Citation is a key factor for writing thesis or dissertation of Ph.D. research scholars. Research scholars need to provide all source of information where they collected the data which is relevant to their topic and it is mandatory to include in paper, presentation or any other project related works.
Now, you may think is this citation is that much important?
Yes, of course it is... usually, citation is credit to author and original work publishers even it provide readers to refer the same source for their reference. Citation is also acknowledgement for your source of idea it originates from.
Now again you may get a question I am using my own words and things than why I need to acknowledge?
You may document some work for originating your idea so it need to be pointed. The citation is of different form and denoted as APA, Harvard, Chicago etc…for all this few things you need to remember while citing are:
Cite journal as whole: Write your journal name in italic followed by details like publication, year etc.
Forum Discussion: In this mention author alphabetic order followed by link
Featured Article: Mention author name first and journal name in italic followed by publication details and URL.
Above factors are most suitable for APA format since almost all academic fields uses this formatting.
For research scholar, you need to give citations for all referred works from starting to end of the research based on your discipline. For effective citations, it is suggested to research scholars to follow the university guidelines and cite the reference source for your research work.