Citation and Attribution
Even though they share characteristics, citations and attributions play different roles and appear in different places. This section defines citation and attribution, explains how and when they should be used in an open textbook, and discusses their purposes, similarities, and differences.
Citation
A citation allows authors to provide the source of any quotations, ideas, and information that they include in their own work based on the copyrighted works of other authors. Citation is a common and long-time practice among scholars used to indicate where a resource is from and who the author is. Unlike an attribution, citation is typically used for copyrighted works with restricted rights or “all rights reserved.” In other words, it is used in works for which broad permissions have not been granted.
Attribution
Attribution is the cornerstone condition when using a resource or text released with an open-copyright license. This legal requirement (the “BY” in CC-BY) states that users must attribute — give credit — to the creator of the work. A full overview of the CC license types is in section 3.5: Open Licensing.
A useful tool to help create attribution statements is the OPEN Attribution Builder by Open Washington. We also highly recommend keeping track of your image sources, licenses, and alt text in the ACCA Image Tracking Template spreadsheet.
An attribution statement is used to provide credit to the original creator; its purpose is similar to a citation. Best practice says that the statement should include the title of the work, name of the creator, and license type (with hyperlinks to each). When using text from another open educational resource, be clear in your attribution statement what section of your textbook contains this information.
Key Differences between Citation and Attribution
Key Takeaways
- Citations allow authors to provide the sources of copyrighted resources utilized in their works where broad permissions have not been granted to use the copyrighted work.
- Attributions are the legal requirement to provide credit to the creator of the work, tools such as the OPEN Attribution Builder can be used to help create attribution statements.
Sources
- The concepts and portions of this text have been taken from Quill West’s presentation for Pierce College called Citations vs. Attributions. And how to deal with them in your work and is used under a CC BY 4.0 Licence.
Adapted from BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide by Lauri M. Aesoph, licensed under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
