Citation Styles
Introduction
Whenever you begin a research project ask your professor which citation style you should use to record your sources. For heavy duty research such as a dissertation, you may want to use citation management software which will help you keep track of sources and format the material.
While citation styles differ in format and punctuation, the main idea is to provide enough detail for someone else to locate the sources of your information. As a general rule of thumb, keep track of the following:
- For books: author/editor of book, title of book, date of publication, location of publication, and publisher.
- For book chapters: same as book plus title of chapter, author of chapter, and page numbers of chapter.
- For articles: author, date, title of article, title of journal, volume and issue number of journal, page numbers.
- For online articles: same as article information plus URL, date retrieved, and title of database (if used)
- For other online sources: author, title of work, URL, and date retrieved.
Citation Style Manuals
There are hundreds of different citation style methods. Here are three of the mostly commonly used styles:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the
American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Ekstrom Library Ref. Desk BF76.7 .P83 2001
Health Sciences Library reference collections Z 253 .A36 2001
Gibaldi, Joseph, ed. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
Ekstrom Library Ref. Desk LB2369 .G53 2003
Art Library reference shelf LB2369 .G53 2003
University of Chicago. The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Ekstrom Library Ref. Desk Z253 .U69 2003
Music Library reference Z 253 .U69 2003