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Business Guide: Citation

Why do we cite?

There are many reasons why it is so important to cite the sources you use in your research.

  • You demonstrate to your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information.
  • You avoid plagiarism by quoting the words and ideas of other scholars.
  • You are being a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas.
  • You allow your reader to find the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by using in-text citations or footnotes in combination with a bibliography or works cited list.

What needs to be cited?

  • Direct quotes
  • Paraphrased ideas that you found in a source
  • Facts that are not commonly known
  • Data and statistics

Every time you refer to a source in your paper, you must cite it. If you use a source more than once, there should be multiple citations in your paper.

Citation styles

There are many citation styles to choose from when citing sources, including MLA, APA, and Chicago style. Your professor will probably tell you which style is preferred for your class.

Most classes at the Kelley School of Business will use Chicago endnote style. See the following boxes on this page for guidance on using Chicago style.

If you need to cite using MLA, APA, or Chicago Author-Date format, go to this page.

Video on Chicago style

If you would prefer to learn about Chicago style by watching a video, check out this overview video (it covers the same content as the rest of the boxes on this page):

 

0:37: Difference between MLA, APA, and Chicago
3:03 An introduction to Chicago Manual of Style
4:02 Chicago In-Text Citation Basics
5:37 Formatting Endnotes Page
6:13 Creating a full endnote
7:19 Citing a journal article (newspapers, magazines, trade journals, academic journals)
8:38 Citing a web page
9:48 Citing business databases
12:46 Citing a source multiple times
15:46 Citing interviews, emails, and presentations conducted for your project

Chicago style resources

Web resources:

Quick reference for formatting citations for different types of sources:

Source Type

Examples

Book

Page number refers to the page(s) that you referenced. Always provide.
  1. Firstname Lastname, Title of Book (Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

E-Book

Indicate the edition you are reading (e.g. Kindle Edition, PDF e-book, etc.) or if you are accessing the ebook via a database (e.g. EBSCO). If page numbers are not available you may use another indicator such as chapter, section, etc. Be as specific as you can and still be recognizable.
  1. Rebecca Lemon, Emma Mason, Johnathan Roberts, and Christopher Rowland, ed. The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 20, EBSCO.

OR

  1. Rebecca Lemon, Emma Mason, Johnathan Roberts, and Christopher Rowland, ed. The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), chap. 2, Kindle Edition.

Journal Article

For works by two authors, list both. For works by three or more authors, list the first author's name followed by “et al.”
  1. Regina Henry and Santosh Venkatraman, “Big Data Analytics: The Next Big Learning Opportunity,” Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences 18, no. 2 (2015): 17–29, https://doi.org/123.

Newspaper or Popular Magazine Article

If you accessed the article online, list the URL or the database.
  1. Tom Coburn, "A Cancer ‘Moonshot’ Needs Big Data," Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, January 15, 2016, Business Source Complete.

Web Resources

If a website does not list a date of publication or revision, include the date you accessed it.
  1. Firstname Lastname, “Title of Web Page,” Publishing Organization or Name of Website in Italics, publication date or access date, URL.
  2. Keith Carter, “Big Data: What’s the Big Deal?,” National University of Singapore Business School: Think Business, June 03, 2013, http://thinkbusiness.nus.sg/articles/item/135-big-data-whats-the-big-deal?

Business Databases

Use your judgement. You may have to create a title (example 2) so that your user knows what you were searching. Always look to see if there is an author (analyst).

Provide the database name, not the URL.
  1. Andrew Alverez, “Online Grocery Sales in the US. IBISWorld Industry Report OD5085," July 2016, IBISWorld.
  2. “List of Greek Restaurants in Wake County, NC,” 2015, US Businesses, Reference Solutions.
  3. Bryant Harland, “Attitudes Toward Gaming – US- June 2016,” June 2016, Mintel Academic.

MRI/Simmons Database

 Quick Report:

  1. MRI/Simmons. “Demographic Profile: Business Purchasers making decisions over $5000 a year.” Spring 2020 NHCS Adult Study 12-Month. Accessed June 9, 2023.

Crosstab Report:

  1. MRI/Simmons. “Crosstab Report: Time of Day Energy Drink Users Watch Television.” Spring 2020 NHCS Adult Study 12-Month. Accessed June 9, 2023.

Bloomberg Database

Follow the same guidelines as business databases. Often titles will be the screen name combined with the equity you are researching.
  1. "Financial Analysis for Microsoft US Equity," 2017, accessed May 22, 2017, Bloomberg Terminal.

Emails, Interviews, & Lectures (Presentations)
  1. Email sender name, email message to author, date of email.
  2. Interviewee name, interview by author, date of interview.
  3. Presenter name, "Title of Presentation," PowerPoint presentation, date of presentation.

 

How to cite generative AI

If you use generative AI to find sources, it is preferable to cite the original source rather than the AI answer. If you do need to cite AI output, there are two ways you can do so:

1) Acknowledge the use of AI in the body of your text. Ex: "The following graphic was created by ChatGPT-3.5."

2) Acknowledge the AI-generated content using an endnote formatted like this:

Text generated by ChatGPT-3.5, OpenAI, March 7, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/chat.

Provide a link to your chat if possible. If you have edited the AI-generated text, say so in the endnote (ex: "edited for style and content").

See the Chicago Manual of Style for more details on citing genAI.

How to cite in presentations

This sample Powerpoint provides examples of how to cite sources in a presentation:

University Writing Center

The IU Indianapolis University Writing Center (UWC) is a free service available to all IU Indianapolis students, faculty, and staff, at both the graduate and undergraduate level. It is a place where students can go for help with writing assignments and projects. The UWC offers students the opportunity to work one-on-one with experienced readers and writers.

The UWC offers two convenient locations: Cavanaugh Hall (CA 427) and University Library (UL 2125).

To schedule a tutoring session at either the Cavanaugh Hall location or University Library location, you may telephone the CA location at (317) 274-2049, telephone the UL location at (317) 278-8171, or visit either UWC location. You must provide both your name and your University ID number, at the time you schedule the session.