How should you acknowledge a source in your work?

Providing full citation details is essential for acknowledging a source because it gives credit to the original author and enables readers to locate the source material themselves. Proper citation enhances the credibility of your work and supports the academic integrity of your research by clearly attributing ideas, findings, or quotes to their rightful owners.

Full citation details typically include the author’s name, the title of the work, the publication date, and other relevant information like the publisher or the journal name. This comprehensive approach allows anyone reading your work to verify your information and evaluate the source's reliability. This thoroughness is particularly important in scholarly communication, where the traceability of information is crucial for building knowledge and understanding research within a particular field.

Acknowledging a source in a less formal or incomplete way, such as merely stating the author's name, including personal comments, or only mentioning it in the conclusion, does not provide sufficient information for readers and could lead to confusion or misattribution.