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