Citation and Copyright

Citations provide information about a resource, which allows researchers to find the original material if they choose to access it. There are many different citation styles which reflect different interests and preferences of disciplines and often publications. If you are unsure which citation style to use, it is best to ask the person you are writing for, such as a professor or journal editor.

• Sotheby's Institute of Art (New York) requires Chicago Manual Of Style for citations in most courses.  
• Law papers should be cited using The Bluebook. 
• Always check with your professor or course syllabus to confirm the preferred citation style.

Author:

• Provides information for the author to go back and find the sources during the writing process.
• Keeps a record of all of the information you used or considered.
• Helps provide context to your argument in a larger discussion.

Researcher:

• Provides information to the researcher so he/she can better understand the author’s argument and the research.
• Provides information for the researcher to be able to find other relevant sources by going to the bibliography or references page.

Essentially plagiarism is the the lack of attributing intellectual ideas and creative works to their creator. We can criticize, comment, report, build upon and teach using ideas of others, but we need to ensure that we are crediting the author or creator properly. This way, when other people go to use our intellectual work they can credit us as well and trace back to the intellectual works and ideas we found interesting and helpful.

According to the Council of Writing Program Administrators, an understanding as a user of information entails:

• Assembling and analyzing a set of sources that you have determined are relevant to the issues you are investigating;
• Acknowledging clearly when and how you are drawing on the ideas or phrasings of others;
• Learning the conventions for citing documents and acknowledging sources appropriate to the field you are studying;
• Consulting your instructors when you are unsure about how to acknowledge the contributions of others to your thought and writing.

Council of Writing Program Administrators, January, 2003 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0

Please review the Academic Integrity Code found in the Sotheby's Institute of Art Student Handbook.

Quoting signals to the reader that you are using the author's words.

Paraphrasing signals to the reader that you have described the author's argument (or some component of it), but in your own words.

Summarizing signals to the reader that you are condensing long passages or whole texts. A paraphrase usually restates no more than a couple sentences, while a summary condenses larger chunks of material.

For examples of Chicago Manual of Style citations, visit the Chicago Manual of Style Online website, view the Quick Guide or check out the Manual from the library.

While, the Chicago Manual of Style provides an extensive guidelines for academic writing within the Humanities it does not provide a guideline for citing an auction catalog. As such here is an example of how to cite an auction catalog, adapted from Chicago Manual of Style. This example follows the format of an exhibition catalog but lists the auction house as the author as per the guidelines for works published by an organization, corporation, or institution. 

Sotheby's New York. Important Jewels. New York: Sotheby's, 2007. Auction catalog.

For examples of The Bluebook citations check out the current edition of The Bluebook (the 20th edition), published in 2015.

An electronic version is also available for a subscription fee.