Citation Guide

This guide describes the citation conventions that HBS students should use when writing research papers. The guide has been adapted from Chapter 3 of the Style Guide for HBS Casewriters, which is available online at http://intranet.hbs.edu/dept/drfd/caseservices/styleguide.pdf. For information about citing source materials not covered in this guide, please contact rreiser@hbs.edu.

You should cite all direct quotations, paraphrased factual statements, and borrowed ideas. The only items that do not need to be cited are facts that seem to be common knowledge, such as the date of the stock market crash. However, if you present facts in someone else’s words, you should cite the source of those words. In addition, if you paraphrase large amounts of information from one source, you should cite that source, as emphasized in Harvard University’s Expository Writing guidelines:

When you draw a great deal of information from a single source, you should cite that source even if the information is common knowledge, since the source (and its particular way of  organizing the information) has made a significant contribution to your paper.

Failure to give credit to the words and ideas of an original author is plagiarism. Most people do not intend to commit plagiarism but may do so inadvertently because they are in a hurry or because of sloppy work habits. For tips on how to avoid plagiarism, see the following resources:

“Misuse of Sources,” in Gordon Harvey, Writing with Sources: A Guide for Harvard Students,
second edition (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2008),

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic273248.files/WritingSourcesHarvard.pdf.

“Working Habits that Work,” in Academic Integrity at Princeton, Princeton University,

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/08/habits.

“Policy on Plagiarism & Collaboration,” on the HBS MBA website, http://my.hbs.edu/mbadocs/
admin/quick_info/policies/academic/stuwork/plagiarism.jhtml.

Citations can appear in three main forms: footnotes (or endnotes), source lines, and bibliographies. Each form contains similar information arranged in a different way. The following sections provide details about each form.

Footnotes and endnotes have the same function—to cite the exact page of a source you refer to in your paper. The only difference between footnotes and endnotes is placement: footnotes appear at the bottom of the page, whereas endnotes appear at the end of the document.

The main characteristics of footnotes and endnotes are as follows:
• They are preceded by a number.
• The author’s name is in natural order.
• The elements of the citation are separated by commas.
The following examples show a quotation and its corresponding footnote or endnote:
Quotation cited in text
Sahlman says, “Taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities is a viable and potentially
profitable way to enter a business.”32
Corresponding footnote or endnote
32 William A. Sahlman, “How to Write a Great Business Plan,” Harvard Business Review 75
(July–August 1997): 103.

Source lines typically appear under charts, exhibits, tables, and other graphical items. Source lines should acknowledge the source of the graphic or the data that was used to create it. A source line begins with the word Source and continues with the same information that would appear in a  footnote or endnote.

The following are some examples of source lines:
Source: Jon F. Thompson, Cycle World, vol. 35, no. 6 (June 1996), p. 23.
Source: “Worldwide Semiconductor Shipments,” Semiconductor Industry Association website,
http://www.sia-online.org/downloads/ww_shipments.pdf, accessed June 2004.
Source: Compiled from Bloomberg LP, LexisNexis, and SEC filings data, May 2001.
Source: Casewriter’s diagram based on Rhythms NetConnections, Inc. price data for April 7, 1999
through April 30, 2001, obtained from Thomson Reuters Datastream, accessed June 2003.
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