*Human Development

All students at Binghamton University are obligated to abide by the University Academic Honesty Code, which is available online in the University Bulletin.  The code expressively prohibits acts of academic dishonesty (such as, but not limited to, plagiarism, cheating on exams, multiple submissions, unauthorized collaboration, fabrication, misrepresentation, forgery, sabotage, and bribery).    (from the University Bulletin)

Plagiarism is taking credit for others' work as your own, from entire papers, to unacknowledged quotations or phrases, using data or images without attribution, or using a method or critical theory without giving credit.   Giving credit strengthens your work by proving that you know how to draw upon others research to build your own arguments; which is an essential building block in becoming a scholar. 

For more information, read "Part V: Academic Honesty" of the  Ethics and Integrity Policy of the CCPA.

For tips and tools on how to avoid plagiarism and pitfalls in your own work, see  the Academic Honesty page. 

Citation styles provide rules for writing and formatting in-text citations (i.e., parenthetical citations, footnotes, or endnotes) and source lists (e.g., bibliography, works cited). These styles also provide guidance on how to format the text of the paper (including use of graphs, charts, and images) and writing conventions for the field.

The Human Development department generally requires that students use the APA Style manual, but it may be up to the students' choice if they use the 6th or 7th edition (released October 2020).  Whatever style you use (or edition of a manual) it is important that you stay consistent throughout your work. 

For help with APA 7th edition, see the Libraries' APA Style Help page on the Citation Help page.

As a general rule, many "cut and paste" free citation tools such as the citation tool in Word, MyBib, CiteThis and citation generations with Google Scholar and article databases are at best, unreliable. 

Do not ever assume the information gained from these is correct, reliable, or even complete enough to generate a citation.