA, MLA, and Harvard, have syntactic conventions that are widely known.
Citations can be used to support arguments, provide readers with a list of sources to read or give a reader a basic understanding of a subject. Citations are also used to acknowledge the works of others.

Citations are useful in fields such as law, science, and the arts. For example, it is common to cite a case that has been decided by a court. Likewise, a citation may be used to cite an image, a quote, or a quotation. Citations can be used to acknowledge specific ideas from a source, such as a poem or a scientific article. However, a citation is more often used to cite the source of a specific passage.