Give credit for anything that originates somewhere outside of you (if it is not already considered common knowledge) - whether you are summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting. When in doubt, give credit. It's safer.
A citation is a shorthand way of referring to an information source. Citations are also called references. Research articles and conference papers (as well as other sources such as dissertations and many books) have - at the end - a list of citations that the author referred to. Citations consist of all the information required so anyone could track down the full text of that particular source. There are many different "styles" for writing citations. These styles dictate the order and formatting elements such as the title, publication year, volume, issue, authors, etc.
Articles, conference papers, and books found online (in an electronic format) are not considered websites and should not be cited as if they are websites.
You probably already know (or think you know) quite a bit about plagiarism, but sometimes what you learned in high school or in other classes is incomplete. In fact, frequently it's not quite accurate.
Plagiarism is the act of taking ideas, words, or other information from a source without indicating your use of that source. This is also known as not-giving credit to the source.
Sources could include:
If you encounter a situation where you are unsure whether you are committing plagiarism, seek advice from your instructor, the Academic Success Center, or from NAU's Writing Commons, before turning in your assignment.
By the way, to copy means to make a similar or identical version of. In your writing, it is NEVER appropriate to copy text from a source (even short phrases) and pass the text off as your own.
Some students think that anything they find on the web is free to use, and it's ok to copy it, and there's no need to give credit - but this is incorrect. Copying from the web is considered plagiarism.