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Citing Sources: What are citations and why should I use them?

What is a citation.

Citations are a way of giving credit when certain material in your work came from another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again-- it provides an important roadmap to your research process. Whenever you use sources such as books, journals or websites in your research, you must give credit to the original author by citing the source. 

Why do researchers cite?

Scholarship is a conversation  and scholars use citations not only to  give credit  to original creators and thinkers, but also to  add strength and authority  to their own work.  By citing their sources, scholars are  placing their work in a specific context  to show where they “fit” within the larger conversation.  Citations are also a great way to  leave a trail  intended to help others who may want to explore the conversation or use the sources in their own work.

In short, citations

(1) give credit

(2) add strength and authority to your work

(3) place your work in a specific context

(4) leave a trail for other scholars

"Good citations should reveal your sources, not conceal them. They should honeslty reflect the research you conducted." (Lipson 4)

Lipson, Charles. "Why Cite?"  Cite Right: A Quick Guide to Citation Styles--MLA, APA, Chicago, the Sciences, Professions, and More . Chicago: U of Chicago, 2006. Print.

What does a citation look like?

Different subject disciplines call for citation information to be written in very specific order, capitalization, and punctuation. There are therefore many different style formats. Three popular citation formats are MLA Style (for humanities articles) and APA or Chicago (for social sciences articles).

MLA style (print journal article):  

Whisenant, Warren A. "How Women Have Fared as Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Since the Passage of Title IX." Sex Roles Vol. 49.3 (2003): 179-182.

APA style (print journal article):

Whisenant, W. A. (2003) How Women Have Fared as Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Since the Passage of Title IX. Sex Roles , 49 (3), 179-182.

Chicago style (print journal article):

Whisenant, Warren A. "How Women Have Fared as Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Since the Passage of Title IX." Sex Roles 49, no. 3 (2003): 179-182.

No matter which style you use, all citations require the same basic information:

• Author or Creator
• Container (e.g., Journal or magazine, website, edited book)
• Date of creation or publication
• Publisher 

You are most likely to have easy access to all of your citation information when you find it in the first place. Take note of this information up front, and it will be much easier to cite it effectively later.

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Research Skills Tutorial

• Turning A Topic Into A Research Question
• Getting Background Information About Your Topic
• Portfolio Activity 1
• Types of Information Sources
• Scholarly, Popular and Trade Information Sources
• Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Information Sources
• Current and Retrospective Information Sources
• Information Sources for Different Audiences and Purposes
• Portfolio Activity 2
• Library Databases vs. the Web
• Creating a Concept Chart
• Boolean Operators
• Refining Results by Date, Peer Review and Document Type
• Advanced Searching
• Advanced Searching with Descriptors
• Descriptor Chaining
• Citation Chaining (or Reference Mining)
• Searching Outside the SUNY Empire Library
• Searching Google
• Portfolio Activity 3
• Understanding Search Results
• Saving Search Results
• Portfolio Activity 4
• Credible Sources
• What Does the Information Source Tell You About Itself?
• Reliability
• Some More About Validity
• Portfolio Activity 5
• What Is Citing?
• What Is a Citation?
• Citation Styles
• Citing Tools and Tips
• Practice Activity 6
• Practice Activity 7 - Final Project

What Is A Citation?

When to cite.

A citation is a reference to the source of information used in your research. Any time you directly quote, paraphrase or summarize the essential elements of someone else's idea in your work, an in-text citation should follow. An in-text citation is a brief notation within the text of your paper or presentation which refers the reader to a fuller notation, or end-of-paper citation , that provides all necessary details about that source of information. Direct quotations should be surrounded by quotations marks and are generally used when the idea you want to capture is best expressed by the source.  Paraphrasing and summarizing involve rewording an essential idea from someone else's work, usually to either condense the point or to make it better fit your writing style. You do not have to cite your own ideas, unless they have been published. And you do not have to cite  common knowledge , or information that most people in your audience would know without having to look it up.

In-Text Citations

In-text citations alert the reader to an idea from an outside source.  

Parenthetical Notes

In MLA and APA styles, in-text citations usually appear as parenthetical notes (sometimes called parenthetical documentation ). They are called parenthetical notes because brief information about the source, usually the author's name, year of publication, and page number, is enclosed in parentheses as follows:  

MLA style: (Smith 263)

APA style: (Smith, 2013, p. 263)  

Parenthetical notes are inserted into the text of the paper at the end of a sentence or paragraph:>

In MLA and APA styles, in-text citations are associated with end-of-paper citations that provide full details about an information source. Note: Different source types and situations require different information within the parentheses. Refer to a style guide for the style you are using for details.

Note Numbers

In Chicago and CSE styles, in-text citations usually appear as superscript numerals, or note numbers , as follows:

These note numbers are associated with full citations that can appear as footnotes (bottom of page), endnotes (end of chapter or paper), or lists of cited references at the end of the paper.  

End-of-Paper Citations

End-of-paper citations, as well as footnotes and endnotes, include  full details about a source of information.  Citations contain different pieces of identifying information about your source depending on what type of source it is. In academic research, your sources will most commonly be articles from scholarly journals, and the citation for an article typically includes:  

• article title
• publication information (journal title, date, volume, issue, pages, etc.)
• DOI (digital object identifier).
• URL of the information source itself
• URL of the journal that published the article

There are many other types of sources you might use, including books, book chapters, films, song lyrics, musical scores, interviews, e-mails, blog entries, art works, lectures, websites and more. To determine which details are required for a citation for a particular source type, find that source type within the style guide for the citation style you are using. At the end of your research paper, full citations should be listed in order according to the citation style you are using:

• In MLA style, this list is called a W orks Cited page.  
• In APA style, it is called a References page.
• In CSE style, it is called a C ited References page.
• And, in Chicago style, there may be both a Notes page and a Bibliography page. 

Citations  In Library Databases

When you search the library's databases for articles or e-books, the list of search results you see is actually a list of full citations. Instead of being formatted according to MLA, APA, CSE, or Chicago style, these citations are formatted according to the database vendor's style. It is up to you to take the source information you find in a library database (or elsewhere) and format it according to the citation style you are using.

Accessibility Note

Please note: If you need to request accommodations with content linked to on this guide, on the basis of a disability, please contact Accessibility Resources and Services by emailing them .  Requests for accommodations should be submitted as early as possible to allow for sufficient planning. If you have questions, please visit the Accessibility Resources and Services website .

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Start your research.

• Research Process
• Find Background Info
• Find Sources through the Library
• Evaluate Your Info
• Cite Your Sources
• Evaluate, Write & Cite

• is the right thing to do  to give credit to those who had the idea
• shows that you have read and understand  what experts have had to say about your topic
• helps people find the sources  that you used in case they want to read more about the topic
• provides   evidence  for your arguments
• is professional and  standard practice   for students and scholars

What is a Citation?

A citation identifies for the reader the original source for an idea, information, or image that is referred to in a work.

• In the body of a paper, the  in-text citation  acknowledges the source of information used.
• At the end of a paper, the citations are compiled on a  References  or  Works Cited  list. A basic citation includes the author, title, and publication information of the source. 

From:  Lemieux  Library,  University  of Seattle 

Why Should You Cite?

Quoting Are you quoting two or more consecutive words from a source? Then the original source should be cited and the words or phrase placed in quotes. 

Paraphrasing If an idea or information comes from another source,  even if you put it in your own words , you still need to credit the source.  General vs. Unfamiliar Knowledge You do not need to cite material which is accepted common knowledge. If in doubt whether your information is common knowledge or not, cite it. Formats We usually think of books and articles. However, if you use material from web sites, films, music, graphs, tables, etc. you'll also need to cite these as well.

Plagiarism is presenting the words or ideas of someone else as your own without proper acknowledgment of the source. When you work on a research paper and use supporting material from works by others, it's okay to quote people and use their ideas, but you do need to correctly credit them. Even when you summarize or paraphrase information found in books, articles, or Web pages, you must acknowledge the original author.

Citation Style Help

Helpful links:

• MLA ,  Works Cited : A Quick Guide (a template of core elements)
• CSE  (Council of Science Editors)

For additional writing resources specific to styles listed here visit the  Purdue OWL Writing Lab

Citation and Bibliography Resources

• How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
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The land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.

The land acknowledgement used at UC Santa Cruz was developed in partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman and the Amah Mutsun Relearning Program at the UCSC Arboretum .

Citing sources: Overview

• Citation style guides

Manage your references

Use these tools to help you organize and cite your references:

• Citation Management and Writing Tools

If you have questions after consulting this guide about how to cite, please contact your advisor/professor or the writing and communication center .

Why citing is important

It's important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

• To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
• To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
• To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
• To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list

About citations

Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site).  They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases.

Citations consist of standard elements, and contain all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:

• author name(s)
• titles of books, articles, and journals
• date of publication
• page numbers
• volume and issue numbers (for articles)

Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. Choose an appropriate style guide for your needs.  Here is an example of an article citation using four different citation styles.  Notice the common elements as mentioned above:

Author - R. Langer

Article Title - New Methods of Drug Delivery

Source Title - Science

Volume and issue - Vol 249, issue 4976

Publication Date - 1990

Page numbers - 1527-1533

American Chemical Society (ACS) style:

Langer, R. New Methods of Drug Delivery. Science 1990 , 249 , 1527-1533.

IEEE Style:

R. Langer, " New Methods of Drug Delivery," Science , vol. 249 , pp. 1527-1533 , SEP 28, 1990 .

American Psychological Association   (APA) style:

Langer, R. (1990) . New methods of drug delivery. Science , 249 (4976), 1527-1533.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style:

Langer, R. " New Methods of Drug Delivery." Science 249.4976 (1990) : 1527-33.

What to cite

You must cite:

• Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge

Publications that must be cited include:  books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, etc.

Another person's exact words should be quoted and cited to show proper credit 

When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!

Avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism occurs when you borrow another's words (or ideas) and do not acknowledge that you have done so. In this culture, we consider our words and ideas intellectual property; like a car or any other possession, we believe our words belong to us and cannot be used without our permission.

Plagiarism is a very serious offense. If it is found that you have plagiarized -- deliberately or inadvertently -- you may face serious consequences. In some instances, plagiarism has meant that students have had to leave the institutions where they were studying.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to cite your sources - both within the body of your paper and in a bibliography of sources you used at the end of your paper.

Some useful links about plagiarism:

• MIT Academic Integrity Overview on citing sources and avoiding plagiarism at MIT.
• Avoiding Plagiarism From the MIT Writing and Communication Center.
• Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It From Indiana University's Writing Tutorial Services.
• Plagiarism- Overview A resource from Purdue University.
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• Last Updated: Jan 16, 2024 7:02 AM
• URL: https://libguides.mit.edu/citing

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 11. Citing Sources
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A citation is a formal reference to a published or unpublished source that you consulted and obtained information from while writing your research paper. It refers to a source of information that supports a factual statement, proposition, argument, or assertion or any quoted text obtained from a book, article, web site, or any other type of material . In-text citations are embedded within the body of your paper and use a shorthand notation style that refers to a complete description of the item at the end of the paper. Materials cited at the end of a paper may be listed under the heading References, Sources, Works Cited, or Bibliography. Rules on how to properly cite a source depends on the writing style manual your professor wants you to use for the class [e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, etc.]. Note that some disciplines have their own citation rules [e.g., law].

Citations: Overview. OASIS Writing Center, Walden University; Research and Citation. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Citing Sources. University Writing Center, Texas A&M University.

Reasons for Citing Your Sources

Reasons for Citing Sources in Your Research Paper

English scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, once wrote, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”* Citations support learning how to "see further" through processes of intellectual discovery, critical thinking, and applying a deliberate method of navigating through the scholarly landscape by tracking how cited works are propagated by scholars over time and the subsequent ways this leads to the devarication of new knowledge.

Listed below are specific reasons why citing sources is an important part of doing good research.

• Shows the reader where to find more information . Citations help readers expand their understanding and knowledge about the issues being investigated. One of the most effective strategies for locating authoritative, relevant sources about a research problem is to review materials cited in studies published by other authors. In this way, the sources you cite help the reader identify where to go to examine the topic in more depth and detail.
• Increases your credibility as an author . Citations to the words, ideas, and arguments of scholars demonstrates that you have conducted a thorough review of the literature and, therefore, you are reporting your research results or proposing recommended courses of action from an informed and critically engaged perspective. Your citations offer evidence that you effectively contemplated, evaluated, and synthesized sources of information in relation to your conceptualization of the research problem.
• Illustrates the non-linear and contested nature of knowledge creation . The sources you cite show the reader how you characterized the dynamics of prior knowledge creation relevant to the research problem and how you managed to effectively identify the contested relationships between problems and solutions proposed among scholars. Citations don't just list materials used in your study, they tell a story about how prior knowledge-making emerged from a constant state of creation, renewal, and transformation.
• Reinforces your arguments . Sources cited in your paper provide the evidence that readers need to determine that you properly addressed the “So What?” question. This refers to whether you considered the relevance and significance of the research problem, its implications applied to creating new knowledge, and its importance for improving practice. In this way, citations draw attention to and support the legitimacy and originality of your own ideas.
• Demonstrates that you "listened" to relevant conversations among scholars before joining in . Your citations tell the reader where you developed an understanding of the debates among scholars. They show how you educated yourself about ongoing conversations taking place within relevant communities of researchers before inserting your own ideas and arguments. In peer-reviewed scholarship, most of these conversations emerge within books, research reports, journal articles, and other cited works.
• Delineates alternative approaches to explaining the research problem . If you disagree with prior research assumptions or you believe that a topic has been understudied or you find that there is a gap in how scholars have understood a problem, your citations serve as the source materials from which to analyze and present an alternative viewpoint or to assert that a different course of action should be pursued. In short, the materials you cite serve as the means by which to argue persuasively against long-standing assumptions propagated in prior studies.
• Helps the reader understand contextual aspects of your research . Cited sources help readers understand the specific circumstances, conditions, and settings of the problem being investigated and, by extension, how your arguments can be fully understood and assessed. Citations place your line of reasoning within a specific contextualized framework based on how others have studied the problem and how you interpreted their findings in support of your overall research objectives.
• Frames the development of concepts and ideas within the literature . No topic in the social and behavioral sciences rests in isolation from research that has taken place in the past. Your citations help the reader understand the growth and transformation of the theoretical assumptions, key concepts, and systematic inquiries that emerged prior to your engagement with the research problem.
• Underscores what sources were most important to you . Your citations represent a set of choices made about what you determined to be the most important sources for understanding the topic. They not only list what you discovered, but why it matters and how the materials you chose to cite fit within the broader context of your research design and arguments. As part of an overall assessment of the study’s validity and reliability , the choices you make also helps the reader determine what research may have been excluded.
• Provides evidence of interdisciplinary thinking . An important principle of good research is to extend your review of the literature beyond the predominant disciplinary space where scholars have examined a topic. Citations provide evidence that you have integrated epistemological arguments, observations, and/or the methodological strategies from other disciplines into your paper, thereby demonstrating that you understand the complex, interconnected nature of contemporary research problems.
• Supports critical thinking and independent learning . Evaluating the authenticity, reliability, validity, and originality of prior research is an act of interpretation and introspective reasoning applied to assessing whether a source of information will contribute to understanding the problem in ways that are persuasive and align with your overall research objectives. Reviewing and citing prior studies represents a deliberate act of critically scrutinizing each source as part of your overall assessment of how scholars have confronted the research problem.
• Honors the achievements of others . As Susan Blum recently noted,** citations not only identify sources used, they acknowledge the achievements of scholars within the larger network of research about the topic. Citing sources is a normative act of professionalism within academe and a way to highlight and recognize the work of scholars who likely do not obtain any tangible benefits or monetary value from their research endeavors.

*Vernon. Jamie L. "On the Shoulder of Giants." American Scientist 105 (July-August 2017): 194.

**Blum, Susan D. "In Defense of the Morality of Citation.” Inside Higher Ed , January 29, 2024.

Aksnes, Dag W., Liv Langfeldt, and Paul Wouters. "Citations, Citation Indicators, and Research Quality: An Overview of Basic Concepts and Theories." Sage Open 9 (January-March 2019): https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019829575; Blum, Susan Debra. My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009; Bretag, Tracey., editor. Handbook of Academic Integrity . Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2020; Ballenger, Bruce P. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers . 7th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012; D'Angelo, Barbara J. "Using Source Analysis to Promote Critical Thinking." Research Strategies 18 (Winter 2001): 303-309; Mauer, Barry and John Venecek. “Scholarship as Conversation.” Strategies for Conducting Literary Research, University of Central Florida, 2021; Why Cite? Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale University; Citing Information. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Harvard Guide to Using Sources. Harvard College Writing Program. Harvard University; Newton, Philip. "Academic Integrity: A Quantitative Study of Confidence and Understanding in Students at the Start of Their Higher Education."  Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 41 (2016): 482-497; Referencing More Effectively. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra; Using Sources. Yale College Writing Center. Yale University; Vosburgh, Richard M. "Closing the Academic-practitioner Gap: Research Must Answer the “SO WHAT” Question." H uman Resource Management Review 32 (March 2022): 100633; When and Why to Cite Sources. Information Literacy Playlists, SUNY, Albany Libraries.

Structure and Writing Style

Referencing your sources means systematically showing what information or ideas you acquired from another author’s work, and identifying where that information come from . You must cite research in order to do research, but at the same time, you must delineate what are your original thoughts and ideas and what are the thoughts and ideas of others. Citations help achieve this. Procedures used to cite sources vary among different fields of study. If not outlined in your course syllabus or writing assignment, always speak with your professor about what writing style for citing sources should be used for the class because it is important to fully understand the citation style to be used in your paper, and to apply it consistently. If your professor defers and tells you to "choose whatever you want, just be consistent," then choose the citation style you are most familiar with or that is appropriate to your major [e.g., use Chicago style if its a history class; use APA if its an education course; use MLA if it is literature or a general writing course].

GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Are there any reasons I should avoid referencing other people's work? No. If placed in the proper context, r eferencing other people's research is never an indication that your work is substandard or lacks originality. In fact, the opposite is true. If you write your paper without adequate references to previous studies, you are signaling to the reader that you are not familiar with the literature on the topic, thereby, undermining the validity of your study and your credibility as a researcher. Including references in academic writing is one of the most important ways to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of how the research problem has been addressed. It is the intellectual packaging around which you present your thoughts and ideas to the reader.

2. What should I do if I find out that my great idea has already been studied by another researcher? It can be frustrating to come up with what you believe is a great topic only to find that it's already been thoroughly studied. However, do not become frustrated by this. You can acknowledge the prior research by writing in the text of your paper [see also Smith, 2002], then citing the complete source in your list of references. Use the discovery of prior studies as an opportunity to demonstrate the significance of the problem being investigated and, if applicable, as a means of delineating your analysis from those of others [e.g., the prior study is ten years old and doesn't take into account new variables]. Strategies for responding to prior research can include: stating how your study updates previous understandings about the topic, offering a new or different perspective, applying a different or innovative method of data gathering, and/or describing a new set of insights, guidelines, recommendations, best practices, or working solutions.

3. What should I do if I want to use an adapted version of someone else's work? You still must cite the original work. For example, maybe you are using a table of statistics from a journal article published in 1996 by author Smith, but you have altered or added new data to it. Reference the revised chart, such as, [adapted from Smith, 1996], then cite the complete source in your list of references. You can also use other terms in order to specify the exact relationship between the original source and the version you have presented, such as, "based on data from Smith [1996]...," or "summarized from Smith [1996]...." Citing the original source helps the reader locate where the information was first presented and under what context it was used as well as to evaluate how effectively you applied it to your own research.

4. What should I do if several authors have published very similar information or ideas? You can indicate that the idea or information can be found in the works of others by stating something similar to the following example: "Though many scholars have applied rational choice theory to understanding economic relations among nations [Smith, 1989; Jones, 1991; Johnson, 1994; Anderson, 2003], little attention has been given to applying the theory to examining the influence of non-governmental organizations in a globalized economy." If you only reference one author or only the most recent study, then your readers may assume that only one author has published on this topic, or more likely, they will conclude that you have not conducted a thorough literature review. Referencing all relevant authors of prior studies gives your readers a clear idea of the breadth of analysis you conducted in preparing to study the research problem. If there has been a significant number of prior studies on the topic, describe the most comprehensive and recent works because they will presumably discuss and reference the older studies. However, note in your review of the literature that there has been significant scholarship devoted to the topic so the reader knows that you are aware of the numerous prior studies.

5. What if I find exactly what I want to say in the writing of another researcher? In the social sciences, the rationale in duplicating prior research is generally governed by the passage of time, changing circumstances or conditions, or the emergence of variables that necessitate a new investigation . If someone else has recently conducted a thorough investigation of precisely the same research problem that you intend to study, then you likely will have to revise your topic, or at the very least, review this literature to identify something new to say about the problem. However, if it is someone else's particularly succinct expression, but it fits perfectly with what you are trying to say, then you can quote from the author directly, referencing the source. Identifying an author who has made the exact same point that you want to make can be an opportunity to add legitimacy to, as well as reinforce the significance of, the research problem you are investigating. The key is to build on that idea in new and innovative ways. If you are not sure how to do this, consult with a librarian .

6. Should I cite a source even if it was published long ago? Any source used in writing your paper should be cited, regardless of when it was written. However, in building a case for understanding prior research about your topic, it is generally true that you should focus on citing more recently published studies because they presumably have built upon the research of older studies. When referencing prior studies, use the research problem as your guide when considering what to cite. If a study from forty years ago investigated the same topic, it probably should be examined and considered in your list of references because the research may have been foundational or groundbreaking at the time, even if its findings are no longer relevant to current conditions or reflect current thinking [one way to determine if a study is foundational or groundbreaking is to examine how often it has been cited in recent studies using the "Cited by" feature of Google Scholar ]. However, if an older study only relates to the research problem tangentially or it has not been cited in recent studies, then it may be more appropriate to list it under further readings .

NOTE:   In any academic writing, you are required to identify which ideas, facts, thoughts, concepts, or declarative statements are yours and which are derived from the research of others. The only exception to this rule is information that is considered to be a commonly known fact [e.g., "George Washington was the first president of the United States"] or a statement that is self-evident [e.g., "Australia is a country in the Global South"]. Appreciate, however, that any "commonly known fact" is culturally constructed and shaped by social and aesthetical biases . If you are in doubt about whether or not a fact is considered to be widely understood knowledge, provide a supporting citation, or, ask your professor for clarification about how the statement should be cited.

Ballenger, Bruce P. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers . 7th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012; Blum, Susan Debra. My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009; Bretag, Tracey., editor. Handbook of Academic Integrity . Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2020; Carlock, Janine. Developing Information Literacy Skills: A Guide to Finding, Evaluating, and Citing Sources . Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2020; Harvard Guide to Using Sources. Harvard College Writing Program. Harvard University; How to Cite Other Sources in Your Paper. The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style Scientific Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Lunsford, Andrea A. and Robert Connors; The St. Martin's Handbook . New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989; Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace . 3rd edition. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2015; Research and Citation Resources. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Why Cite? Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale Univeraity.

Other Citation Research Guides

The following USC Libraries research guide can help you properly cite sources in your research paper:

• Citation Guide

The following USC Libraries research guide offers basic information on using images and media in research:

Listed below are particularly well-done and comprehensive websites that provide specific examples of how to cite sources under different style guidelines.

• Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• Southern Cross University Harvard Referencing Style
• University of Wisconsin Writing Center

This is a useful guide concerning how to properly cite images in your research paper.

• Colgate Visual Resources Library, Citing Images

This guide provides good information on the act of citation analysis, whereby you count the number of times a published work is cited by other works in order to measure the impact of a publication or author.

Measuring Your Impact: Impact Factor, Citation Analysis, and other Metrics: Citation Analysis [Sandy De Groote, University of Illinois, Chicago]

Automatic Citation Generators

The links below lead to systems where you can type in your information and have a citation compiled for you. Note that these systems are not foolproof so it is important that you verify that the citation is correct and check your spelling, capitalization, etc. However, they can be useful in creating basic types of citations, particularly for online sources.

• BibMe -- APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles
• DocsCite -- for citing government publications in APA or MLA formats
• EasyBib -- APA, MLA, and Chicago styles
• Son of Citation Machine -- APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles

NOTE:   Many companies that create the research databases the USC Libraries subscribe to, such as ProQuest , include built-in citation generators that help take the guesswork out of how to properly cite a work. When available, you should always utilize these features because they not only generate a citation to the source [e.g., a journal article], but include information about where you accessed the source [e.g., the database].

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Citation Style Guide: What is citation?

• What is citation?
• What are citation styles?
• How to cite?
• Pre-made citations in OneSearch
• Pre-made citations in Google Scholar
• Citation generators
• Intl. Legal
• Get help with citation

What is citation? Citation is how you tell your readers that information in your writing came from other sources—and how they can find it.

Why do you need to cite sources?

• To give credit to the authors of the source of your information.
• To enable readers locate the source -- either to verify your information or to find out more about it.
• To help readers distinguish your own thoughts and claims from those of your sources.
• To make your writing more convincing by showing that your information comes from a source.
• To help you get a good grade on a paper—or, in the real world, to protect you from being sued or damaging your reputation.

When do you need to cite?

• When you use words, thoughts, ideas, or information that were produced by someone other than yourself.
• When you quote someone directly (using quotation marks).
• When you paraphrase (change someone else's words but keeping their meaning).
• When you use or reference an idea or thought that has already been expressed.
• When you make any reference to another source.
• When another’s ideas, words or thoughts have influenced your writing and research.

This fun video explains why you need to cite.

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Citation Guide

What is a citation, scholarly versus popular publications, citation components (credo), writing help.

• Citation Generator
• Chicago/Turabian Style
• Paraphrasing and Quoting
• Examples of Plagiarism
• What is a Bibliography?
• Writing Center
• Writer's Reference Center
• Helpful Tutorials

A citation is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from another source and gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again. Citations may include: Information about the Author(s) or Editor(s).

• The Title of the work
• The Publisher
• The Date published
• The Page Numbers of the material you are referencing
• Why should I cite sources?

Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the only way to use other people's work without plagiarizing. But there are a number of other reasons to cite sources:

• Citations are extremely helpful to anyone who wants to find out more about your ideas and where they came from.
• Not all sources are good or right for your project -- your own ideas may often be more accurate or interesting than those of your sources. Proper citation will keep you from taking the rap for someone else's bad ideas.
• Citing sources shows the amount of research you've done.
• Citing sources strengthens your work by lending outside support to your ideas.

Doesn't citing sources make my work seem less original?

Not at all. Citing sources actually helps your reader distinguish your ideas from those of your sources. This will emphasize the originality of your own work. It also gives you greater credibility because you are demonstrating your knowledge on the subject and your understanding of the work that's already been done by others on the subject.

When do I need to cite?

Whenever you borrow words or ideas from another source, you need to acknowledge that source. The following situations almost always require a citation:

• Whenever you use quotes
• Whenever you paraphrase
• Whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed
• Whenever you make specific reference to the work of another
• Whenever someone else's work has been critical in developing your own ideas
• How to tell the difference between Scholarly, Popular and Trade publications
• Search engines vs. databases A video explaining the difference between using a search engine versus a database for scholarly research.
• What is Peer Review? Video explaining peer review, (scholarly) articles in three minutes.
• Citation Components APA and MLA aren't just your instructor's way of punishing you. These style guides ensure you give proper credit and avoid plagiarism.

The Limestone University OWL (online writing lab) is the virtual extension of the Writing Center on the main campus. The LU OWL offers live peer tutorial sessions to all students. On campus students may visit the Writing Lab in person. 

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• Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 12:29 PM
• URL: https://libguides.limestone.edu/citation

Organizing Academic Research Papers: 11. Citing Sources

• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Executive Summary
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tertiary Sources
• What Is Scholarly vs. Popular?
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Annotated Bibliography
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• How to Manage Group Projects
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Essays
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Acknowledgements

A citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source that you consulted and obtained information from while writing your research paper. The way in which you document your sources depends on the writing style manual your professor wants you to use for the class [e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, etc.]. Note that some disciplines have their own citation method [e.g., law].

Importance of a Citing your Sources

Citations show your readers where you obtained your material, provides a means of critiquing your study, and offers the opportunity to obtain additional information about the research problem under investigation.

Properly citing the works of others is important because:

• Proper citation allows others to locate the materials you used . Citations to other sources helps readers expand their knowledge on a topic. In some disciplines, one of the most effective strategies for locating authoritative, relevant sources is to follow footnotes or references from known sources ["citation tracking"].
• Citing other people's words and ideas indicates that you have conducted thorough review of the literature on your topic and, therefore, you are operating from an informed perspective. This increases your credibility as the author of the work.
• Other researcher's ideas can be used to reinforce your arguments , or, if you disagree with them, can act as positions from which to argue an alternative viewpoint. In many cases, another researcher's arguments can act as the primary context from which you can emphasize a different viewpoint or to clarify the importance of what you are proposing.
• Ju st as other researcher's ideas can bolster your arguments and act as evidence for your ideas, they can also detract from your credibility if they are found to be mistaken or fabricated . Properly citing information not unique to you prevents your reputation from being tarnished if the facts or ideas of others are proven to be inaccurate or off-base.
• Outside academe, ideas are considered intellectual property and there can serious repercussions if you fail to cite where you got an idea from . In the professional world, failure to cite other people's intellectual property ruins careers and reputations and can result in legal action. Given this, it is important to get into the habit of citing sources.

In any academic writing, you are required to identify for your reader which ideas, facts, theories, concepts, etc., are yours and which are derived from the research and thoughts of others. Whether you summarize, paraphrase, or use direct quotes, if it's not your original idea, the source needs to be acknowledged. The only exception to this rule is information that is considered to be common knowledge [e.g., George Washington was the first president of the United States]. If in doubt regarding whether something is common knowledge, take the safe route and cite it, or ask your professor for clarification.

Citing Information . The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Referencing More Effectively. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra.

Structure and Writing Style

Referencing your sources means systematically showing what information or ideas you are quoting or paraphrasing from another author’s work, and where they come from . You must cite research in order to do research, but at the same time, you must indicate what are your original thoughts and ideas and what are the thoughts and ideas of others. Systems used to reference the sources you've used vary among different fields of study. However, always speak with your professor about what writing style for citing sources should be used for the class because it is important to fully understand the citation style to be used in your paper, and to apply it consistently.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

• Should I avoid referencing other people's work?  No! Referencing other people's work is never an indication that your work is poor or lacks originality if placed in the proper context. In fact, the opposite is true. If you write your paper with no references to previous research, you are indicating to the reader that you are not familiar with the research that has already been done, thereby undermining your credibility as an author and the validity of your research. Including references in academic writing is a way of demonstrating your knowledge of pertinent literature about the research problem.
• What should I do if I find that my idea has already been published by another researcher?  Acknowledge the other researcher's work by writing in your reference something like this: [see also Smith, 2002]. Do not ignore another author's work because doing so will lead your readers to believe that you have either taken the idea or information without properly referencing it [this is plagiarism] or that you have failed to conduct a thorough review of the literature in your field.
• What should I do if I want to use an adapted version of someone else's work?  You still must cite the original work. For example, maybe you are using a table of statistics from a journal article published in 1996 by author Smith, but you have altered or added new data to it. Reference the revised chart as: [adapted from Smith, 1996]. You can also use other terms in order to specify the exact relationship between the source and the version you have presented, such as, based on Smith [1996], summarized from Smith  [1996], etc.
• What should I do if several authors have published very similar information or ideas?  You can indicate that the idea or information can be found in the work of more than one author, by stating something like: "Though in fact many authors have applied this theory to understanding economic relations among nations [for example, Smith, 1989; Jones, 19991; Johnson, 1994], little work has been done on applying it to understand the actions of non-governmental organizations." If you only reference one author, then your readers may assume that only one author has published on this topic, or, conclude that you have not read the literature thoroughly knowing that others have published research in this area. Referencing multiple authors indicates to your readers a clear idea of the breadth of analysis you conducted about the research problem, not a distorted or incomplete one.
• What if I find exactly what I want to say in the writing of another researcher?  It depends on what it is; if someone else has investigated precisely the same research problem as you, then you likely will have to change your topic, or at the very least, find something new to say about what you're researching. However, if it is someone else's particularly succinct expression, but it fits perfectly with what you are trying to say, then you can quote directly, citing the page reference as well as the author and year of publication. Finding someone else who has stated or made the same point that you have is an opportunity to reinforce your own interpretation of the research problem.

How to Cite Other Sources in Your Paper . The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style Scientific Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Lunsford, Andrea A. and Robert Connors; The St. Martin's Handbook. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989; Research and Citation Resources . The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Using Evidence. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University.  

Citation Research Guides

SHU Library has a collection of Quick Guides to help you cite your sources. They are all available on our Citation Style Guides page.

Listed below are particularly well-done and comprehensive websites that provide specific examples of how to cite sources under different style guidelines.

• Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• University of Wisconsin Writing Center

Automatic Citation Generators

Type in your information and have a citation compiled for you. Note that these are not foolproof systems so it is important that you verify that your citation is correct and check your spelling, capitalization, etc. However, they can be useful in creating basic types of citations, particularly for online sources.

• BibMe -- APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles
• DocsCite -- for citing government publications in APA or MLA formats
• EasyBib -- MLA style
• KnightCite -- APA, MLA, and Chicago styles
• Son of Citation Machine -- APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles

Most databases provide some kind of automatically generated citations for the major citation styles. Here is a video explaining how to find the citation feature in an EBSCO database. 

• Research 911: Citations (printable tutorial)
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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources

How to Cite Sources

Here is a complete list for how to cite sources. Most of these guides present citation guidance and examples in MLA, APA, and Chicago.

If you’re looking for general information on MLA or APA citations , the EasyBib Writing Center was designed for you! It has articles on what’s needed in an MLA in-text citation , how to format an APA paper, what an MLA annotated bibliography is, making an MLA works cited page, and much more!

MLA Format Citation Examples

The Modern Language Association created the MLA Style, currently in its 9th edition, to provide researchers with guidelines for writing and documenting scholarly borrowings.  Most often used in the humanities, MLA style (or MLA format ) has been adopted and used by numerous other disciplines, in multiple parts of the world.

MLA provides standard rules to follow so that most research papers are formatted in a similar manner. This makes it easier for readers to comprehend the information. The MLA in-text citation guidelines, MLA works cited standards, and MLA annotated bibliography instructions provide scholars with the information they need to properly cite sources in their research papers, articles, and assignments.

• Book Chapter
• Conference Paper
• Documentary
• Encyclopedia
• Google Images
• Kindle Book
• Memorial Inscription
• Museum Exhibit
• Painting or Artwork
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Sheet Music
• Thesis or Dissertation
• YouTube Video

APA Format Citation Examples

The American Psychological Association created the APA citation style in 1929 as a way to help psychologists, anthropologists, and even business managers establish one common way to cite sources and present content.

APA is used when citing sources for academic articles such as journals, and is intended to help readers better comprehend content, and to avoid language bias wherever possible. The APA style (or APA format ) is now in its 7th edition, and provides citation style guides for virtually any type of resource.

Chicago Style Citation Examples

The Chicago/Turabian style of citing sources is generally used when citing sources for humanities papers, and is best known for its requirement that writers place bibliographic citations at the bottom of a page (in Chicago-format footnotes ) or at the end of a paper (endnotes).

The Turabian and Chicago citation styles are almost identical, but the Turabian style is geared towards student published papers such as theses and dissertations, while the Chicago style provides guidelines for all types of publications. This is why you’ll commonly see Chicago style and Turabian style presented together. The Chicago Manual of Style is currently in its 17th edition, and Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is in its 8th edition.

Citing Specific Sources or Events

• Declaration of Independence
• Gettysburg Address
• Martin Luther King Jr. Speech
• President Obama’s Farewell Address
• President Trump’s Inauguration Speech
• White House Press Briefing

Additional FAQs

• Citing Archived Contributors
• Citing a Blog
• Citing a Book Chapter
• Citing a Source in a Foreign Language
• Citing an Image
• Citing a Song
• Citing Special Contributors
• Citing a Translated Article
• Citing a Tweet

6 Interesting Citation Facts

The world of citations may seem cut and dry, but there’s more to them than just specific capitalization rules, MLA in-text citations , and other formatting specifications. Citations have been helping researches document their sources for hundreds of years, and are a great way to learn more about a particular subject area.

Ever wonder what sets all the different styles apart, or how they came to be in the first place? Read on for some interesting facts about citations!

1. There are Over 7,000 Different Citation Styles

You may be familiar with MLA and APA citation styles, but there are actually thousands of citation styles used for all different academic disciplines all across the world. Deciding which one to use can be difficult, so be sure to ask you instructor which one you should be using for your next paper.

2. Some Citation Styles are Named After People

While a majority of citation styles are named for the specific organizations that publish them (i.e. APA is published by the American Psychological Association, and MLA format is named for the Modern Language Association), some are actually named after individuals. The most well-known example of this is perhaps Turabian style, named for Kate L. Turabian, an American educator and writer. She developed this style as a condensed version of the Chicago Manual of Style in order to present a more concise set of rules to students.

3. There are Some Really Specific and Uniquely Named Citation Styles

How specific can citation styles get? The answer is very. For example, the “Flavour and Fragrance Journal” style is based on a bimonthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 1985 by John Wiley & Sons. It publishes original research articles, reviews and special reports on all aspects of flavor and fragrance. Another example is “Nordic Pulp and Paper Research,” a style used by an international scientific magazine covering science and technology for the areas of wood or bio-mass constituents.

4. More citations were created on  EasyBib.com  in the first quarter of 2018 than there are people in California.

The US Census Bureau estimates that approximately 39.5 million people live in the state of California. Meanwhile, about 43 million citations were made on EasyBib from January to March of 2018. That’s a lot of citations.

5. “Citations” is a Word With a Long History

The word “citations” can be traced back literally thousands of years to the Latin word “citare” meaning “to summon, urge, call; put in sudden motion, call forward; rouse, excite.” The word then took on its more modern meaning and relevance to writing papers in the 1600s, where it became known as the “act of citing or quoting a passage from a book, etc.”

6. Citation Styles are Always Changing

The concept of citations always stays the same. It is a means of preventing plagiarism and demonstrating where you relied on outside sources. The specific style rules, however, can and do change regularly. For example, in 2018 alone, 46 new citation styles were introduced , and 106 updates were made to exiting styles. At EasyBib, we are always on the lookout for ways to improve our styles and opportunities to add new ones to our list.

Why Citations Matter

Here are the ways accurate citations can help your students achieve academic success, and how you can answer the dreaded question, “why should I cite my sources?”

They Give Credit to the Right People

Citing their sources makes sure that the reader can differentiate the student’s original thoughts from those of other researchers. Not only does this make sure that the sources they use receive proper credit for their work, it ensures that the student receives deserved recognition for their unique contributions to the topic. Whether the student is citing in MLA format , APA format , or any other style, citations serve as a natural way to place a student’s work in the broader context of the subject area, and serve as an easy way to gauge their commitment to the project.

They Provide Hard Evidence of Ideas

Having many citations from a wide variety of sources related to their idea means that the student is working on a well-researched and respected subject. Citing sources that back up their claim creates room for fact-checking and further research . And, if they can cite a few sources that have the converse opinion or idea, and then demonstrate to the reader why they believe that that viewpoint is wrong by again citing credible sources, the student is well on their way to winning over the reader and cementing their point of view.

They Promote Originality and Prevent Plagiarism

The point of research projects is not to regurgitate information that can already be found elsewhere. We have Google for that! What the student’s project should aim to do is promote an original idea or a spin on an existing idea, and use reliable sources to promote that idea. Copying or directly referencing a source without proper citation can lead to not only a poor grade, but accusations of academic dishonesty. By citing their sources regularly and accurately, students can easily avoid the trap of plagiarism , and promote further research on their topic.

They Create Better Researchers

By researching sources to back up and promote their ideas, students are becoming better researchers without even knowing it! Each time a new source is read or researched, the student is becoming more engaged with the project and is developing a deeper understanding of the subject area. Proper citations demonstrate a breadth of the student’s reading and dedication to the project itself. By creating citations, students are compelled to make connections between their sources and discern research patterns. Each time they complete this process, they are helping themselves become better researchers and writers overall.

When is the Right Time to Start Making Citations?

Make in-text/parenthetical citations as you need them.

As you are writing your paper, be sure to include references within the text that correspond with references in a works cited or bibliography. These are usually called in-text citations or parenthetical citations in MLA and APA formats. The most effective time to complete these is directly after you have made your reference to another source. For instance, after writing the line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities : “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…,” you would include a citation like this (depending on your chosen citation style):

(Dickens 11).

This signals to the reader that you have referenced an outside source. What’s great about this system is that the in-text citations serve as a natural list for all of the citations you have made in your paper, which will make completing the works cited page a whole lot easier. After you are done writing, all that will be left for you to do is scan your paper for these references, and then build a works cited page that includes a citation for each one.

Need help creating an MLA works cited page ? Try the MLA format generator on EasyBib.com! We also have a guide on how to format an APA reference page .

2. Understand the General Formatting Rules of Your Citation Style Before You Start Writing

While reading up on paper formatting may not sound exciting, being aware of how your paper should look early on in the paper writing process is super important. Citation styles can dictate more than just the appearance of the citations themselves, but rather can impact the layout of your paper as a whole, with specific guidelines concerning margin width, title treatment, and even font size and spacing. Knowing how to organize your paper before you start writing will ensure that you do not receive a low grade for something as trivial as forgetting a hanging indent.

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a formatting guide on APA format .

3. Double-check All of Your Outside Sources for Relevance and Trustworthiness First

Collecting outside sources that support your research and specific topic is a critical step in writing an effective paper. But before you run to the library and grab the first 20 books you can lay your hands on, keep in mind that selecting a source to include in your paper should not be taken lightly. Before you proceed with using it to backup your ideas, run a quick Internet search for it and see if other scholars in your field have written about it as well. Check to see if there are book reviews about it or peer accolades. If you spot something that seems off to you, you may want to consider leaving it out of your work. Doing this before your start making citations can save you a ton of time in the long run.

Finished with your paper? It may be time to run it through a grammar and plagiarism checker , like the one offered by EasyBib Plus. If you’re just looking to brush up on the basics, our grammar guides  are ready anytime you are.

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What Is a Citation?

Definition, Styles, and Examples

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• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

In any research paper, you draw on the work of other researchers and writers, and you must document their contributions by citing your sources, say Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers in "A Pocket Style Manual, Eighth Edition." Citations, then, are the means by which you credit other researchers and writers when you use their work in your papers. Understanding how to cite sources can be tricky, particularly since there are different styles for writing papers , including the American Psychological Association, Modern Language Association, and Chicago (Turabian) styles. Electronic sources also come with their own specific citation rules in each of these styles. It's important to learn proper citation styles to avoid  plagiarism  in your research papers.

APA Citations

American Psychological Association (APA) style is often used in social sciences and other disciplines. With APA or any of the styles listed in this paper, you need to use a citation if you quote text from another source, paraphrase an author or authors' ideas, or refer to her work, such as a study, original thinking, or even an elegant turn of phrase. When you cite a source, you can't simply repeat most of the words from the work to which you are referring. You have to put the ideas into your own words, or you need to quote the text directly.

There are two parts to citations for APA and other styles: the short-form in line, which directs readers to a full entry at the end of a chapter or book. An in-line citation differs from a footnote, which is a note placed at the bottom of a page. An in-line citation—also called the  in-text citation —is placed within a line of text. To create an in-line citation, cite the name of the author and the date (in parentheses) of the article, report, book, or study, as this example from "A Pocket Style Manual" shows:

Cubuku (2012) argued that for a student-centered approach to work, students must maintain "ownership for thier goals and activities" (p. 64).

Note how you list the page number at the end of the in-text citation in parentheses followed by a period (if it is at the end of a sentence). If there are two authors, list the last name of each, as in:

"According to Donitsa-Schmidt and Zurzovsky (2014), ..."

If there are more than two authors, list the last name of the first author followed by the words "et al.," as in:

Herman et al. (2012) tracked 42 students over a three-year period (p. 49).

At the end of your paper, attach one or more pages titled "References." That section is essentially your biography. Readers of your paper can then turn to the references listing to read the full citations for each of the works you cited. There are actually many variations for references citations depending, for example, on whether you are citing a book, journal article, or newspaper story, or the many different kinds of media, including audio recordings and film.

the most common citation is to books. For such a citation, list the last name of the author, followed by a comma, followed by the first initial(s) of the author(s), followed by a period. You would put the year the book was published in parentheses followed by a period, then the title of the book in italics using sentence case , followed by a comma, the place of publication, followed by a colon, and then the publisher, followed by a period. "A Pocket Style Manual" gives this example:

Rosenberg, T. (2011). Join the club: How peer pressure can transform the world . New York, NY: Norton.​

Though the citations here won't print this way, use a hanging indent for the second and any subsequent lines in each citation. In a hanging indent in APA style, you indent every line after the first.

MLA Citations

MLA style is often used in English and other humanities papers. MLA follows the author-page style for in-text citations, notes Purdue OWL, an excellent citation, grammar, and writing website operated by Purdue University. Purdue gives this example of an in-text citation, which is also called parenthetical citation in MLA style. Note that in MLA style, page numbers don’t typically appear unless the sentence or passage is a direct quote from the original, as is the case here:

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

At the end of the paper, attach a "Works Cited" page or pages, which is equivalent to the "References" section in APA style. "Works Cited" section citations are very similar in MLA and APA style, as in this example of a work with multiple authors from Purdue OWL:

Warner, Ralph, et al.  How to Buy a House in California . Edited by Alayna Schroeder, 12th ed., Nolo, 2009.

Note that you would also use a hanging indent in MLA, but it tends to be a bit shorter; move the second and subsequent lines in by three spaces. Spell out the first name of the author(s) in MLA style; add a comma before "et al."; use title case for the book, journal, or article title; omit the place of publication information; follow the name of the publisher with a comma; and list the date of publication at the end.

Chicago Style Citations

Chicago is the oldest of the three major writing and citation styles in the United States, having begun with the 1906 publication of the first Chicago style guide. For in-text citations, Chicago style, which comes from the "Chicago Manual of Style" from the University of Chicago Press, is pretty simple: the author's last name, date of publication, a comma, and page numbers, all in parentheses, as follows:

(Murav 2011, 219-220)

At the end of the paper, insert a list of references, which in Chicago style is called a bibliography. Books, journals, and other articles are cited in a manner similar to APA and MLA style. List the author's last name, a comma, and the full first name, followed by the title of the book in italics and title case, the place of publication, followed by a colon, followed by the publisher's name, a comma, and the date of publication, all in parentheses, followed by a comma and the page numbers.

Kate L. Turabian, in "A Manual for Writers" (a student-geared version of Chicago style), gives the following example:

Gladwell, Malcolm,  The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference  (Boston: Little Brown, 2000), 64-65.

You also use a hanging indent in the bibliography section of a Chicago style paper, with the indent moved in three spaces. For article or journal titles, list the title in regular (not italic) type encased in quotation marks.

Electronic Sources

Electronic source citations are similar to citations of published works except for two issues: You need to include the URL of the source, and a large percentage of online sources may not list an author. 

In APA style, for example, list an online source in the same way you would cite a book or article, except that you need to include the type of information you are accessing (in parentheses), as well as the URL. If the online source lacks a listed author, start with the name of the group or agency providing the information. "A Pocket Manual of Style" provides the following example of an APA electronic source citation:

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2011). Daily intake of nutrients by food source: 2005-08 . ​[Data set]. Retrieved from http:www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-consumption-and-nutrient-intakes.aspx.

As with other citations, use a hanging indent for the second, third, and fourth lines of this source. For Chicago style, use the same method as described previously but add the URL, as in this example:

Brown, David. "New Burden of Disease Study Shows World's People Living Longer but with More Disability," Washington Post , December 12, 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/.

Note that Chicago style includes only the home-page URL and not the full URL; that can change, however, from one regime to the next.

MLA style used to require you to list the date you accessed the information, but that's no longer the case. To cite an electronic source, use the same style as discussed previously, but replace the period after the date with a comma and then list the URL.

• What Is a Bibliography?
• Bibliography: Definition and Examples
• MLA Bibliography or Works Cited
• What Is a Senior Thesis?
• APA In-Text Citations
• Turabian Style Guide With Examples
• How to Write a Bibliography For a Science Fair Project
• MLA Sample Pages
• 36 Common Prefixes in English
• How to Use Parentheses in Writing
• Title Page Examples and Formats
• MLA Style Parenthetical Citations
• Formatting Papers in Chicago Style
• Formatting APA Headings and Subheadings
• Tips for Typing an Academic Paper on a Computer
• Examples of Signal Phrases in Grammar and Composition

MLA Citation Style

• The MLA Handbook
• Additional Resources

What is a Citation?

In-text citations.

• Works Cited Page
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• Additional Styles This link opens in a new window

A citation gives credit to the source where you found the information you use to support your argument or analysis. That way, people can check the information you used to double-check your resources or to use for their own research.

Citations are composed of these parts of a resource: Author, Title, Publication Information, and Date. The elements of a citation can vary from format to format and how the resource was accessed.

In your paper, you will add a brief citation that will lead to a page of the resources you used at the end of your paper where the full citation goes into more detail. That way, your paper flows and can be easily verified.

Nowadays, most library databases have a "cite" function that will generate a full citation in the style you need. You can use that as a starting point and re-format or correct it as you need. 

Other resources don't generate a citation, but they have the information for you to create one, you simply need to look through the resource. 

An in-text citation is a part of the full citation that is at the end of your work that guides the reader to the specific source you used. Where the full citation is of the whole resource, an in-text citation will be part of the full citation (either author or title) and maybe a specific section such as specific pages.

There are two ways to have an in-text citation in a paper: parenthetical and narrative.

A parenthetical is the citation at the end of the sentence in parenthesis (). 

A narrative citation has the information written into the sentence.

Sometimes you might do a combination of the two — it depends on your writing style, the resource, and your professor. 

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What Are Citations?

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Last updated April 2018

Why Are Citations Important?

What Does a Citation Look Like?

A citation is typically found in two places:, in-text citations.

Reference Lists/Bibliographies

Authors use in-text citations after they have paraphrased, summarized, quoted or otherwise used another author’s work. Examples of in-text citations include parentheses, footnotes or endnotes.

Reference Lists

A reference list includes information on all of the sources an author used. It can also be called a bibliography or works cited. Each item in the list includes information such as title, author and publication date. A reference list is usually listed at the end of a paper with the exception of footnotes which are at the bottom of each page.

Reading a Citation

Knowing how to read a citation in a reference list or bibliography will help you identify different types of sources that an author used in their research. You can use a reference list from another researcher to find related sources on your topic, or to find counterpoints to your research. Let’s look at citations for three common types of sources:

Reading Citations: Article Citations

A citation for an article can include:.

Why is this important?

The journal title is often what is listed in library catalogs.

How do you know if it is an article?

The presence of two titles (article and journal) are the biggest clue that this is an article. Volume Number and Issue Number are also big clues as books will not have those pieces in a citation.

Reading Citations: Book Citations

A citation for a book can include:.

Year, edition, format, and publisher help distinguish between versions.

How do you know if it is a book?

Reading Citations: Website Citations

A citation for a website can include:.

To find and verify a website, you need to know the URL. Since websites change frequently, knowing the date accessed is similar to knowing a publication date.

How do you know if it is a website?

The date accessed and the presence of a URL are the biggest clues that you are looking at a citation for a website.

Citation Styles

Different disciplines cite in different ways which means that there are many different citation styles.

Your professor or department will tell you what style to use.

Style guides, manuals and handbooks are available both in print and online.

Citation Guides at the University Libraries

Examples of Citation Styles: Article Citations

Examples of Citation Styles: Book Citations

Knowledge Check

What are citations review, you are now able to:, do you have questions.

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Citation Styles

• Citation Basics

What is a Citation?

A citation is the basic information required to identify and locate a specific source, e.g. book, book chapter, article, website, video, etc.

What is a Citation Style?

Different academic disciplines have specific guidelines for organizing material and citing sources. These rules are published as style manuals . While each citation system is distinct, the underlying rationale is the same–to facilitate written communication among members in a scholarly community.

Parts of a Citation *

• Book: Author Name . Title . Publisher, Year. 

Example: Macfarlane, Bruce. Researching with Integrity: The Ethics of Academic Enquiry . Routledge, 2009. 

• Book Chapter: Author Name. “Chapter Title.” Book Title. Editor, Publisher, Year, Chapter Page Numbers.

Example: Tan, Amy. “Yes and No.” The Genius of Language: Fifteen Writers Reflect on Their Mother Tongues, edited by Wendy Lesser, Pantheon Books, 2004, pp. 25-34.

• Journal Article: Author Name . “Article Title.” Journal Title, Volume Number, Issue Number , Year, Article Page Numbers.

Example: Hess, Mickey. “Was Foucault A Plagiarist? Hip-Hop Sampling And Academic Citation.” Computers & Composition, vol. 23, no. 3, 2006, pp. 280-295.

• Website: Author Name. “Title of Page/Work.” Title of Website, Date of Publication, Location.

Example: Calonia, Jennifer. “How to Avoid Plagiarism.” Grammerly Blog, 21 Aug 2019, https://www.grammarly.com/blog/5-most-effective-methods-for-avoiding-plagiarism .

*The order and punctuation of the citation components are dictated by the style you use (above are formatted in MLA).

What is a DOI?

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are unique identifiers that may be assigned to published articles and other works. Their purpose is ensure persistent access to online content. If a DOI is available, you should include it in your citation.

APA: Clark, D. A., & Murphy, W. (2021). The efficacy of a classroom game for teaching APA style citation. Teaching of Psychology , 48 (3), 209–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628320977263

MLA: Clark, Daniel A., and Walter Murphy. “The Efficacy of a Classroom Game for Teaching APA Style Citation.” Teaching of Psychology , vol. 48, no. 3, July 2021, pp. 209–14. Sage Journals , https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628320977263.

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Citing what you find.

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See the "Citing Your Sources" Tab for more information about how to credit your sources.

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Home » References in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

References in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

References in Research

Definition:

References in research are a list of sources that a researcher has consulted or cited while conducting their study. They are an essential component of any academic work, including research papers, theses, dissertations, and other scholarly publications.

Types of References

There are several types of references used in research, and the type of reference depends on the source of information being cited. The most common types of references include:

References to books typically include the author’s name, title of the book, publisher, publication date, and place of publication.

Example: Smith, J. (2018). The Art of Writing. Penguin Books.

Journal Articles

References to journal articles usually include the author’s name, title of the article, name of the journal, volume and issue number, page numbers, and publication date.

Example: Johnson, T. (2021). The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health. Journal of Psychology, 32(4), 87-94.

Web sources

References to web sources should include the author or organization responsible for the content, the title of the page, the URL, and the date accessed.

Example: World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

Conference Proceedings

References to conference proceedings should include the author’s name, title of the paper, name of the conference, location of the conference, date of the conference, and page numbers.

Example: Chen, S., & Li, J. (2019). The Future of AI in Education. Proceedings of the International Conference on Educational Technology, Beijing, China, July 15-17, pp. 67-78.

References to reports typically include the author or organization responsible for the report, title of the report, publication date, and publisher.

Example: United Nations. (2020). The Sustainable Development Goals Report. United Nations.

Formats of References

Some common Formates of References with their examples are as follows:

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

The APA (American Psychological Association) Style has specific guidelines for formatting references used in academic papers, articles, and books. Here are the different reference formats in APA style with examples:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of book. Publisher.

Example : Smith, J. K. (2005). The psychology of social interaction. Wiley-Blackwell.

Journal Article

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), page numbers.

Example : Brown, L. M., Keating, J. G., & Jones, S. M. (2012). The role of social support in coping with stress among African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(1), 218-233.

Author, A. A. (Year of publication or last update). Title of page. Website name. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, December 11). COVID-19: How to protect yourself and others. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html

Magazine article

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of article. Title of Magazine, volume number(issue number), page numbers.

Example : Smith, M. (2019, March 11). The power of positive thinking. Psychology Today, 52(3), 60-65.

Newspaper article:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, page numbers.

Example: Johnson, B. (2021, February 15). New study shows benefits of exercise on mental health. The New York Times, A8.

Edited book

Editor, E. E. (Ed.). (Year of publication). Title of book. Publisher.

Example : Thompson, J. P. (Ed.). (2014). Social work in the 21st century. Sage Publications.

Chapter in an edited book:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. page numbers). Publisher.

Example : Johnson, K. S. (2018). The future of social work: Challenges and opportunities. In J. P. Thompson (Ed.), Social work in the 21st century (pp. 105-118). Sage Publications.

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

The MLA (Modern Language Association) Style is a widely used style for writing academic papers and essays in the humanities. Here are the different reference formats in MLA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Smith, John. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Journal article

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, volume number, issue number, Publication year, page numbers.

Example : Brown, Laura M., et al. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, vol. 22, no. 1, 2012, pp. 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name, Publication date, URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC, 11 Dec. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Publication date, page numbers.

Example : Smith, Mary. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, Mar. 2019, pp. 60-65.

Newspaper article

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Publication date, page numbers.

Example : Johnson, Bob. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2021, p. A8.

Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Thompson, John P., editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. Sage Publications, 2014.

Chapter in an edited book

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last name, Publisher, Publication year, page numbers.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, Sage Publications, 2014, pp. 105-118.

Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style is a widely used style for writing academic papers, dissertations, and books in the humanities and social sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Chicago style:

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number, no. issue number (Publication year): page numbers.

Example : Brown, Laura M., John G. Keating, and Sarah M. Jones. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 22, no. 1 (2012): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name. Publication date. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. December 11, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Publication date.

Example : Smith, Mary. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 2019.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Publication date.

Example : Johnson, Bob. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Example : Thompson, John P., ed. Social Work in the 21st Century. Sage Publications, 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, page numbers. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, 105-118. Sage Publications, 2014.

Harvard Style

The Harvard Style, also known as the Author-Date System, is a widely used style for writing academic papers and essays in the social sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Harvard Style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Smith, John. 2005. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number (issue number): page numbers.

Example: Brown, Laura M., John G. Keating, and Sarah M. Jones. 2012. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 22 (1): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name. URL. Accessed date.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2020. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html. Accessed April 1, 2023.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, month and date of publication.

Example : Smith, Mary. 2019. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 2019.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, month and date of publication.

Example : Johnson, Bob. 2021. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Year of publication. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Thompson, John P., ed. 2014. Social Work in the 21st Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, page numbers. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. 2014. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, 105-118. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Vancouver Style

The Vancouver Style, also known as the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, is a widely used style for writing academic papers in the biomedical sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Vancouver Style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year of publication; volume number(issue number):page numbers.

Example : Brown LM, Keating JG, Jones SM. The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents. J Res Adolesc. 2012;22(1):218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Webpage. Website Name [Internet]. Publication date. [cited date]. Available from: URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others [Internet]. 2020 Dec 11. [cited 2023 Apr 1]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Title of Magazine. Year of publication; month and day of publication:page numbers.

Example : Smith M. The Power of Positive Thinking. Psychology Today. 2019 Mar 1:32-35.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Title of Newspaper. Year of publication; month and day of publication:page numbers.

Example : Johnson B. New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health. The New York Times. 2021 Feb 15:A4.

Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Example: Thompson JP, editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Chapter. In: Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. page numbers.

Example : Johnson KS. The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Thompson JP, editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2014. p. 105-118.

Turabian Style

Turabian style is a variation of the Chicago style used in academic writing, particularly in the fields of history and humanities. Here are the different reference formats in Turabian style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number, no. issue number (Year of publication): page numbers.

Example : Brown, LM, Keating, JG, Jones, SM. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” J Res Adolesc 22, no. 1 (2012): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Name of Website. Publication date. Accessed date. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. December 11, 2020. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Month Day, Year of publication, page numbers.

Example : Smith, M. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 1, 2019, 32-35.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Month Day, Year of publication.

Example : Johnson, B. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Thompson, JP, ed. Social Work in the 21st Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s Last name, First name, page numbers. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Johnson, KS. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by Thompson, JP, 105-118. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2014.

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Style

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) style is commonly used in engineering, computer science, and other technical fields. Here are the different reference formats in IEEE style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Oppenheim, A. V., & Schafer, R. W. Discrete-Time Signal Processing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Abbreviated Journal Title, vol. number, no. issue number, pp. page numbers, Month year of publication.

Example: Shannon, C. E. “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 379-423, July 1948.

Conference paper

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Paper.” In Title of Conference Proceedings, Place of Conference, Date of Conference, pp. page numbers, Year of publication.

Example: Gupta, S., & Kumar, P. “An Improved System of Linear Discriminant Analysis for Face Recognition.” In Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Computer Science and Network Technology, Harbin, China, Dec. 2011, pp. 144-147.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Name of Website. Date of publication or last update. Accessed date. URL.

Example : National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Apollo 11.” NASA. July 20, 1969. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html.

Technical report

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Report.” Name of Institution or Organization, Report number, Year of publication.

Example : Smith, J. R. “Development of a New Solar Panel Technology.” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL/TP-6A20-51645, 2011.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Patent.” Patent number, Issue date.

Example : Suzuki, H. “Method of Producing Carbon Nanotubes.” US Patent 7,151,019, December 19, 2006.

Standard Title. Standard number, Publication date.

Example : IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic. IEEE Std 754-2008, August 29, 2008

ACS (American Chemical Society) Style

ACS (American Chemical Society) style is commonly used in chemistry and related fields. Here are the different reference formats in ACS style:

Author’s Last name, First name; Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Abbreviated Journal Title Year, Volume, Page Numbers.

Example : Wang, Y.; Zhao, X.; Cui, Y.; Ma, Y. Facile Preparation of Fe3O4/graphene Composites Using a Hydrothermal Method for High-Performance Lithium Ion Batteries. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2012, 4, 2715-2721.

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication.

Example : Carey, F. A. Organic Chemistry; McGraw-Hill: New York, 2008.

Author’s Last name, First name. Chapter Title. In Book Title; Editor’s Last name, First name, Ed.; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication; Volume number, Chapter number, Page Numbers.

Example : Grossman, R. B. Analytical Chemistry of Aerosols. In Aerosol Measurement: Principles, Techniques, and Applications; Baron, P. A.; Willeke, K., Eds.; Wiley-Interscience: New York, 2001; Chapter 10, pp 395-424.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Webpage. Website Name, URL (accessed date).

Example : National Institute of Standards and Technology. Atomic Spectra Database. https://www.nist.gov/pml/atomic-spectra-database (accessed April 1, 2023).

Author’s Last name, First name. Patent Number. Patent Date.

Example : Liu, Y.; Huang, H.; Chen, H.; Zhang, W. US Patent 9,999,999, December 31, 2022.

Author’s Last name, First name; Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. In Title of Conference Proceedings, Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication; Volume Number, Page Numbers.

Example : Jia, H.; Xu, S.; Wu, Y.; Wu, Z.; Tang, Y.; Huang, X. Fast Adsorption of Organic Pollutants by Graphene Oxide. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017; Volume 1, pp 223-228.

AMA (American Medical Association) Style

AMA (American Medical Association) style is commonly used in medical and scientific fields. Here are the different reference formats in AMA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Article Title. Journal Abbreviation. Year; Volume(Issue):Page Numbers.

Example : Jones, R. A.; Smith, B. C. The Role of Vitamin D in Maintaining Bone Health. JAMA. 2019;321(17):1765-1773.

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : Guyton, A. C.; Hall, J. E. Textbook of Medical Physiology. 13th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders; 2015.

Author’s Last name, First name. Chapter Title. In: Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: Page Numbers.

Example: Rajakumar, K. Vitamin D and Bone Health. In: Holick, M. F., ed. Vitamin D: Physiology, Molecular Biology, and Clinical Applications. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Springer; 2010:211-222.

Author’s Last name, First name. Webpage Title. Website Name. URL. Published date. Updated date. Accessed date.

Example : National Cancer Institute. Breast Cancer Prevention (PDQ®)–Patient Version. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/patient/breast-prevention-pdq. Published October 11, 2022. Accessed April 1, 2023.

Author’s Last name, First name. Conference presentation title. In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Place of Conference.

Example : Smith, J. R. Vitamin D and Bone Health: A Meta-Analysis. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research; September 20-23, 2022; San Diego, CA.

Thesis or dissertation

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Thesis or Dissertation. Degree level [Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis]. University Name; Year.

Example : Wilson, S. A. The Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on Bone Health in Postmenopausal Women [Doctoral dissertation]. University of California, Los Angeles; 2018.

ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Style

The ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) style is commonly used in civil engineering fields. Here are the different reference formats in ASCE style:

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Journal Title, volume number, issue number (year): page numbers. DOI or URL (if available).

Example : Smith, J. R. “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Areas.” Journal of Environmental Engineering, vol. 146, no. 3 (2020): 04020010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0001668.

Example : McCuen, R. H. Hydrologic Analysis and Design. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education; 2013.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Chapter Title.” In: Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: page numbers.

Example : Maidment, D. R. “Floodplain Management in the United States.” In: Shroder, J. F., ed. Treatise on Geomorphology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2013: 447-460.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Paper Title.” In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Location. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: page numbers.

Example: Smith, J. R. “Sustainable Drainage Systems for Urban Areas.” In: Proceedings of the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure; November 6-9, 2019; Los Angeles, CA. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers; 2019: 156-163.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Report Title.” Report number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Hurricane Sandy Coastal Risk Reduction Program, New York and New Jersey.” Report No. P-15-001. Washington, DC: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; 2015.

CSE (Council of Science Editors) Style

The CSE (Council of Science Editors) style is commonly used in the scientific and medical fields. Here are the different reference formats in CSE style:

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Article Title.” Journal Title. Year;Volume(Issue):Page numbers.

Example : Smith, J.R. “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Areas.” Journal of Environmental Engineering. 2020;146(3):04020010.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Chapter Title.” In: Editor’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial., ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year:Page numbers.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Paper Title.” In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Location. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : Smith, J.R. “Sustainable Drainage Systems for Urban Areas.” In: Proceedings of the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure; November 6-9, 2019; Los Angeles, CA. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers; 2019.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Report Title.” Report number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Bluebook Style

The Bluebook style is commonly used in the legal field for citing legal documents and sources. Here are the different reference formats in Bluebook style:

Case citation

Case name, volume source page (Court year).

Example : Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Statute citation

Name of Act, volume source § section number (year).

Example : Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 (1963).

Regulation citation

Name of regulation, volume source § section number (year).

Example: Clean Air Act, 40 C.F.R. § 52.01 (2019).

Book citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. Book Title. Edition number (if applicable). Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example: Smith, J.R. Legal Writing and Analysis. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Aspen Publishers; 2015.

Journal article citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Article Title.” Journal Title. Volume number (year): first page-last page.

Example: Garcia, C. “The Right to Counsel: An International Comparison.” International Journal of Legal Information. 43 (2015): 63-94.

Website citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed month day, year).

Example : United Nations. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Oxford Style

The Oxford style, also known as the Oxford referencing system or the documentary-note citation system, is commonly used in the humanities, including literature, history, and philosophy. Here are the different reference formats in Oxford style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example : Smith, John. The Art of Writing. New York: Penguin, 2020.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Journal Title volume, no. issue (year): page range.

Example: Garcia, Carlos. “The Role of Ethics in Philosophy.” Philosophy Today 67, no. 3 (2019): 53-68.

Chapter in an edited book citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by Editor’s Name, page range. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example : Lee, Mary. “Feminism in the 21st Century.” In The Oxford Handbook of Feminism, edited by Jane Smith, 51-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed day month year).

Example : Jones, David. “The Importance of Learning Languages.” Oxford Language Center. https://www.oxfordlanguagecenter.com/importance-of-learning-languages/ (accessed 3 January 2023).

Dissertation or thesis citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Dissertation/Thesis.” PhD diss., University Name, Year of Publication.

Example : Brown, Susan. “The Art of Storytelling in American Literature.” PhD diss., University of Oxford, 2020.

Newspaper article citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title, Month Day, Year.

Example : Robinson, Andrew. “New Developments in Climate Change Research.” The Guardian, September 15, 2022.

AAA (American Anthropological Association) Style

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) style is commonly used in anthropology research papers and journals. Here are the different reference formats in AAA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example : Smith, John. 2019. The Anthropology of Food. New York: Routledge.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Article Title.” Journal Title volume, no. issue: page range.

Example : Garcia, Carlos. 2021. “The Role of Ethics in Anthropology.” American Anthropologist 123, no. 2: 237-251.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by Editor’s Name, page range. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example: Lee, Mary. 2018. “Feminism in Anthropology.” In The Oxford Handbook of Feminism, edited by Jane Smith, 51-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed day month year).

Example : Jones, David. 2020. “The Importance of Learning Languages.” Oxford Language Center. https://www.oxfordlanguagecenter.com/importance-of-learning-languages/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Title of Dissertation/Thesis.” PhD diss., University Name.

Example : Brown, Susan. 2022. “The Art of Storytelling in Anthropology.” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title, Month Day.

Example : Robinson, Andrew. 2021. “New Developments in Anthropology Research.” The Guardian, September 15.

AIP (American Institute of Physics) Style

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) style is commonly used in physics research papers and journals. Here are the different reference formats in AIP style:

Example : Johnson, S. D. 2021. “Quantum Computing and Information.” Journal of Applied Physics 129, no. 4: 043102.

Example : Feynman, Richard. 2018. The Feynman Lectures on Physics. New York: Basic Books.

Example : Jones, David. 2020. “The Future of Quantum Computing.” In The Handbook of Physics, edited by John Smith, 125-136. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Conference proceedings citation

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Title of Paper.” Proceedings of Conference Name, date and location: page range. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example : Chen, Wei. 2019. “The Applications of Nanotechnology in Solar Cells.” Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Nanotechnology, July 15-17, Tokyo, Japan: 224-229. New York: AIP Publishing.

Example : American Institute of Physics. 2022. “About AIP Publishing.” AIP Publishing. https://publishing.aip.org/about-aip-publishing/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Patent citation

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. Patent Number.

Example : Smith, John. 2018. US Patent 9,873,644.

References Writing Guide

Here are some general guidelines for writing references:

• Follow the citation style guidelines: Different disciplines and journals may require different citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago). It is important to follow the specific guidelines for the citation style required.
• Include all necessary information : Each citation should include enough information for readers to locate the source. For example, a journal article citation should include the author(s), title of the article, journal title, volume number, issue number, page numbers, and publication year.
• Use proper formatting: Citation styles typically have specific formatting requirements for different types of sources. Make sure to follow the proper formatting for each citation.
• Order citations alphabetically: If listing multiple sources, they should be listed alphabetically by the author’s last name.
• Be consistent: Use the same citation style throughout the entire paper or project.
• Check for accuracy: Double-check all citations to ensure accuracy, including correct spelling of author names and publication information.
• Use reputable sources: When selecting sources to cite, choose reputable and authoritative sources. Avoid sources that are biased or unreliable.
• Include all sources: Make sure to include all sources used in the research, including those that were not directly quoted but still informed the work.
• Use online tools : There are online tools available (e.g., citation generators) that can help with formatting and organizing references.

Purpose of References in Research

References in research serve several purposes:

• To give credit to the original authors or sources of information used in the research. It is important to acknowledge the work of others and avoid plagiarism.
• To provide evidence for the claims made in the research. References can support the arguments, hypotheses, or conclusions presented in the research by citing relevant studies, data, or theories.
• To allow readers to find and verify the sources used in the research. References provide the necessary information for readers to locate and access the sources cited in the research, which allows them to evaluate the quality and reliability of the information presented.
• To situate the research within the broader context of the field. References can show how the research builds on or contributes to the existing body of knowledge, and can help readers to identify gaps in the literature that the research seeks to address.

Importance of References in Research

References play an important role in research for several reasons:

• Credibility : By citing authoritative sources, references lend credibility to the research and its claims. They provide evidence that the research is based on a sound foundation of knowledge and has been carefully researched.
• Avoidance of Plagiarism : References help researchers avoid plagiarism by giving credit to the original authors or sources of information. This is important for ethical reasons and also to avoid legal repercussions.
• Reproducibility : References allow others to reproduce the research by providing detailed information on the sources used. This is important for verification of the research and for others to build on the work.
• Context : References provide context for the research by situating it within the broader body of knowledge in the field. They help researchers to understand where their work fits in and how it builds on or contributes to existing knowledge.
• Evaluation : References provide a means for others to evaluate the research by allowing them to assess the quality and reliability of the sources used.

Advantages of References in Research

There are several advantages of including references in research:

• Acknowledgment of Sources: Including references gives credit to the authors or sources of information used in the research. This is important to acknowledge the original work and avoid plagiarism.
• Evidence and Support : References can provide evidence to support the arguments, hypotheses, or conclusions presented in the research. This can add credibility and strength to the research.
• Reproducibility : References provide the necessary information for others to reproduce the research. This is important for the verification of the research and for others to build on the work.
• Context : References can help to situate the research within the broader body of knowledge in the field. This helps researchers to understand where their work fits in and how it builds on or contributes to existing knowledge.
• Evaluation : Including references allows others to evaluate the research by providing a means to assess the quality and reliability of the sources used.
• Ongoing Conversation: References allow researchers to engage in ongoing conversations and debates within their fields. They can show how the research builds on or contributes to the existing body of knowledge.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Citation Databases

• Searching Scopus
• Researcher Profiles
• Researcher IDs
• Searching Web of Science
• Google Scholar
• Research Impact and Metrics

Introduction to Web of Science (WoS)

Web of Science is the oldest, and most used citation database in the world. Managed by Clarivate Analytics, it is a multi-disciplinary repository of research output from global sources. It specializes in collecting abstracts and citations for Social Sciences and Hard Sciences research output, but maintains moderate coverage of the Arts & Humanities. It indexes from 10,000 of the most cited, peer-reviewed journals starting from around the year 1900, with citations starting in 1997.

Metrics in Web of Science

There are a number of different levels of metrics available in WoS. The quickest way to see these is to scroll to the right hand of the screen and view the "metrics" tab in the author or journal profile in WoS. This will display all metrics available with the Purdue subscription.

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• Next: Searching Web of Science >>
• Last Edited: Apr 11, 2024 9:42 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/citationdatabases

What is a Citation in Writing? Definition, Examples

• Posted on June 7, 2023

Writing is not only about expressing your own thoughts but also about using information from other sources to support them. But how do you show your readers where you got that information from? 

That’s where citations come in. Citations are a way of giving credit to the original authors and avoiding plagiarism. They also help your readers to find the original sources if they want to learn more. 

A proper citation includes:

• The author’s name.
• The title of the source.
• The publication date.
• The page number.
• The references page is where all the sources are listed.

You can use different citation styles depending on your writing purpose and audience.

You can also visit a writing lab to get help with citations and other aspects of writing. Citations can make your writing more credible and authoritative because they show that you have done the research and used reliable sources. They can also help search engines to rank your writing higher in the search results.

By the end of this article, you will have gained valuable insights into crafting accurate citations that adhere to formatting guidelines while effectively avoiding plagiarism throughout your writing process.

What is a Citation?

A citation is a way of giving credit to the source of information that you use in your writing. It shows your readers where you got the information from and how they can find it. It also helps you avoid plagiarism, which is copying someone else’s work without permission. A citation usually includes the following information:

• Original author information : This tells your readers who wrote the original source that you are using. For example, if you are citing a journal article, you would include the author’s name and affiliation.
• Date of publication of your copy : This tells your readers when you accessed the source that you are using. For example, if you are citing a web page, you would include the date that you visited the page.
• Year of publication of original copy : This tells your readers when the original source that you are using was published. For example, if you are citing a book, you would include the year that the book was printed.
• Page numbers you are using : This tells your readers which part of the source that you are using. For example, if you are citing a chapter in a book, you would include the page numbers that you are quoting or paraphrasing.
• The material you are using in the citation : This tells your readers what kind of information you are using from the source. For example, if you are citing a quote , a paraphrase, or a summary.

You should include citations in the text of your paper and on a separate references page at the end of your paper. 

Why is it Important to Cite Original Sources?

Citing original sources is important for several reasons. First, it shows respect and honesty to the original authors and sources you use, and it acknowledges their contribution and gives them credit for their work. 

Second, it helps you avoid plagiarism , which is using someone else’s work as your own without permission. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense that can negatively affect your reputation and career. 

Third, it shows the credibility and quality of your own work. It demonstrates that you have researched and used reliable and relevant sources to support your arguments. It also indicates that you have followed the writing style and format of your discipline and source type. 

Finally, it helps your readers to find and evaluate your sources. It provides them with a reference list where they can access the original sources if they want to learn more or check your information.

When Do You Need to Cite?

You must cite whenever you borrow ideas, words, or images from another source. Some examples of when you need to cite are:

• When you borrow an idea that someone else has already presented in their work
• When you use a direct quote from a source, using the same words as the author
• When you restate the author’s words in your own words
• When you mention a specific detail from the work of another, such as the title, date, or page number
• When you rely on the research and work of another to create your own ideas or arguments

You can cite your sources in different ways, such as using parentheses with the author’s last name and the year of publication or using footnotes or endnotes. You can also use Libguides to help you with citing your sources correctly for your research paper.

The Most Common Citation Style Guides

In today’s academic and professional world, various citation styles are used to appropriately credit the original authors of the sources referenced in a piece of writing. These citation style guides provide standardized formats for referencing sources, ensuring consistency and clarity across different disciplines.

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

The MLA citations are popular among humanities scholars like literature and language researchers and use parenthetical citations within text along with an alphabetically arranged Works Cited page at the end.

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

APA citations are commonly used in social sciences such as psychology, education, and sociology. It emphasizes the author-date system for in-text citations and includes a detailed reference list at the end of the document.

In-Text Citation

In-text citations are references in your work that show the source of other authors’ ideas and words. They help readers find more information and avoid plagiarism. There are different in-text citation formats, such as parenthetical and narrative. They usually include the author’s name and publication year, and sometimes page numbers. They should match your reference list, which has all the sources you used.

Chicago Manual of Style

Chicago-style citations are a way of referencing sources in writing, especially in the humanities. They are based on the guidelines of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), a style guide for American English. There are two types of Chicago-style citations: notes and bibliography and author-date. Notes and bibliography use footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography to cite sources, while author-date use parenthetical references and a reference list. Chicago-style citations help writers avoid plagiarism and show respect to the original authors and sources.

Turabian Style

Chicago/Turabian style, favored by historians and other fields that use extensive primary source material, offers two options: notes-bibliography system or author-date system, depending on discipline-specific preferences.

In conclusion, a citation is an essential aspect of writing that helps to acknowledge the original sources used in creating content. It ensures that credit is given where it’s due and prevents plagiarism. Knowing when to cite and which citation style guide to use can be crucial for businesses and marketing teams looking to create high-quality content.

Citing sources can be challenging, but you don’t have to do it alone. Quetext is a trusted tool and partner that can help you avoid plagiarism and generate quality citations. Quetext has a citation generator that can create citations in various styles, such as APA, MLA, Chicago, and more. You can also use Quetext to check your work for plagiarism and improve your writing skills. 

Try Quetext today!

Sign Up for Quetext Today!

Click below to find a pricing plan that fits your needs.

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Course Introduction

This class focuses on your career as an Engineering major and allows you to focus on communicating the major issues that you have focused on and and how to jump-start your career in practice as an Engineer or if you continue your graduate education.  It introduces you to:

• the work style of engineers in different settings - promoting empathy and compassion with a better understanding of diversity
• how engineering information is released using specialized content such as patents, standards, papers, proceedings, journal literature, book content and related materials
• how written and verbal communication, both technical and casual conducted individually and within groups can determine the outcomes you want for success
• engineering ethics
• the value of sourcing & correctly citing your information, evaluating it carefully, and being informed about misinformation
• thinking about presentation, using images, prompts, and addressing different audiences
• how engineering is supported by diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice

There is an accompanying PowerPoint presentation below that reviews technical communication issues with examples of resources highlighting the forms and formats of engineering literature.

• Powerpoint presentation for this course

Evaluating Information

When using Online or Internet Resources , consider Search Engines vs. metasites - evaluate resource - be attentive to domain -may include .com, .edu, .org, .gov, .net

Evaluation of evaluating strategies - there are many different strategies and this guide highlights two, CRAAP and S.I.F.T. and at the end I will also note some other methods - but consider the following criteria:

Applying the CRAAP Test - for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose

https://www.csuchico.edu/lins/handouts/eval_websites.pdf

Goal is to establish relevancy.  The evaluation criteria includes these issues:

Scope of coverage

Currency – be able to distinguish currency from timeliness

Relevance – meaningful to what audience; at what level; will you cite it as authoritative?

Authority – stem is author – establishes the source of the information – author/publisher/source/sponsor; organizational affiliations & credentials; contact information

Accuracy – reliability, correctness of content; supported by evidence; is it verifiable; is tone unbiased, objective, impartial & free of emotion; free of errors?

Purpose – are hypotheses and authors’ intentions clear?  Why is content important – to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade?  Any political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?

Ease of use – Capturing, copying, citing; design & presentation

Another method to evaluate is S.I.F.T - so:

• CCOW - for Credentials, Claims, Objectives
• RADAR Test - Relevancy, Authority, Date, Appearance, Reason for Writing

Remember when we cite or quote, we are CHOOSING to bring other voices into our paper or scholarly work.

Let's ask, Why we cite?

• to give credit to authors
• to show your work
• to be a responsible researcher
• to avoid plagiarism

Often called Citation Chasing we have the standard two parts:

• Backward chasing - refers to the set of references or bibliography of a work that has influenced current citation
• Forward chasing - refers to the method of future citations that referenced the specific work - may be more nuanced or specific but also provides new applications

Think of 5 criteria you use to evaluate information and what questions to you ask yourself to determine relevancy or whether your information need is met?

• consider that we are on information overload - how to distinguish between accurate information & misinformation
• stop - open up a browser tab & enter a search term
• investigate the source(s) - who wrote or said this? who is the author? what process or methodology was used to produce this information and what systems are in place with this source to catch mistakes and correct them?
• find better coverage - consult other sources, demonstrating the historical context, disciplinary approaches, are there patterns of perspectives or dominant ideas that emerge, and what voices are missing?
• trace things back to the original context - is the evidence misquoted or misrepresented; where is the data from & how was it collected and can we make legitimate conclusions from it?
• watch this video on lateral reading strategies (3.47) from the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum, co-sponsored by the Stanford History Education Group

Citing Sources

In order to avoid plagiarism and to honor intellectual integrity, make sure that you cite the authority in a bibliographic reference to anything that is not your original writing or creation - that means when you quote a passage, insert a graphic image, figures, or illustration, that you cite the original source. The style manual you choose to follow should document how you cite electronic resources. Examples of resources that support multiple style manuals is noted in the Quick Reference Guide for Writing .  Standard formats include the following reference elements:

Standard formats include the following reference elements:

For a Journal article or conference proceeding:

Author(s) - last name, first name, MI, - [include multiple authors if noted] (date), Title of article. Source of Article/Title of Journal. volume #, (issue #): pages. If it is only an electronic publication with no reference to print pages, then you cite the DOI - Digital Object Identifier and the date last visited.

If it is a conference paper, then you cite the Source of the Publication, Title of conference, date and location of meeting.

For books, the format is:

Author, editor of volume or chapter, (imprint date). Title of chapter in Title of Book, edited by editor if different. City of Publication: Publisher, page references. Note if it is an eBook.

For full volume:

Author, (date). Title of Book. City of Publisher, Publisher: pages

IEEE Citation Style  -  The IEEE Editorial Style Manual  (2019) notes the specific ways that references and footnotes are to be handled in submissions to IEEE publications.  The  IEEE Referencing Guide  notes practices and they are different than other styles, so follow this and perhaps these guides from the following university libraries will give more examples:   Murdoch University o r  Purdue University's Owl series for IEEE.

MLA Style Format is documented in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 2009 at any of the UCI Library Reference Desks at                   REF LIB 2369 G53 2009

APA Style Format   - The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed., 2020 is at every Reference Desk - REF BF 76.7 P83 2020.  It is NOT currently available online.  A cheatsheet with many examples of how to cite different types of sources in many formats can be consulted.  Additional recommended resources are noted at this site.  

Chicago Style Manual - an online version of the Chicago Style Manual is now available

Other hints:

• very important now
• when interviewing for job

Bibliographic Management Software

BIBLIOGRAPHIC MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE - allows you to discover, find, manage, recall and apply the citations you retrieve from all formats of work - journal articles, book chapters, edited volumes, standards, specifications, patents, conference papers & proceedings, lectures, etc. Neither Zotero nor EndNote support BibTeX or LaTeX, only the usual wordprocessing languages or Legal Style Manual.  For additional information, please visit the  Bibliographic Management Software page.

• EndNote EndNote is a robust product for Bibliographic Management Software, but it needs to be purchased and is dependent upon access on one computer. EndNote Web is a modified web-based product available via the Web of Science platform. more... less... There is an abbreviated free web version available via the Web of Science Databases. However, there is no UCI campus license to the full coverage of EndNote and if one chooses to use EndNote, it is recommended that one go to the UCI Bookstore and purchase it with an academic discount, and load it on a personal computer or laptop. Currently the Libraries provide access to EndNote version 6 in the Multimedia Resources Center (MRC), Langson Library Technology Enhanced Classroom (TEC), Interactive Learning Center (ILC), and in the Grunigen Medical Library at the UCI Medical Center. It is recommended that you take the trial on the Registration Page first before you invest in this product to see how it supports your workstyle.
• Mendeley Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research. Software can be downloaded on a specific computer.
• Zotero Zotero is a free extension for Firefox 2.0, which enables browsers to capture citation information from Web pages quickly and easily. Must be downloaded to personal computer. Supports nonconventional scripts & images well. more... less... Researchers can add searchable notecards to their citations, organize them with tags, attach files to them, arrange them into folders, or export them as formatted citations. Zotero can capture a single citation or an entire results list of sources, which researchers can work with either online or offline.
• Complore Complore encourages scholars and students to save their lectures, articles, and papers in the bibliographic bookmarking service. Researchers can join groups, subscribe to a site-wide RSS feed, and generate BibTeX records.
• Bibsonomy Bibsonomy is a scholarly bookmarking service that offers its users related tags, the ability to create groups, and the ability to export records to BibTeX. more... less... Bibsonomy members can construct friends networks, import their del.icio.us links, generate private entries, and import their BibTeX libraries.
• Mathematica Provides quick links to support documents for Mathematica software.

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• Google Images If you like to search Google for information, then you are likely to find Google Images a good source for images.
• Flickr - The Commons World's public photography collection / archive. Library of Congress, various museums, and libraries have also posted photographs for you to view
• UCI Subject Guide for Images Lists and describes many sources for a variety of images.

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Cite this post.

AMS Citation

Schmidt, D., 2024: The Latest Work from the SEI: an OpenAI Collaboration, Generative AI, and Zero Trust. Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Insights (blog), Accessed April 11, 2024, https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/the-latest-work-from-the-sei-an-openai-collaboration-generative-ai-and-zero-trust/.

APA Citation

Schmidt, D. (2024, April 10). The Latest Work from the SEI: an OpenAI Collaboration, Generative AI, and Zero Trust. Retrieved April 11, 2024, from https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/the-latest-work-from-the-sei-an-openai-collaboration-generative-ai-and-zero-trust/.

Chicago Citation

Schmidt, Douglas. "The Latest Work from the SEI: an OpenAI Collaboration, Generative AI, and Zero Trust." Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Insights (blog) . Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute, April 10, 2024. https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/the-latest-work-from-the-sei-an-openai-collaboration-generative-ai-and-zero-trust/.

IEEE Citation

D. Schmidt, "The Latest Work from the SEI: an OpenAI Collaboration, Generative AI, and Zero Trust," Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Insights (blog) . Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute, 10-Apr-2024 [Online]. Available: https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/the-latest-work-from-the-sei-an-openai-collaboration-generative-ai-and-zero-trust/. [Accessed: 11-Apr-2024].

BibTeX Code

@misc{schmidt_2024, author={Schmidt, Douglas}, title={The Latest Work from the SEI: an OpenAI Collaboration, Generative AI, and Zero Trust}, month={Apr}, year={2024}, howpublished={Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Insights (blog)}, url={https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/the-latest-work-from-the-sei-an-openai-collaboration-generative-ai-and-zero-trust/}, note={Accessed: 2024-Apr-11} }

The Latest Work from the SEI: an OpenAI Collaboration, Generative AI, and Zero Trust

Douglas Schmidt (Vanderbilt University)

April 10, 2024, published in.

Software Engineering Research and Development

As part of an ongoing effort to keep you informed about our latest work, this blog post summarizes some recent publications from the SEI in the areas of large language models for cybersecurity , software engineering and acquisition with generative AI , zero trust , large language models in national security , capability-based planning , supply chain risk management , generative AI in software engineering and acquisition , and quantum computing .

These publications highlight the latest work of SEI technologists in these areas. This post includes a listing of each publication, author(s), and links where they can be accessed on the SEI website.

Considerations for Evaluating Large Language Models for Cybersecurity Tasks by Jeff Gennari, Shing-hon Lau, Samuel J. Perl, Joel Parish (OpenAI), and Girish Sastry (OpenAI)

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) have taken the world by storm. The ability of LLMs to perform tasks seemingly on par with humans has led to rapid adoption in a variety of different domains, including cybersecurity. However, caution is needed when using LLMs in a cybersecurity context due to the impactful consequences and detailed particularities. Current approaches to LLM evaluation tend to focus on factual knowledge as opposed to applied, practical tasks. But cybersecurity tasks often require more than just factual recall to complete. Human performance on cybersecurity tasks is often assessed in part on their ability to apply concepts to realistic situations and adapt to changing circumstances. This paper contends the same approach is necessary to accurately evaluate the capabilities and risks of using LLMs for cybersecurity tasks. To enable the creation of better evaluations, we identify key criteria to consider when designing LLM cybersecurity assessments. These criteria are further refined into a set of recommendations for how to assess LLM performance on cybersecurity tasks. The recommendations include properly scoping tasks, designing tasks based on real-world cybersecurity phenomena, minimizing spurious results, and ensuring results are not misinterpreted. Read the white paper .

The Future of Software Engineering and Acquisition with Generative AI by Douglas Schmidt (Vanderbilt University), Anita Carleton, James Ivers, Ipek Ozkaya, John E. Robert, and Shen Zhang

We stand at a pivotal moment in software engineering, with artificial intelligence (AI) playing a crucial role in driving approaches poised to enhance software acquisition, analysis, verification, and automation. While generative AI tools initially sparked excitement for their potential to reduce errors, scale changes effortlessly, and drive innovation, concerns have emerged. These concerns encompass security risks, unforeseen failures, and issues of trust. Empirical research on generative AI development assistants reveals that productivity and quality gains depend not only on the sophistication of tools but also on task flow redesign and expert judgment.

In this webcast, SEI researchers explore the future of software engineering and acquisition using generative AI technologies. They examine current applications, envision future possibilities, identify research gaps, and discuss the critical skill sets that software engineers and stakeholders need to effectively and responsibly harness generative AI’s potential. Fostering a deeper understanding of AI’s role in software engineering and acquisition accentuates its potential and mitigates its risks.

The webcast covers

• how to identify suitable use cases when starting out with generative AI technology
• the practical applications of generative AI in software engineering and acquisition
• how developers and decision makers can harness generative AI technology

View the webcast .

Zero Trust Industry Days 2024 Scenario: Secluded Semiconductors, Inc. by Rhonda Brown

Each accepted presenter at the SEI Zero Trust Industry Days 2024 event develops and proposes a solution for this scenario: A company is operating a chip manufacturing facility on an island where there may be loss of connectivity and cloud services for short or extended periods of time. There are many considerations when addressing the challenges of a zero trust implementation, including varying perspectives and philosophies. This event offers a deep examination of how solution providers and other organizations interpret and address the challenges of implementing zero trust. Using a scenario places boundaries on the zero trust space to yield richer discussions.

This year’s event focuses on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), legacy systems, smart cities, and cloud-hosted services in a manufacturing environment. Read the white paper .

Using Large Language Models in the National Security Realm By Shannon Gallagher

At the request of the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) began exploring use cases for large language models (LLMs) within the Intelligence Community (IC). As part of this effort, ODNI sponsored the Mayflower Project at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute from May 2023 through September 2023. The Mayflower Project attempted to answer the following questions:

• How might the IC set up a baseline, stand-alone LLM?
• How might the IC customize LLMs for specific intelligence use cases?
• How might the IC evaluate the trustworthiness of LLMs across use cases?

In this SEI Podcast, Shannon Gallagher, AI engineering team lead, and Rachel Dzombak, former special advisor to the director of the SEI’s AI Division, discuss the findings and recommendations from the Mayflower Project and provide additional background information about LLMs and how they can be engineered for national security use cases. Listen/View the SEI Podcast .

Navigating Capability-Based Planning: The Benefits, Challenges, and Implementation Essentials By Anandi Hira and William Nichols

Capability-based planning (CBP) defines a framework that has an all-encompassing view of existing abilities and future needs for strategically deciding what is needed and how to effectively achieve it. Both business and government acquisition domains use CBP for financial success or to design a well-balanced defense system. The definitions understandably vary across these domains. This paper endeavors to consolidate these definitions to provide a comprehensive view of CBP, its potential, and practical implementation of its principles. Read the white paper .

Ask Us Anything: Supply Chain Risk Management By Brett Tucker and Matthew J. Butkovic

According to the Verizon Data Breach Report , Log4j-related exploits have occurred less frequently over the past year. However, this Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) flaw was originally documented in 2021. The threat still exists despite increased awareness. Over the past few years, the Software Engineering Institute has developed guidance and practices to help organizations reduce threats to U.S. supply chains. In this webcast, Brett Tucker and Matthew Butkovic, answer enterprise risk management questions to help organizations achieve operational resilience in the cyber supply chain. The webcast covers

• enterprise risk governance and how to assess organization’s risk appetite and policy as it relates to and integrates cyber risks into a global risk portfolio
• regulatory directives on third-party risk
• the agenda and topics to be covered in the upcoming CERT Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management Symposium in February

The Measurement Challenges in Software Assurance and Supply Chain Risk Management by Nancy R. Mead, Carol Woody, and Scott Hissam

In this paper, the authors discuss the metrics needed to predict cybersecurity in open source software and how standards are needed to make it easier to apply these metrics in the supply chain. The authors provide examples of potentially useful metrics and underscore the need for data collection and analysis to validate the metrics. They assert that defining metrics, collecting and analyzing data to illustrate their utility, and using standard methods requires unbiased collaborative work to achieve the desired results. Read the white paper .

The Cybersecurity of Quantum Computing: 6 Areas of Research

By Tom Scanlon

Research and development of quantum computers continues to grow at a rapid pace. The U.S. government alone spent more than $800 million on quantum information science research in 2022. Thomas Scanlon, who leads the data science group in the SEI CERT Division, was recently invited to be a participant in the Workshop on Cybersecurity of Quantum Computing, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, to examine the emerging field of cybersecurity for quantum computing. In this SEI podcast, Scanlon discusses how to create the discipline of cyber protection of quantum computing and outlines six areas of future research in quantum cybersecurity.

Listen to/view the podcast .

Additional Resources

View the latest SEI research in the SEI Digital Library . View the latest podcasts in the SEI Podcast Series . View the latest installments in the SEI Webcast Series .

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Digital library publications, send a message, more by the author, applying large language models to dod software acquisition: an initial experiment, april 1, 2024 • by douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university) , john e. robert, 10 benefits and 10 challenges of applying large language models to dod software acquisition, january 22, 2024 • by john e. robert , douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), the latest work from the sei, january 15, 2024 • by douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), the top 10 blog posts of 2023, january 8, 2024 • by douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), applying generative ai to software engineering: navigating ethical and educational landscapes, december 11, 2023 • by john e. robert , douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), more in software engineering research and development, applying the sei sbom framework, february 5, 2024 • by carol woody, get updates on our latest work..

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Title: realm: reference resolution as language modeling.

Abstract: Reference resolution is an important problem, one that is essential to understand and successfully handle context of different kinds. This context includes both previous turns and context that pertains to non-conversational entities, such as entities on the user's screen or those running in the background. While LLMs have been shown to be extremely powerful for a variety of tasks, their use in reference resolution, particularly for non-conversational entities, remains underutilized. This paper demonstrates how LLMs can be used to create an extremely effective system to resolve references of various types, by showing how reference resolution can be converted into a language modeling problem, despite involving forms of entities like those on screen that are not traditionally conducive to being reduced to a text-only modality. We demonstrate large improvements over an existing system with similar functionality across different types of references, with our smallest model obtaining absolute gains of over 5% for on-screen references. We also benchmark against GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, with our smallest model achieving performance comparable to that of GPT-4, and our larger models substantially outperforming it.

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• How to Cite a Website | MLA, APA & Chicago Examples

How to Cite a Website | MLA, APA & Chicago Examples

Published on March 5, 2021 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on January 17, 2024.

To cite a page from a website, you need a short in-text citation and a corresponding reference stating the author’s name, the date of publication, the title of the page, the website name, and the URL.

This information is presented differently in different citation styles. APA , MLA , and Chicago are the most commonly used styles.

Use the interactive example generator below to explore APA and MLA website citations.

Note that the format is slightly different for citing YouTube and other online video platforms, or for citing an image .

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Citing a website in mla style, citing a website in apa style, citing a website in chicago style, frequently asked questions about citations.

An MLA Works Cited entry for a webpage lists the author’s name , the title of the page (in quotation marks), the name of the site (in italics), the date of publication, and the URL.

The in-text citation usually just lists the author’s name. For a long page, you may specify a (shortened) section heading to locate the specific passage. Don’t use paragraph numbers unless they’re specifically numbered on the page.

The same format is used for blog posts and online articles from newspapers and magazines.

You can also use our free MLA Citation Generator to generate your website citations.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

Citing a whole website.

When you cite an entire website rather than a specific page, include the author if one can be identified for the whole site (e.g. for a single-authored blog). Otherwise, just start with the site name.

List the copyright date displayed on the site; if there isn’t one, provide an access date after the URL.

Webpages with no author or date

When no author is listed, cite the organization as author only if it differs from the website name.

If the organization name is also the website name, start the Works Cited entry with the title instead, and use a shortened version of the title in the in-text citation.

When no publication date is listed, leave it out and include an access date at the end instead.

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The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

• Missing commas and periods
• Incorrect usage of “et al.”
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An APA reference for a webpage lists the author’s last name and initials, the full date of publication, the title of the page (in italics), the website name (in plain text), and the URL.

The in-text citation lists the author’s last name and the year. If it’s a long page, you may include a locator to identify the quote or paraphrase (e.g. a paragraph number and/or section title).

Note that a general reference to an entire website doesn’t require a citation in APA Style; just include the URL in parentheses after you mention the site.

You can also use our free APA Citation Generator to create your webpage citations. Search for a URL to retrieve the details.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

Blog posts and online articles.

Blog posts follow a slightly different format: the title of the post is not italicized, and the name of the blog is.

The same format is used for online newspaper and magazine articles—but not for articles from news sites like Reuters and BBC News (see the previous example).

When a page has no author specified, list the name of the organization that created it instead (and omit it later if it’s the same as the website name).

When it doesn’t list a date of publication, use “n.d.” in place of the date. You can also include an access date if the page seems likely to change over time.

In Chicago notes and bibliography style, footnotes are used to cite sources. They refer to a bibliography at the end that lists all your sources in full.

A Chicago bibliography entry for a website lists the author’s name, the page title (in quotation marks), the website name, the publication date, and the URL.

Chicago also has an alternative author-date citation style . Examples of website citations in this style can be found here .

For blog posts and online articles from newspapers, the name of the publication is italicized. For a blog post, you should also add the word “blog” in parentheses, unless it’s already part of the blog’s name.

When a web source doesn’t list an author , you can usually begin your bibliography entry and short note with the name of the organization responsible. Don’t repeat it later if it’s also the name of the website. A full note should begin with the title instead.

When no publication or revision date is shown, include an access date instead in your bibliography entry.

The main elements included in website citations across APA , MLA , and Chicago style are the author, the date of publication, the page title, the website name, and the URL. The information is presented differently in each style.

In APA , MLA , and Chicago style citations for sources that don’t list a specific author (e.g. many websites ), you can usually list the organization responsible for the source as the author.

If the organization is the same as the website or publisher, you shouldn’t repeat it twice in your reference:

• In APA and Chicago, omit the website or publisher name later in the reference.
• In MLA, omit the author element at the start of the reference, and cite the source title instead.

If there’s no appropriate organization to list as author, you will usually have to begin the citation and reference entry with the title of the source instead.

When you want to cite a specific passage in a source without page numbers (e.g. an e-book or website ), all the main citation styles recommend using an alternate locator in your in-text citation . You might use a heading or chapter number, e.g. (Smith, 2016, ch. 1)

In APA Style , you can count the paragraph numbers in a text to identify a location by paragraph number. MLA and Chicago recommend that you only use paragraph numbers if they’re explicitly marked in the text.

For audiovisual sources (e.g. videos ), all styles recommend using a timestamp to show a specific point in the video when relevant.

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2024, January 17). How to Cite a Website | MLA, APA & Chicago Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 12, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/cite-a-website/

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