Citations: Introductory Guide  

*from UC San Diego's Social Sciences and Humanities Library

Citations document source information used in research. They add credibility to your work by showing where your information came from and give proper credit to the source material.

Knowing where to find and how to read citations will also help you significantly with your own research by pointing you towards ready sources of relevant information.

When to document a source

As you gather information to use in your research paper, it is important to keep track of where you found it. Your work should include a bibliography of all the sources you used, which you will also reference whenever you use information from them.

You do not need to cite your own ideas or any information that is considered common knowledge.

Everything else must be properly credited, using a commonly accepted citation style.

Book citations should include the following information, regardless of style:

• Author(s)
• Title
• Publisher
• Location of Publisher
• Year of Publication

This information will help other readers to locate the book.

Article citations should include the following information, regardless of style:

• Author(s)
• Title
• Periodical Title
• Periodical Volume and issue numbers
• Publisher
• Year of Publication
• Page numbers

This information will help other readers to locate the article.

Research and Documentation Online

A guide to documenting your sources in four different citation styles:

• MLA (Humanities)
  
• APA (Social Sciences)
  
• Chicago (History)
  
• CSE (Sciences)

 Citing Images

A Libguide on visual literacy.

Make Citations - Visit our tutorial on citations to help you understand why it is important to document your sources.

Bibliographic Management Software - Try this LibGuide for information about different software programs that will help you to create a bibliography and keep track of citations.

BMS Comparison - Which one should you use? This chart compares the different bibliographic management software progams to help you decide which will work best for you.