Introduction In the academic world, various forms of written communications have been identified. Much of the documented work has proved to be valuable to different people as they try to expand their knowledge on various issues that affect their lives and the environment that they live in. While some writers rely on legitimate means such as intensive reading and carrying out research exercises prior to writing their work so as to increase their likelihood of conveying genuine facts, others resort to the illegal and non-conventional means of cheating such as plagiarism. According to Hyland (2000), a citation facilitates the writer in describing the background to which the facts or issues of contention under discussion help to shed some light on. As such, this paper shall discuss source citation as being among best examples of academic research practices that should be used by students to prove the legitimacy of the works they submit as their own. This shall be done by providing a literature review of various works that emphasize on the importance of citing the sources from which information contained in a student work was retrieved. Citation: Literature review As has been mentioned above, citation in academic writing refers to the writer’s inclusion of all sources used to gather the information used to write down any form of document. Arguably, citing sources is among the outstanding features of academic conversations (Swales, 1990). There are various styles which have been developed over the years to assist students reference their work in an ethical (properly without violating the rights of the original author) manner. As Hyland (2000) stated, accrediting the sources used by citing it accordingly, the writer shows his/her affiliation and loyalty to a particular niche of people, allows other readers to critique his/her work and creates a positive reputation for him/herself as a writer who respects others and depicts ethical practices as a professional writer (Hyland, 2000). Some of the citation styles include but are not limited to MLA, APA, HAVARD, CHICAGO-TURABIAN and OXFORD among others. The main aim of these citation styles is to equip students with the necessary skills needed to give credit to authors whose works have been integrated in the student’s written project. Though they make differ in appearance and arrangement, these citation styles encourage students to name the author(s), the title of the work, place and date of publication and the publisher’s name. In some styles, page numbers of information used is required. In their article on analyzing citations, Thompson and Tribble (2001) asserted that idea integration between the source’s ideas and the arguments being proposed by the writer is among the reasons as to why referencing is required in a writer’s written work. In addition, the authors further stated that through references, a writer is able to relay what other people have found out about the topic under discussion, highlight the flaws present in other peoples’ arguments or, side with a particular group of people who share common beliefs and perceptions as those of the writer regarding various issues (Thompson & Tribble, 2001). According