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    • Citation Styles Guide: Start Here

    Everything you will need to write citations properly.

    Welcome to the citation styles guide!

    Citations are formal statements describing where you received your information from. Citations do two things:

    1. They give credit to the person, group of people, or organization who created that information; and
    2. They display your academic and research integrity to respecting others' work.

    There are four main components to a citation:

    WHO created the information? This is the source's author(s). E.g., Stephen King, James Patterson and Dolly Parton, Smithsonian, US Congress, etc.
    WHEN was the information created? This can be the publication, revision, or updated date. *Do Not use time, only date.* E.g., 2018; Sept 14, 1998; Apr 2003
    WHAT is the title of the information? Everything has a title - Book chapters, Articles, Webpages, Social media posts, etc.
    WHERE is the information from? Journal issue number, Book edition, Page numbers, Website name, URL, Retrieval date, etc.

    Other components citations may include, but are not limited to:

    • Editor(s)
    • Journal / Book name
    • Journal / Book volume number
    • DOIs - Digital Object Identifiers (it's like a social security number for certain publications)
    • Access Date

    Not every citation will include every component. It depends on the resource you obtained information from. For example, a physical book will not have a URL, but an eBook will.

    *Have more questions about what a citation is?* Check out this webpage from Infobase titled "Citing Sources" that answers common questions regarding citations.