Regardless of whether or not material is still protected by copyright or whether or not a license/terms of use/Copyright Act exception requires attribution, university policy requires you to cite your sources.
- Policy 33 (Ethical Behaviour): “Academic freedom carries with it the duty to use that freedom in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base teaching and research on an honest and ethical quest for knowledge.”
- Policy 73 (Intellectual Property Rights): “All contributions to scholarly works should receive appropriate recognition for their contributions. Depending on the nature of a contribution, appropriate recognition can take, but is not limited to, one or more of the following forms," including "recognition as a creator" and "recognition through an acknowledgement or citation."
- Policy 71 (Student Discipline): “Students are responsible for demonstrating behaviour that is honest and ethical in their academic work. Such behaviour includes … submitting original work, citing sources fully, and respecting the authorship of others”. Academic offences include plagiarism, theft of intellectual property, and contravention of statute (e.g., the Copyright Act).
When writing citations, the best practice is to follow the style used by your discipline (e.g., AMA, APA, MLA, etc.), unless otherwise required by a licence or by terms of use.
