When to Cite
Every claim drawn from a specific source — a study, a published article, a book, a documented framework, a quote — is cited. General professional knowledge widely shared across the field does not require citation, but specific empirical claims and direct adaptations always do.
What to Cite
We prefer primary sources to secondary summaries. We cite the original study rather than a press release about it. When summarizing a body of work, we cite the key representative sources rather than chaining citations through intermediate articles.
How We Cite
Inline citations link to the source, with author and publication where applicable. Quotes are reproduced verbatim with quotation marks; paraphrases are signaled by attribution. We do not present paraphrased ideas as our own without attribution.
Self-Citation
Citing prior WritingToolsPro publications is permitted when relevant, but we do not use self-citation to inflate the appearance of authority. Self-citations are not counted as independent evidence.
AI Output and Attribution
AI-generated text used in drafting is not cited as a source. Where an AI tool's output is the subject of an article (e.g. a discussion of how a model behaves on a task), that output is described and reproduced under fair-use principles.
Errors in Cited Sources
When we discover that a cited source contains an error, we update the citing article to reflect the correction and add an editor's note describing what changed.