"In Tikopia, when the paramount chief dies, there is an election among the lesser chiefs to replace him" (Nowak & Laird, 2010, p. 177). Suppose you write the following in your post or paper: When a Tikopian chief who rules over other chiefs dies, the chiefs beneath him hold an election to decide who will be his successor. This is information you learned from a book. Do you still need to include a citation even though it is not a direct quotation?

No, there is no need to include the cititation.

Explanation:

No, there is no need to include the cititation when it is not a direct quotation. One can simply incorporate their own words with the quotation especially when the cited quotation is lew than fourty words.

Here, the writer has withdrawn from quoting the exact words as cited in the book by Nowak and Laird. Therefore, he/she does not need include the cititation as he/she incorporated his/her own words in the post or paper.