Citation

What is Citation?

Types of Citation with Exampes.

Citation

Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears. Generally the combination of both the in-body citation and the bibliographic entry constitutes what is commonly thought of as a citation (whereas bibliographic entries by themselves are not). References to single, machine-readable assertions in electronic scientific articles are known as nanopublications, a form of microattribution.

Modern Language Association (MLA): 

This style is widely used in the humanities, since the style is well-suited to literature and archival sources.

Example 1: Literary Studies (MLA)

The MLA requires a parenthetical citation in the body of the text that corresponds to an entry in the Works Cited at the end. A citation for a quotation from a book in the MLA style is formatted this way:

As Frank Lentricchia argues, The Waste Land should not be understood as a logical sequence of events but as “an intellectual and emotional complex grasped in an instant of time” (194).

The parenthetical citation “(194)” refers to a page number from a book by Frank Lentricchia. Publication information about the book would be found in the Works Cited, where it would be formatted this way:

Lentricchia, Frank. Modernist Quartet. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

American Psychological Association (APA): 

This style is widely used in the social sciences, since the style is well-suited to quantitative studies and analysis.

Example 2: Psychology (APA)

The APA also requires parenthetical citations in the body of the text, though these citations typically include the author and the date. A citation for a summary of an article in the APA style is formatted this way:

Studies that examine links between cardiovascular and mental activity must understand that cardiovascular activity itself comprises a suite of variables (Van Roon, Mulder, Althaus, and Mulder, 2004).

The parenthetical citation “(Van Roon, Mulder, Althaus, and Mulder, 2004)” refers to an article by the four listed coauthors. Publication information about the article would be found in the References, where it would be formatted this way:

Van Roon, A., Mulder, L., Althaus, M., and Mulder, G. (2004). Introducing a baroflex model for studying cardiovascular effects of mental workload. Psychophysiology, 41, 961–981.

Chicago Manual of Style

This style is actually 2 separate styles, one with footnotes or endnotes, and one with the author-date system.

Notes and Bibliography: Widely used in humanities, since it easily accommodates a wide variety of sources, including more esoteric sources.

Author-Date: Intended to be used broadly in the sciences, this style is best suited for scholarly articles and books.


 Example 3: History (CMS)

CMS, or “Chicago,” is a style in which citations are presented in footnotes. A citation for a quotation from an article in the Chicago style is formatted this way:

Nineteenth-century bohemians were more dependent on mainstream culture than might at first appear. As one scholar puts it, “Bohemia”s self-designated types always existed in symbiotic relation to bourgeois culture rather than in opposition to it.”1

The footnote “1” would refer to a note at the bottom of the page containing full publication information and formatted this way:

1. Christine Stansell, American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2000), 18.