Citing NCpedia Articles and Copyright

Need help citing NCpedia articles? Have questions about copyright and permissions?  This article discusses where to find help for creating citations and how to find copyright information for NCpedia articles.

Citing NCpedia articles

Researchers and writers provide citations for the material they have used, and most NCpedia articles contain references for the resources used by the authors. Citing sources allows other readers and researchers to see where information has come from and to give credit to other researchers for the work they have done.

There are many different citation formats including the Chicago Manual of Style, the Modern Language Association (MLA), and the American Psychological Association (APA). These styles are commonly used and many teachers ask their students to use these. 

Because there is more than one format, NCpedia does not provide a specified citation style for its content. 

Here are links to a few citation building tools to help you.  These tools are supported by credible sites. Click on the links to go to an external site that has the tool.

• NC State University Libraries Citation Builder: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/citationbuilder/
• UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries Citation Builder: https://library.unc.edu/citationbuilder/
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Research and Citation Resources: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/resources.html
• EasyBib: https://www.easybib.com/​

Copyright

What is copyright? Copyright is a form of intellectual property and is based on the laws of a country. Copyright laws give special legal rights to the creators of original work. Original work includes things like poems, books, musical compositions and recordings, paintings, photographs, and others. These legal rights are exclusive rights that belong to the owners of copyright (usually but not always the creator of a work). Specifically they are legal rights to how a work is expressed, used, and distributed.

Numerous individual authors and publications have contributed content to NCpedia.  Some NCpedia content is under copyright from the original author or publisher. NCpedia articles that are under copyright have been included (or reprinted) in NCpedia from these other sources with permission from the copyright owners. Please assume that entries are under copyright unless otherwise stated. Most NCpedia articles that are under copyright will have a copyright notice and any specific use restrictions specified with the article. Copyright notices and information about use restrictions appear either at the top of an NCpedia article just above the title or in the author information section just below the article title (see image).

For more information on U.S. Copyright Law, please visit:

Copyright.gov (The U.S. Copyright Office): https://www.copyright.gov/title17/

Reuse of NCpedia materials including articles and images

NCpedia content has been made available by contributors for personal educational use, consistent with provisions of fair use under copyright law.  For any other uses, derivatives or republication requests, please contact the individual contributors or publishers. Requests to reprint or republish can be directed to individual contributors or NCpedia, and NCpedia will help viewers with their questions or connect them with the authors and publishers as needed. NCpedia articles span several decades, so please note the publication and copyright date of individual articles.

Many uses of information for personal and educational purposes fall under what is referred to as fair use and as stated in U.S. copyright law. If you are unsure of whether your particular use of NCpedia content falls under fair use and you would like to inquire about permissions to use NCpedia content, please contact the NC Government & Heritage Library at the State Library of North Carolina.

You can contact us by email at: digital.info@ncdcr.gov. You can also contact librarians for instant help during business hours when the library's live chat service is available. Click here to access chat: https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/contact-us.

More resources for Writing and Citing

• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
• UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries Citing & Writing: https://library.unc.edu/support/citing/
• The Chicago Manual of Style: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
• Purdue OWL Resources for Grades 7-12 students and instructors: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
• Yale University Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Using Sources: https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/using-sources