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Citing

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Citing sources is like saying „thank you“ to all the people who helped you in the creation of your text. It's like saying, „I didn't come up with this idea all by myself. My friends kind of helped me.“ And honestly – who doesn't like to praise their friends?

But it's more than just a courtesy. Citing the sources used is also a way to avoid plagiarism, which is the most serious violation of the rules of writing. Plagiarism can lead to various types of sanctions, in the worst case up to unconditional expulsion from the university. Think of it as stealing cookies from a „forbidden“ box. You get caught and you're in trouble. And believe me, everyone here has a sixth sense about unacknowledged sources.

So if you are embarking on the journey of writing a professional text, don't forget to „praise“ all those who have contributed their knowledge to the outcome of your work. It's not just about avoiding trouble, but it's also about showing appreciation to all the brilliant minds that came before you. And who knows, maybe one day you will be one of those brilliant minds.

How to do it?

In short, remember that when you read something or base an idea on someone else's (or, in the case of self-citation, your own) idea, you must always cite it properly. The exception is facts – common knowledge that the vast majority of readers know. An example of this is the statement that the Czech Republic has 10 million inhabitants and its capital is Prague. In the case of commonly known information, we do not need to give the source.

According to the directive, the Faculty of Economics and Administration most often cites according to the ČSN ISO 690 standard and uses the Harvard system of referencing citation records. The basis of the Harvard referencing system is the surnames of the authors (given either directly in the text or in round brackets) and the year of publication of the cited source - always given in round brackets immediately after the name or names of the authors (Novák, 2018). If the source is missing the author, we can only give the title, if the source does not have the year of publication, we omit this information. In case the number of authors of the cited document is higher than three, it is sufficient to give only the surname of the first author and point out the others by writing "et al.". Some departments have their own specific method of citation, so always check with your supervisors for specific guidelines.

We recommend using citation managers to create citation records. As ECON MUNI students, you can use, for example, free access to the Citation PRO service, which also offers a Word add-in. We can also recommend the Zotero citation tool. It is important to maintain a consistent style when citing, i.e. ideally use only one assistant for creating citation records.

Direct quotation vs paraphrase

Direct quotation

  • literally taken (copied) part of a text / idea
  • set off the quoted part of the text in italics, put it in quotation marks and cite the source
  • for direct quotations, the page number from which the information comes should be indicated (if the source is numbered)
  • if the direct quotation is on 3 or more lines, set it with a different font size and / or overall indentation of the text taken from the left

Example:
„The source of most error is the sampling method, which is the pain of most statistics you encounter in a variety of fields“ (Huff, 2013, s. 23).

Paraphrase / indirect quotation

  • we formulate the taken text in our own words, but the original idea remains
  • we do not distinguish the paraphrase in the text, it is not necessary to indicate the page number
  • the source must always be cited




Example:
Poor sampling leads to the largest errors in various areas of statistics (Huff, 2013).

Tip!
It is possible to copy the DOI number for scientific articles or ISBN for monographs and have the citation automatically generated by the citation manager. In most cases, these identifiers are in the database and creating a citation record is a piece of cake!

Examples:
doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101931
 ABATE, Megersa, Panayotis CHRISTIDIS and Alloysius Joko PURWANTO, 2020. Government support to airlines in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Air Transport Management [online]. 89 [cit. 2023-06-23]. ISSN 09696997. Available from: doi:10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101931

ISBN: 978-1-315-39121-2
 CORR, Philip J. and Anke C. PLAGNOL, 2019. Behavioral economics: the basics. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-39121-2. 

Printed sources

Anthology / contribution to an anthology

Be careful whether you want to quote the whole anthology or just a chapter, the entries differ.

Anthology
Creator, year. Title: subtitle. Edition. Side creator. Place of publication: Publisher, the scope of work. Edition, volume number. Comment. ISBN.

  • Optional data is marked in grey.

Example:

  • HUJOVÁ, Gabriela, ed., 2014. Zkušenosti s virtuálními měnami - Bitcoin měna budoucnosti?: sborník z konference : Praha, 26. března 2014. Praha: Vysoká škola manažerské informatiky, ekonomiky a práva. ISBN 978-80-86847-71-9.

Contribution to an anthology
Creator, year. Title: subtitle of the contribution. In: Creator of the source document. Title: subtitle of the source document. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher, range of pages. Edition, volume number. ISBN.

Example:​

  • KRATOCHVÍL, Milan, 2014. Podnikatelské projekty a Bitcoin. In: HUJOVÁ, Gabriela, ed. Zkušenosti s virtuálními měnami - Bitcoin měna budoucnosti?: sborník z konference : Praha, 26. března 2014. Praha: Vysoká škola manažerské informatiky, ekonomiky a práva, s. 128-134. ISBN 978-80-86847-71-9.
Article in a magazine

Article creator, year. Title: article subtitle. Secondary author. Title: subtitle of the source document (journal). Place of publication: publisher, volume(issue), range of pages (without p.). ISSN.

  • Optional data are marked in grey.

Example:

  • ORHAN, A., V. F. BENLI and R. A. CASTANHO, 2020. Assessing the Systemic Risk Between American and European Financial Systems. Prague Economic Papers, 29(6) 649-971. ISSN 1210-0455.
Books (monographs)

Creator, year. Title: subtitle. Edition. Side creator. Place of publication: Publisher, the scope of work. Edition, volume number. Comment. ISBN.

  • Optional data is marked in grey.

Examples:

  • ZADRAŽILOVÁ, Dana, 2017. Mezinárodní management. Vydání 3. přepracované. Praha: Oeconomica, nakladatelství VŠE. ISBN 978-80-245-2219-7.
  • MLČOCH, Lubomír a Jiří KAMENÍČEK, 2016. Ekonomie, ekologie, eudaimonia: lidské hodnoty a problémy rozvoje civilizace. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, nakladatelství Karolinum. ISBN 978-80-246-3280-3.
Laws (in printed form)

Lawmaker. The name of the law. In: Location of the law in the collection, year, amount, number of pages. ISSN.

Example:

  • ČESKO. Zákon č. 111 ze dne 22. dubna 1998 o vysokých školách a o změně a doplnění dalších zákonů (zákon o vysokých školách). In: Sbírka zákonů České republiky, roč. 1998, částka 39, s. 5388–5419. ISSN 1211-1244.
  • Zákon č. 110/2019 Sb., o zpracování osobních údajů.

Electronic resources

Article in an electronic journal

Article creator, year. Title: article subtitle. Secondary author. Title: subtitle of the journal [online]. Place of publication: publisher, volume(issue), page range (without p.) [cited YYYY-MM-DD]. ISSN. Available from: URL.

  • Optional data are marked in grey.

If the resource has a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), it is sufficient to provide only this information instead of the traditional URL linking to the resource.

Examples:

  • ABATE, Megersa, Panayotis CHRISTIDIS and Alloysius Joko PURWANTO, 2020. Government support to airlines in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Air Transport Management [online]. 89 [cit. 2023-04-28]. ISSN 09696997. Available from: doi:10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101931
  • MAYDYBURA, Alina and Brian ANDREW, 2011. A Study of the Determinants of Emissions Unit Allowance Price in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal [online]. 5(4) [cit. 2023-04-25]. Available from: https://ro.uow.edu.au/aabfj/vol5/iss4/9/
Article on the website

Page creator, year. Title: page subtitle. Secondary creator. Title: subtitle of the source web site [online]. Place: publisher, date of publication. Date updated [cited YYYY-MM-DD]. Available from: URL.

  • Optional data are marked in grey.

Example:

Data from companies' internal systems

Data that is not published and that has been provided to the student, for example by consulting the company's internal system, is considered private information. Private information is information that has not been published anywhere, the citation of which is regulated by the Directive no. 9/2019. In the academic context it includes data provided for research whether self-collected from survey respondents or internal confidential data of cooperating companies. The source is acknowledged directly at the point of the text where the borrowed information is used, e.g. expressly in the text (“based on information provided by XYZ, s.r.o. ...”) or by reference below a table, graph or illustration (e.g. in the form “Source: author’s own research”, “Source: data of XYZ, s.r.o.” etc.). Bibliographic entries for private information are not created in the bibliography and other cited sources at the end of the thesis.

Electronic book

Creator, year. Title: subtitle [online]. Issue. Other contributors. Place of publication Publisher, scope of work [cited YYYY-MM-DD]. Edition, volume number. Notes. ISBN. Available from: URL.

  • Optional information is marked in grey.

Example:

E-mail correspondence

Information obtained by e-mail is essentially private correspondence, the authenticity of which a third party has no way of verifying, as with oral communications. Therefore it is a private information, the citation of which is regulated by the Directive no. 9/2019. In the academic context it includes data provided for research whether self-collected from survey respondents or internal confidential data of cooperating companies. The source is acknowledged directly at the point of the text where the borrowed information is used, e.g. expressly in the text (“based on information provided by XYZ, s.r.o. ...”) or by reference below a table, graph or illustration (e.g. in the form “Source: author’s own research”, “Source: data of XYZ, s.r.o.” etc.). Bibliographic entries for private information are not created in the bibliography and other cited sources at the end of the thesis.

Laws (in electronic form)

If you take laws from databases or websites, you cite them as a post on the site:

Zákon č. 586/1992 Sb. Zákon České národní rady o daních z příjmů. In: Zákony pro lidi [online]. AION CS, 2010-2018 [cit. 2023-05-09]. Available from: https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/1992-586 

Statistical databases

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