What is a Citation?
A citation is the basic information required to identify or locate a specific publication (book, article, video, etc.). It is a pointer (or reference) to more information. Citations are provided in print and electronic indexes and catalogs to identify resources. They are also included in research papers, articles, and books to reference text that has been quoted or a source that has been used as an authority.
Generally there are two basic kinds of citations: article or book
What are the five basic parts of a citation?
|
Book Parts —
|
Article Parts —
[Volume & Issue] (sometimes this is missing or not required) |
NOTE: Citations may be found in many different places such as a bibliography, a database, a web page or other sources.
EXAMPLES: (These are not of any type of format!)
Those little white lies, P.P. Conner il Parents 62:204-07 Ap ‘87
Campus confidential: The complete guide to the college experience by students for students. Miller, Robert H.; San Francisco, CA, US: Jossey-Bass, 2006.
Townley, C. & Parsell, M.(2004). Technology and academic virtue: Student plagiarism through the looking glass. Ethics and Information Technology, 6(4), 271-277.
Dinwiddie, Gniesha Y. "Education, USA." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A.Darity. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. Print.
**What distinguishes one type of citation from the other? How do you tell which is a book and which is an article?**
Anatomy of an Article Citation
Anatomy of an Book Citation
Style Guides
Citations can be formatted in different ways depending on what style guide is being used as a reference. The two most common are MLA Style and APA Style.
MLA Style for BOOK
Graham, James J. The Enemies of the Poor. New York: Random, 1970. Print.
APA Style for BOOK
Bernstein, T. M. (1965). The careful writer: A modern guide to English usage. New York: Antheneum.
MLA Style for an ARTICLE
Delbruck, Max. "Mind From Matter?" The American Scholar 47.3 (1978): 339-53. Print.
APA Style for an ARTICLE
Paivio, A. (1975). Perceptual comparisons through the mind's eye. Memory & Cognition, 3, 635-647.
Now can YOU create your own citations?
Check to see if you can read citations - a Slideshare presentation.
Step 1: Determine the source type.
Is it a book, journal article, newspaper or encyclopedia entry?
Step 2: Decide if the source is print or digital.
Is the source from an online database, web site or a Library’s print collection?
Step 3: Find an example citation for the source type in a citation guide.
Step 4: Use the example as a template to create your citation.
Common styles used:
| APA | MLA | CHICAGO/TURABIAN |
|---|---|---|
| Business | English/Writing | History/Pre-Law |
| Education | Literature | Religion |
|
Psychology, Social Work |
Music |
Online Bibliography Tools
The free online web tools will help you with citing your sources:
The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism by If you don't want to create citations from scratch, we suggest using a free citation assistance program. Some library research databases (like Academic Search, JSTOR, etc.) will also provide a tool to format citations for you.
If you use a program for citation assistance, ALWAYS check the citation provided against the official citation manual for the style you are using (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.). If you have questions, contact your professor or check out the additional resources provided on this page.
While there are many citation programs available (EasyBib, BibMe, KnightCite, etc.), we often recommend using Zotero. OR try ZoteroBib - a quick way to get your citations done right.
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool that can help you to collect, organize, cite, and share your research resources, as a standalone program. With the click of a button you can instantly store citation information for the online information you find as you browse the web or the library's databases. You can also annotate your sources as well as organize them into separate folders.
For more information about how to use Zotero, check out this How to Use Zotero guide or the Quick Start Guide created by the folks at Zotero.