how to cite research sources

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources

How to Cite Sources

Here is a complete list for how to cite sources. Most of these guides present citation guidance and examples in MLA, APA, and Chicago.

If you’re looking for general information on MLA or APA citations , the EasyBib Writing Center was designed for you! It has articles on what’s needed in an MLA in-text citation , how to format an APA paper, what an MLA annotated bibliography is, making an MLA works cited page, and much more!

MLA Format Citation Examples

The Modern Language Association created the MLA Style, currently in its 9th edition, to provide researchers with guidelines for writing and documenting scholarly borrowings.  Most often used in the humanities, MLA style (or MLA format ) has been adopted and used by numerous other disciplines, in multiple parts of the world.

MLA provides standard rules to follow so that most research papers are formatted in a similar manner. This makes it easier for readers to comprehend the information. The MLA in-text citation guidelines, MLA works cited standards, and MLA annotated bibliography instructions provide scholars with the information they need to properly cite sources in their research papers, articles, and assignments.

• Book Chapter
• Conference Paper
• Documentary
• Encyclopedia
• Google Images
• Kindle Book
• Memorial Inscription
• Museum Exhibit
• Painting or Artwork
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Sheet Music
• Thesis or Dissertation
• YouTube Video

APA Format Citation Examples

The American Psychological Association created the APA citation style in 1929 as a way to help psychologists, anthropologists, and even business managers establish one common way to cite sources and present content.

APA is used when citing sources for academic articles such as journals, and is intended to help readers better comprehend content, and to avoid language bias wherever possible. The APA style (or APA format ) is now in its 7th edition, and provides citation style guides for virtually any type of resource.

Chicago Style Citation Examples

The Chicago/Turabian style of citing sources is generally used when citing sources for humanities papers, and is best known for its requirement that writers place bibliographic citations at the bottom of a page (in Chicago-format footnotes ) or at the end of a paper (endnotes).

The Turabian and Chicago citation styles are almost identical, but the Turabian style is geared towards student published papers such as theses and dissertations, while the Chicago style provides guidelines for all types of publications. This is why you’ll commonly see Chicago style and Turabian style presented together. The Chicago Manual of Style is currently in its 17th edition, and Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is in its 8th edition.

Citing Specific Sources or Events

• Declaration of Independence
• Gettysburg Address
• Martin Luther King Jr. Speech
• President Obama’s Farewell Address
• President Trump’s Inauguration Speech
• White House Press Briefing

Additional FAQs

• Citing Archived Contributors
• Citing a Blog
• Citing a Book Chapter
• Citing a Source in a Foreign Language
• Citing an Image
• Citing a Song
• Citing Special Contributors
• Citing a Translated Article
• Citing a Tweet

6 Interesting Citation Facts

The world of citations may seem cut and dry, but there’s more to them than just specific capitalization rules, MLA in-text citations , and other formatting specifications. Citations have been helping researches document their sources for hundreds of years, and are a great way to learn more about a particular subject area.

Ever wonder what sets all the different styles apart, or how they came to be in the first place? Read on for some interesting facts about citations!

1. There are Over 7,000 Different Citation Styles

You may be familiar with MLA and APA citation styles, but there are actually thousands of citation styles used for all different academic disciplines all across the world. Deciding which one to use can be difficult, so be sure to ask you instructor which one you should be using for your next paper.

2. Some Citation Styles are Named After People

While a majority of citation styles are named for the specific organizations that publish them (i.e. APA is published by the American Psychological Association, and MLA format is named for the Modern Language Association), some are actually named after individuals. The most well-known example of this is perhaps Turabian style, named for Kate L. Turabian, an American educator and writer. She developed this style as a condensed version of the Chicago Manual of Style in order to present a more concise set of rules to students.

3. There are Some Really Specific and Uniquely Named Citation Styles

How specific can citation styles get? The answer is very. For example, the “Flavour and Fragrance Journal” style is based on a bimonthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 1985 by John Wiley & Sons. It publishes original research articles, reviews and special reports on all aspects of flavor and fragrance. Another example is “Nordic Pulp and Paper Research,” a style used by an international scientific magazine covering science and technology for the areas of wood or bio-mass constituents.

4. More citations were created on  EasyBib.com  in the first quarter of 2018 than there are people in California.

The US Census Bureau estimates that approximately 39.5 million people live in the state of California. Meanwhile, about 43 million citations were made on EasyBib from January to March of 2018. That’s a lot of citations.

5. “Citations” is a Word With a Long History

The word “citations” can be traced back literally thousands of years to the Latin word “citare” meaning “to summon, urge, call; put in sudden motion, call forward; rouse, excite.” The word then took on its more modern meaning and relevance to writing papers in the 1600s, where it became known as the “act of citing or quoting a passage from a book, etc.”

6. Citation Styles are Always Changing

The concept of citations always stays the same. It is a means of preventing plagiarism and demonstrating where you relied on outside sources. The specific style rules, however, can and do change regularly. For example, in 2018 alone, 46 new citation styles were introduced , and 106 updates were made to exiting styles. At EasyBib, we are always on the lookout for ways to improve our styles and opportunities to add new ones to our list.

Why Citations Matter

Here are the ways accurate citations can help your students achieve academic success, and how you can answer the dreaded question, “why should I cite my sources?”

They Give Credit to the Right People

Citing their sources makes sure that the reader can differentiate the student’s original thoughts from those of other researchers. Not only does this make sure that the sources they use receive proper credit for their work, it ensures that the student receives deserved recognition for their unique contributions to the topic. Whether the student is citing in MLA format , APA format , or any other style, citations serve as a natural way to place a student’s work in the broader context of the subject area, and serve as an easy way to gauge their commitment to the project.

They Provide Hard Evidence of Ideas

Having many citations from a wide variety of sources related to their idea means that the student is working on a well-researched and respected subject. Citing sources that back up their claim creates room for fact-checking and further research . And, if they can cite a few sources that have the converse opinion or idea, and then demonstrate to the reader why they believe that that viewpoint is wrong by again citing credible sources, the student is well on their way to winning over the reader and cementing their point of view.

They Promote Originality and Prevent Plagiarism

The point of research projects is not to regurgitate information that can already be found elsewhere. We have Google for that! What the student’s project should aim to do is promote an original idea or a spin on an existing idea, and use reliable sources to promote that idea. Copying or directly referencing a source without proper citation can lead to not only a poor grade, but accusations of academic dishonesty. By citing their sources regularly and accurately, students can easily avoid the trap of plagiarism , and promote further research on their topic.

They Create Better Researchers

By researching sources to back up and promote their ideas, students are becoming better researchers without even knowing it! Each time a new source is read or researched, the student is becoming more engaged with the project and is developing a deeper understanding of the subject area. Proper citations demonstrate a breadth of the student’s reading and dedication to the project itself. By creating citations, students are compelled to make connections between their sources and discern research patterns. Each time they complete this process, they are helping themselves become better researchers and writers overall.

When is the Right Time to Start Making Citations?

Make in-text/parenthetical citations as you need them.

As you are writing your paper, be sure to include references within the text that correspond with references in a works cited or bibliography. These are usually called in-text citations or parenthetical citations in MLA and APA formats. The most effective time to complete these is directly after you have made your reference to another source. For instance, after writing the line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities : “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…,” you would include a citation like this (depending on your chosen citation style):

(Dickens 11).

This signals to the reader that you have referenced an outside source. What’s great about this system is that the in-text citations serve as a natural list for all of the citations you have made in your paper, which will make completing the works cited page a whole lot easier. After you are done writing, all that will be left for you to do is scan your paper for these references, and then build a works cited page that includes a citation for each one.

Need help creating an MLA works cited page ? Try the MLA format generator on EasyBib.com! We also have a guide on how to format an APA reference page .

2. Understand the General Formatting Rules of Your Citation Style Before You Start Writing

While reading up on paper formatting may not sound exciting, being aware of how your paper should look early on in the paper writing process is super important. Citation styles can dictate more than just the appearance of the citations themselves, but rather can impact the layout of your paper as a whole, with specific guidelines concerning margin width, title treatment, and even font size and spacing. Knowing how to organize your paper before you start writing will ensure that you do not receive a low grade for something as trivial as forgetting a hanging indent.

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a formatting guide on APA format .

3. Double-check All of Your Outside Sources for Relevance and Trustworthiness First

Collecting outside sources that support your research and specific topic is a critical step in writing an effective paper. But before you run to the library and grab the first 20 books you can lay your hands on, keep in mind that selecting a source to include in your paper should not be taken lightly. Before you proceed with using it to backup your ideas, run a quick Internet search for it and see if other scholars in your field have written about it as well. Check to see if there are book reviews about it or peer accolades. If you spot something that seems off to you, you may want to consider leaving it out of your work. Doing this before your start making citations can save you a ton of time in the long run.

Finished with your paper? It may be time to run it through a grammar and plagiarism checker , like the one offered by EasyBib Plus. If you’re just looking to brush up on the basics, our grammar guides  are ready anytime you are.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Citation Basics

Harvard Referencing

Plagiarism Basics

Plagiarism Checker

Upload a paper to check for plagiarism against billions of sources and get advanced writing suggestions for clarity and style.

Get Started

Citing sources: Overview

• Citation style guides

Manage your references

Use these tools to help you organize and cite your references:

• Citation Management and Writing Tools

If you have questions after consulting this guide about how to cite, please contact your advisor/professor or the writing and communication center .

Why citing is important

It's important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

• To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
• To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
• To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
• To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list

About citations

Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site).  They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases.

Citations consist of standard elements, and contain all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:

• author name(s)
• titles of books, articles, and journals
• date of publication
• page numbers
• volume and issue numbers (for articles)

Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. Choose an appropriate style guide for your needs.  Here is an example of an article citation using four different citation styles.  Notice the common elements as mentioned above:

Author - R. Langer

Article Title - New Methods of Drug Delivery

Source Title - Science

Volume and issue - Vol 249, issue 4976

Publication Date - 1990

Page numbers - 1527-1533

American Chemical Society (ACS) style:

Langer, R. New Methods of Drug Delivery. Science 1990 , 249 , 1527-1533.

IEEE Style:

R. Langer, " New Methods of Drug Delivery," Science , vol. 249 , pp. 1527-1533 , SEP 28, 1990 .

American Psychological Association   (APA) style:

Langer, R. (1990) . New methods of drug delivery. Science , 249 (4976), 1527-1533.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style:

Langer, R. " New Methods of Drug Delivery." Science 249.4976 (1990) : 1527-33.

What to cite

You must cite:

• Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge

Publications that must be cited include:  books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, etc.

Another person's exact words should be quoted and cited to show proper credit 

When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!

Avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism occurs when you borrow another's words (or ideas) and do not acknowledge that you have done so. In this culture, we consider our words and ideas intellectual property; like a car or any other possession, we believe our words belong to us and cannot be used without our permission.

Plagiarism is a very serious offense. If it is found that you have plagiarized -- deliberately or inadvertently -- you may face serious consequences. In some instances, plagiarism has meant that students have had to leave the institutions where they were studying.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to cite your sources - both within the body of your paper and in a bibliography of sources you used at the end of your paper.

Some useful links about plagiarism:

• MIT Academic Integrity Overview on citing sources and avoiding plagiarism at MIT.
• Avoiding Plagiarism From the MIT Writing and Communication Center.
• Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It From Indiana University's Writing Tutorial Services.
• Plagiarism- Overview A resource from Purdue University.
• Next: Citation style guides >>
• Last Updated: Jan 16, 2024 7:02 AM
• URL: https://libguides.mit.edu/citing

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, automatically generate references for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Referencing

A Quick Guide to Referencing | Cite Your Sources Correctly

Referencing means acknowledging the sources you have used in your writing. Including references helps you support your claims and ensures that you avoid plagiarism .

There are many referencing styles, but they usually consist of two things:

• A citation wherever you refer to a source in your text.
• A reference list or bibliography at the end listing full details of all your sources.

The most common method of referencing in UK universities is Harvard style , which uses author-date citations in the text. Our free Harvard Reference Generator automatically creates accurate references in this style.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Be assured that you'll submit flawless writing. Upload your document to correct all your mistakes.

Table of contents

Referencing styles, citing your sources with in-text citations, creating your reference list or bibliography, harvard referencing examples, frequently asked questions about referencing.

Each referencing style has different rules for presenting source information. For in-text citations, some use footnotes or endnotes , while others include the author’s surname and date of publication in brackets in the text.

The reference list or bibliography is presented differently in each style, with different rules for things like capitalisation, italics, and quotation marks in references.

Your university will usually tell you which referencing style to use; they may even have their own unique style. Always follow your university’s guidelines, and ask your tutor if you are unsure. The most common styles are summarised below.

Harvard referencing, the most commonly used style at UK universities, uses author–date in-text citations corresponding to an alphabetical bibliography or reference list at the end.

Harvard Referencing Guide

Vancouver referencing, used in biomedicine and other sciences, uses reference numbers in the text corresponding to a numbered reference list at the end.

Vancouver Referencing Guide

APA referencing, used in the social and behavioural sciences, uses author–date in-text citations corresponding to an alphabetical reference list at the end.

APA Referencing Guide APA Reference Generator

MHRA referencing, used in the humanities, uses footnotes in the text with source information, in addition to an alphabetised bibliography at the end.

MHRA Referencing Guide

OSCOLA referencing, used in law, uses footnotes in the text with source information, and an alphabetical bibliography at the end in longer texts.

OSCOLA Referencing Guide

The only proofreading tool specialized in correcting academic writing

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts and by native English editors. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students.

Correct my document today

In-text citations should be used whenever you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source (e.g. a book, article, image, website, or video).

Quoting and paraphrasing

Quoting is when you directly copy some text from a source and enclose it in quotation marks to indicate that it is not your own writing.

Paraphrasing is when you rephrase the original source into your own words. In this case, you don’t use quotation marks, but you still need to include a citation.

In most referencing styles, page numbers are included when you’re quoting or paraphrasing a particular passage. If you are referring to the text as a whole, no page number is needed.

In-text citations

In-text citations are quick references to your sources. In Harvard referencing, you use the author’s surname and the date of publication in brackets.

Up to three authors are included in a Harvard in-text citation. If the source has more than three authors, include the first author followed by ‘ et al. ‘

The point of these citations is to direct your reader to the alphabetised reference list, where you give full information about each source. For example, to find the source cited above, the reader would look under ‘J’ in your reference list to find the title and publication details of the source.

Placement of in-text citations

In-text citations should be placed directly after the quotation or information they refer to, usually before a comma or full stop. If a sentence is supported by multiple sources, you can combine them in one set of brackets, separated by a semicolon.

If you mention the author’s name in the text already, you don’t include it in the citation, and you can place the citation immediately after the name.

• Another researcher warns that the results of this method are ‘inconsistent’ (Singh, 2018, p. 13) .
• Previous research has frequently illustrated the pitfalls of this method (Singh, 2018; Jones, 2016) .
• Singh (2018, p. 13) warns that the results of this method are ‘inconsistent’.

The terms ‘bibliography’ and ‘reference list’ are sometimes used interchangeably. Both refer to a list that contains full information on all the sources cited in your text. Sometimes ‘bibliography’ is used to mean a more extensive list, also containing sources that you consulted but did not cite in the text.

A reference list or bibliography is usually mandatory, since in-text citations typically don’t provide full source information. For styles that already include full source information in footnotes (e.g. OSCOLA and Chicago Style ), the bibliography is optional, although your university may still require you to include one.

Format of the reference list

Reference lists are usually alphabetised by authors’ last names. Each entry in the list appears on a new line, and a hanging indent is applied if an entry extends onto multiple lines.

Different source information is included for different source types. Each style provides detailed guidelines for exactly what information should be included and how it should be presented.

Below are some examples of reference list entries for common source types in Harvard style.

• Chapter of a book
• Journal article

Your university should tell you which referencing style to follow. If you’re unsure, check with a supervisor. Commonly used styles include:

• Harvard referencing , the most commonly used style in UK universities.
• MHRA , used in humanities subjects.
• APA , used in the social sciences.
• Vancouver , used in biomedicine.
• OSCOLA , used in law.

Your university may have its own referencing style guide.

If you are allowed to choose which style to follow, we recommend Harvard referencing, as it is a straightforward and widely used style.

References should be included in your text whenever you use words, ideas, or information from a source. A source can be anything from a book or journal article to a website or YouTube video.

If you don’t acknowledge your sources, you can get in trouble for plagiarism .

To avoid plagiarism , always include a reference when you use words, ideas or information from a source. This shows that you are not trying to pass the work of others off as your own.

You must also properly quote or paraphrase the source. If you’re not sure whether you’ve done this correctly, you can use the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker to find and correct any mistakes.

Harvard referencing uses an author–date system. Sources are cited by the author’s last name and the publication year in brackets. Each Harvard in-text citation corresponds to an entry in the alphabetised reference list at the end of the paper.

Vancouver referencing uses a numerical system. Sources are cited by a number in parentheses or superscript. Each number corresponds to a full reference at the end of the paper.

Is this article helpful?

Other students also liked.

• A Quick Guide to Harvard Referencing | Citation Examples
• APA Referencing (7th Ed.) Quick Guide | In-text Citations & References

How to Avoid Plagiarism | Tips on Citing Sources

More interesting articles.

• A Quick Guide to OSCOLA Referencing | Rules & Examples
• Harvard In-Text Citation | A Complete Guide & Examples
• Harvard Referencing for Journal Articles | Templates & Examples
• Harvard Style Bibliography | Format & Examples
• MHRA Referencing | A Quick Guide & Citation Examples
• Reference a Website in Harvard Style | Templates & Examples
• Referencing Books in Harvard Style | Templates & Examples
• Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples

Scribbr APA Citation Checker

An innovative new tool that checks your APA citations with AI software. Say goodbye to inaccurate citations!

Boatwright Memorial Library

Citing sources research guide: home.

• Quick Citing in Databases
• Chicago/Turabian
• ASA & AAA (Soc/Ant)
• ACS (Chemistry)
• AP (Associated Press)
• APSA (Political Science)
• SBL (Society of Biblical Literature)
• Harvard Style
• MS Word Help
• DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers)
• Annotated Bibliographies
• Literature Reviews
• EndNote Web
• Citation exercises This link opens in a new window

Do you need help with research? Try the Getting Started with Research Guide and ASK a Librarian !

Quick Citing

Quick citing tools can help you get started, but ALWAYS check the Style Guides for specifics as you are responsible for accurately citing your sources.

Zotero - Quick Start

Citing Media

• Citing Images - General This site has a great set of example of how to cite images in your papers.
• Artstor Citing Help
• Citing Images From Simon Fraser University Library, Ania Dymarz.

What is Plagiarism?

• Plagiarism Tutorial & Overview (IU Bloomington)
• Avoiding Plagiarism (Univ. of Arizona Libraries) Guide and tutorial.
• Plagiarism and Academic Integrity Includes guides, activities, and tutorial. From Central Penn College.

Citation Research

• Citation Research (ASU Libraries) This guide from ASU contains information on bibliometrics and tools, information, sources and tutorials used to evaluate the impact on scholar's work.

Citing Sources - Getting Started

The tabs above for APA, MLA and Chicago/Turabian provide formatting examples for the most common types of print and electronic sources of information.

If you need help with citing sources, consult the appropriate style manual, a Reference librarian , or the Writing Center .

Styles of Documentation

Different disciplines have developed different styles, or rules, of documentation. Fields in the humanities, like literature, religion, or philosophy, tend to prefer MLA style. History and some social sciences, like education, economics, or political science, may prefer Turabian or Chicago style. Other social sciences and some sciences prefer APA.  Scientific writing has many different formats, depending on the discipline.

You should always consult with your professor to determine which style you should use for any project. There are whole books devoted to writing and documenting research in each of these styles. For details, you should refer to the individual style manuals; there are copies of all of them on in Boatwright Library and in the Research and Collaborative Area. To ensure that your citations conform to current practice, always use the most recent edition of any style manual. 

Research findings are not considered valid and legitimate unless the researcher documents the resources and methods used to conduct that research. For a scientist, this entails a detailed account of materials and methods used in the lab or the field. For the social scientist, it may mean including copies of surveys, questionnaires, observations, or other methods used to gather information. For any researcher using verbal or graphic materials, regardless of the medium—print, Internet, film, photographic, microfiche, etc...—it means indicating exactly what sources were used and where each piece of information came from.

The purpose of documenting your sources is so people interested in the subject of the research can verify information or refer to it for additional information or research. Accurately and completely documenting all sources of information used is therefore essential to the scholarly conversation — and foundational to research.

Contact a Liaison Librarian:

Ask a Librarian 

Boatwright Library (804) 289-8876

[email protected]

• University of Richmond Honor Council & the UR Honor Code more... less... The UR Honor Council maintains the University's Honor Code. This website provides information on the Honor Code Pledge students are required to acknowledge for assignments.
• The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Resources for all things writing and citing.
• Writer's Web - The University of Richmond - Writing Center more... less... Writer's Web is a free, public-access handbook that covers help and information for all stages of the writing process.
• Citation Guides for Government Documents (University of Nebraska-Kearney)
• Guides for Citing Sources (Valencia College)
• Excelsior Citation and Documentation
• Next: Quick Citing in Databases >>
• Last Updated: Mar 20, 2024 9:09 AM
• URL: https://libguides.richmond.edu/citingsources

University Library

Start your research.

• Research Process
• Find Background Info
• Find Sources through the Library
• Evaluate Your Info
• Cite Your Sources
• Evaluate, Write & Cite

• is the right thing to do  to give credit to those who had the idea
• shows that you have read and understand  what experts have had to say about your topic
• helps people find the sources  that you used in case they want to read more about the topic
• provides   evidence  for your arguments
• is professional and  standard practice   for students and scholars

What is a Citation?

A citation identifies for the reader the original source for an idea, information, or image that is referred to in a work.

• In the body of a paper, the  in-text citation  acknowledges the source of information used.
• At the end of a paper, the citations are compiled on a  References  or  Works Cited  list. A basic citation includes the author, title, and publication information of the source. 

From:  Lemieux  Library,  University  of Seattle 

Why Should You Cite?

Quoting Are you quoting two or more consecutive words from a source? Then the original source should be cited and the words or phrase placed in quotes. 

Paraphrasing If an idea or information comes from another source,  even if you put it in your own words , you still need to credit the source.  General vs. Unfamiliar Knowledge You do not need to cite material which is accepted common knowledge. If in doubt whether your information is common knowledge or not, cite it. Formats We usually think of books and articles. However, if you use material from web sites, films, music, graphs, tables, etc. you'll also need to cite these as well.

Plagiarism is presenting the words or ideas of someone else as your own without proper acknowledgment of the source. When you work on a research paper and use supporting material from works by others, it's okay to quote people and use their ideas, but you do need to correctly credit them. Even when you summarize or paraphrase information found in books, articles, or Web pages, you must acknowledge the original author.

Citation Style Help

Helpful links:

• MLA ,  Works Cited : A Quick Guide (a template of core elements)
• CSE  (Council of Science Editors)

For additional writing resources specific to styles listed here visit the  Purdue OWL Writing Lab

Citation and Bibliography Resources

• How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
• << Previous: Evaluate Your Info
• Next: Evaluate, Write & Cite >>

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License except where otherwise noted.

Land Acknowledgement

The land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.

The land acknowledgement used at UC Santa Cruz was developed in partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman and the Amah Mutsun Relearning Program at the UCSC Arboretum .

• USC Libraries
• Research Guides

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 11. Citing Sources
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
• Executive Summary
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Insiderness
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Generative AI and Writing
• USC Libraries Tutorials and Other Guides
• Bibliography

A citation is a formal reference to a published or unpublished source that you consulted and obtained information from while writing your research paper. It refers to a source of information that supports a factual statement, proposition, argument, or assertion or any quoted text obtained from a book, article, web site, or any other type of material . In-text citations are embedded within the body of your paper and use a shorthand notation style that refers to a complete description of the item at the end of the paper. Materials cited at the end of a paper may be listed under the heading References, Sources, Works Cited, or Bibliography. Rules on how to properly cite a source depends on the writing style manual your professor wants you to use for the class [e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, etc.]. Note that some disciplines have their own citation rules [e.g., law].

Citations: Overview. OASIS Writing Center, Walden University; Research and Citation. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Citing Sources. University Writing Center, Texas A&M University.

Reasons for Citing Your Sources

Reasons for Citing Sources in Your Research Paper

English scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, once wrote, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”* Citations support learning how to "see further" through processes of intellectual discovery, critical thinking, and applying a deliberate method of navigating through the scholarly landscape by tracking how cited works are propagated by scholars over time and the subsequent ways this leads to the devarication of new knowledge.

Listed below are specific reasons why citing sources is an important part of doing good research.

• Shows the reader where to find more information . Citations help readers expand their understanding and knowledge about the issues being investigated. One of the most effective strategies for locating authoritative, relevant sources about a research problem is to review materials cited in studies published by other authors. In this way, the sources you cite help the reader identify where to go to examine the topic in more depth and detail.
• Increases your credibility as an author . Citations to the words, ideas, and arguments of scholars demonstrates that you have conducted a thorough review of the literature and, therefore, you are reporting your research results or proposing recommended courses of action from an informed and critically engaged perspective. Your citations offer evidence that you effectively contemplated, evaluated, and synthesized sources of information in relation to your conceptualization of the research problem.
• Illustrates the non-linear and contested nature of knowledge creation . The sources you cite show the reader how you characterized the dynamics of prior knowledge creation relevant to the research problem and how you managed to effectively identify the contested relationships between problems and solutions proposed among scholars. Citations don't just list materials used in your study, they tell a story about how prior knowledge-making emerged from a constant state of creation, renewal, and transformation.
• Reinforces your arguments . Sources cited in your paper provide the evidence that readers need to determine that you properly addressed the “So What?” question. This refers to whether you considered the relevance and significance of the research problem, its implications applied to creating new knowledge, and its importance for improving practice. In this way, citations draw attention to and support the legitimacy and originality of your own ideas.
• Demonstrates that you "listened" to relevant conversations among scholars before joining in . Your citations tell the reader where you developed an understanding of the debates among scholars. They show how you educated yourself about ongoing conversations taking place within relevant communities of researchers before inserting your own ideas and arguments. In peer-reviewed scholarship, most of these conversations emerge within books, research reports, journal articles, and other cited works.
• Delineates alternative approaches to explaining the research problem . If you disagree with prior research assumptions or you believe that a topic has been understudied or you find that there is a gap in how scholars have understood a problem, your citations serve as the source materials from which to analyze and present an alternative viewpoint or to assert that a different course of action should be pursued. In short, the materials you cite serve as the means by which to argue persuasively against long-standing assumptions propagated in prior studies.
• Helps the reader understand contextual aspects of your research . Cited sources help readers understand the specific circumstances, conditions, and settings of the problem being investigated and, by extension, how your arguments can be fully understood and assessed. Citations place your line of reasoning within a specific contextualized framework based on how others have studied the problem and how you interpreted their findings in support of your overall research objectives.
• Frames the development of concepts and ideas within the literature . No topic in the social and behavioral sciences rests in isolation from research that has taken place in the past. Your citations help the reader understand the growth and transformation of the theoretical assumptions, key concepts, and systematic inquiries that emerged prior to your engagement with the research problem.
• Underscores what sources were most important to you . Your citations represent a set of choices made about what you determined to be the most important sources for understanding the topic. They not only list what you discovered, but why it matters and how the materials you chose to cite fit within the broader context of your research design and arguments. As part of an overall assessment of the study’s validity and reliability , the choices you make also helps the reader determine what research may have been excluded.
• Provides evidence of interdisciplinary thinking . An important principle of good research is to extend your review of the literature beyond the predominant disciplinary space where scholars have examined a topic. Citations provide evidence that you have integrated epistemological arguments, observations, and/or the methodological strategies from other disciplines into your paper, thereby demonstrating that you understand the complex, interconnected nature of contemporary research problems.
• Supports critical thinking and independent learning . Evaluating the authenticity, reliability, validity, and originality of prior research is an act of interpretation and introspective reasoning applied to assessing whether a source of information will contribute to understanding the problem in ways that are persuasive and align with your overall research objectives. Reviewing and citing prior studies represents a deliberate act of critically scrutinizing each source as part of your overall assessment of how scholars have confronted the research problem.
• Honors the achievements of others . As Susan Blum recently noted,** citations not only identify sources used, they acknowledge the achievements of scholars within the larger network of research about the topic. Citing sources is a normative act of professionalism within academe and a way to highlight and recognize the work of scholars who likely do not obtain any tangible benefits or monetary value from their research endeavors.

*Vernon. Jamie L. "On the Shoulder of Giants." American Scientist 105 (July-August 2017): 194.

**Blum, Susan D. "In Defense of the Morality of Citation.” Inside Higher Ed , January 29, 2024.

Aksnes, Dag W., Liv Langfeldt, and Paul Wouters. "Citations, Citation Indicators, and Research Quality: An Overview of Basic Concepts and Theories." Sage Open 9 (January-March 2019): https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019829575; Blum, Susan Debra. My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009; Bretag, Tracey., editor. Handbook of Academic Integrity . Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2020; Ballenger, Bruce P. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers . 7th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012; D'Angelo, Barbara J. "Using Source Analysis to Promote Critical Thinking." Research Strategies 18 (Winter 2001): 303-309; Mauer, Barry and John Venecek. “Scholarship as Conversation.” Strategies for Conducting Literary Research, University of Central Florida, 2021; Why Cite? Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale University; Citing Information. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Harvard Guide to Using Sources. Harvard College Writing Program. Harvard University; Newton, Philip. "Academic Integrity: A Quantitative Study of Confidence and Understanding in Students at the Start of Their Higher Education."  Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 41 (2016): 482-497; Referencing More Effectively. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra; Using Sources. Yale College Writing Center. Yale University; Vosburgh, Richard M. "Closing the Academic-practitioner Gap: Research Must Answer the “SO WHAT” Question." H uman Resource Management Review 32 (March 2022): 100633; When and Why to Cite Sources. Information Literacy Playlists, SUNY, Albany Libraries.

Structure and Writing Style

Referencing your sources means systematically showing what information or ideas you acquired from another author’s work, and identifying where that information come from . You must cite research in order to do research, but at the same time, you must delineate what are your original thoughts and ideas and what are the thoughts and ideas of others. Citations help achieve this. Procedures used to cite sources vary among different fields of study. If not outlined in your course syllabus or writing assignment, always speak with your professor about what writing style for citing sources should be used for the class because it is important to fully understand the citation style to be used in your paper, and to apply it consistently. If your professor defers and tells you to "choose whatever you want, just be consistent," then choose the citation style you are most familiar with or that is appropriate to your major [e.g., use Chicago style if its a history class; use APA if its an education course; use MLA if it is literature or a general writing course].

GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Are there any reasons I should avoid referencing other people's work? No. If placed in the proper context, r eferencing other people's research is never an indication that your work is substandard or lacks originality. In fact, the opposite is true. If you write your paper without adequate references to previous studies, you are signaling to the reader that you are not familiar with the literature on the topic, thereby, undermining the validity of your study and your credibility as a researcher. Including references in academic writing is one of the most important ways to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of how the research problem has been addressed. It is the intellectual packaging around which you present your thoughts and ideas to the reader.

2. What should I do if I find out that my great idea has already been studied by another researcher? It can be frustrating to come up with what you believe is a great topic only to find that it's already been thoroughly studied. However, do not become frustrated by this. You can acknowledge the prior research by writing in the text of your paper [see also Smith, 2002], then citing the complete source in your list of references. Use the discovery of prior studies as an opportunity to demonstrate the significance of the problem being investigated and, if applicable, as a means of delineating your analysis from those of others [e.g., the prior study is ten years old and doesn't take into account new variables]. Strategies for responding to prior research can include: stating how your study updates previous understandings about the topic, offering a new or different perspective, applying a different or innovative method of data gathering, and/or describing a new set of insights, guidelines, recommendations, best practices, or working solutions.

3. What should I do if I want to use an adapted version of someone else's work? You still must cite the original work. For example, maybe you are using a table of statistics from a journal article published in 1996 by author Smith, but you have altered or added new data to it. Reference the revised chart, such as, [adapted from Smith, 1996], then cite the complete source in your list of references. You can also use other terms in order to specify the exact relationship between the original source and the version you have presented, such as, "based on data from Smith [1996]...," or "summarized from Smith [1996]...." Citing the original source helps the reader locate where the information was first presented and under what context it was used as well as to evaluate how effectively you applied it to your own research.

4. What should I do if several authors have published very similar information or ideas? You can indicate that the idea or information can be found in the works of others by stating something similar to the following example: "Though many scholars have applied rational choice theory to understanding economic relations among nations [Smith, 1989; Jones, 1991; Johnson, 1994; Anderson, 2003], little attention has been given to applying the theory to examining the influence of non-governmental organizations in a globalized economy." If you only reference one author or only the most recent study, then your readers may assume that only one author has published on this topic, or more likely, they will conclude that you have not conducted a thorough literature review. Referencing all relevant authors of prior studies gives your readers a clear idea of the breadth of analysis you conducted in preparing to study the research problem. If there has been a significant number of prior studies on the topic, describe the most comprehensive and recent works because they will presumably discuss and reference the older studies. However, note in your review of the literature that there has been significant scholarship devoted to the topic so the reader knows that you are aware of the numerous prior studies.

5. What if I find exactly what I want to say in the writing of another researcher? In the social sciences, the rationale in duplicating prior research is generally governed by the passage of time, changing circumstances or conditions, or the emergence of variables that necessitate a new investigation . If someone else has recently conducted a thorough investigation of precisely the same research problem that you intend to study, then you likely will have to revise your topic, or at the very least, review this literature to identify something new to say about the problem. However, if it is someone else's particularly succinct expression, but it fits perfectly with what you are trying to say, then you can quote from the author directly, referencing the source. Identifying an author who has made the exact same point that you want to make can be an opportunity to add legitimacy to, as well as reinforce the significance of, the research problem you are investigating. The key is to build on that idea in new and innovative ways. If you are not sure how to do this, consult with a librarian .

6. Should I cite a source even if it was published long ago? Any source used in writing your paper should be cited, regardless of when it was written. However, in building a case for understanding prior research about your topic, it is generally true that you should focus on citing more recently published studies because they presumably have built upon the research of older studies. When referencing prior studies, use the research problem as your guide when considering what to cite. If a study from forty years ago investigated the same topic, it probably should be examined and considered in your list of references because the research may have been foundational or groundbreaking at the time, even if its findings are no longer relevant to current conditions or reflect current thinking [one way to determine if a study is foundational or groundbreaking is to examine how often it has been cited in recent studies using the "Cited by" feature of Google Scholar ]. However, if an older study only relates to the research problem tangentially or it has not been cited in recent studies, then it may be more appropriate to list it under further readings .

NOTE:   In any academic writing, you are required to identify which ideas, facts, thoughts, concepts, or declarative statements are yours and which are derived from the research of others. The only exception to this rule is information that is considered to be a commonly known fact [e.g., "George Washington was the first president of the United States"] or a statement that is self-evident [e.g., "Australia is a country in the Global South"]. Appreciate, however, that any "commonly known fact" is culturally constructed and shaped by social and aesthetical biases . If you are in doubt about whether or not a fact is considered to be widely understood knowledge, provide a supporting citation, or, ask your professor for clarification about how the statement should be cited.

Ballenger, Bruce P. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers . 7th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012; Blum, Susan Debra. My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009; Bretag, Tracey., editor. Handbook of Academic Integrity . Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2020; Carlock, Janine. Developing Information Literacy Skills: A Guide to Finding, Evaluating, and Citing Sources . Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2020; Harvard Guide to Using Sources. Harvard College Writing Program. Harvard University; How to Cite Other Sources in Your Paper. The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style Scientific Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Lunsford, Andrea A. and Robert Connors; The St. Martin's Handbook . New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989; Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace . 3rd edition. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2015; Research and Citation Resources. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Why Cite? Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale Univeraity.

Other Citation Research Guides

The following USC Libraries research guide can help you properly cite sources in your research paper:

• Citation Guide

The following USC Libraries research guide offers basic information on using images and media in research:

Listed below are particularly well-done and comprehensive websites that provide specific examples of how to cite sources under different style guidelines.

• Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• Southern Cross University Harvard Referencing Style
• University of Wisconsin Writing Center

This is a useful guide concerning how to properly cite images in your research paper.

• Colgate Visual Resources Library, Citing Images

This guide provides good information on the act of citation analysis, whereby you count the number of times a published work is cited by other works in order to measure the impact of a publication or author.

Measuring Your Impact: Impact Factor, Citation Analysis, and other Metrics: Citation Analysis [Sandy De Groote, University of Illinois, Chicago]

Automatic Citation Generators

The links below lead to systems where you can type in your information and have a citation compiled for you. Note that these systems are not foolproof so it is important that you verify that the citation is correct and check your spelling, capitalization, etc. However, they can be useful in creating basic types of citations, particularly for online sources.

• BibMe -- APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles
• DocsCite -- for citing government publications in APA or MLA formats
• EasyBib -- APA, MLA, and Chicago styles
• Son of Citation Machine -- APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles

NOTE:   Many companies that create the research databases the USC Libraries subscribe to, such as ProQuest , include built-in citation generators that help take the guesswork out of how to properly cite a work. When available, you should always utilize these features because they not only generate a citation to the source [e.g., a journal article], but include information about where you accessed the source [e.g., the database].

• << Previous: Writing Concisely
• Next: Avoiding Plagiarism >>
• Last Updated: Apr 1, 2024 9:56 AM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide

APA 7th Edition Citation Examples

• Volume and Issue Numbers
• Page Numbers
• Undated Sources
• Citing a Source Within a Source

Citing a Source within a Source

• In-Text Citations
• Academic Journals
• Encyclopedia Articles
• Book, Film, and Product Reviews
• Online Classroom Materials
• Conference Papers
• Technical + Research Reports
• Court Decisions
• Treaties and Other International Agreements
• Federal Regulations: I. The Code of Federal Regulations
• Federal Regulations: II. The Federal Register
• Executive Orders
• Charter of the United Nations
• Federal Statutes
• Dissertations and Theses
• Interviews, E-mail Messages + Other Personal Communications
• Social Media
• Business Sources
• PowerPoints
• AI: ChatGPT, etc.

Scenario: You read a 2007 article by Linhares and Brum that cites an earlier article, by Klein. You want to cite Klein's article, but you have not read Klein's article itself.

Reference list citation

Linhares, A., & Brum, P. (2007). Understanding our understanding of strategic scenarios: What role do chunks play? Cognitive Science , 31 (6), 989-1007. https://doi.org/10.1080/03640210701703725

Your Reference list will contain the article you read, by Linhares and Brum. Your Reference list will NOT contain a citation for Klein's article.

In-text citation

Klein's study (as cited in Linhares & Brum, 2007) found that...

Your in-text citation gives credit to Klein and shows the source in which you found Klein's ideas.

See  Publication Manual , p. 258.

• << Previous: Undated Sources
• Next: In-Text Citations >>
• Last Updated: Mar 18, 2024 12:55 PM
• URL: https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-examples

The Library will close at 3:30 p.m. today, Tuesday, January 9 due to the weather-related state of emergency. The Library will reopen tomorrow morning, Wednesday, January 10 at 9:00 a.m. Please check back here for updates. Stay safe, Ducks!

CH 398: Research Proposals for Undergraduate Research

• Citation Indexes: Scopus & Web of Science This link opens in a new window
• How to Find & How to Track
• APA 7: Cite Your Sources
• Cite Your Sources: ACS
• Citation Management Tools

APA (7th ed.)

From the american psychological association.

APA is most often used in the social sciences. It is similar in some ways to the MLA style but highlights the currency of the work in question so is often recommended by librarians to students in the sciences and engineering who are familiar with MLA but want to use a style more appropriate for their discipline.

In-Text Citations

References list.

• References: Articles & Books
• References: Websites & Social Media
• References: Legal & Government Sources
• Manuals & More Help

The works that inform your research, mentioned in the text of your paper where contextually appropriate.

Three components are required:

Author (last name only) , year of publication , page number (if applicable*) .

*Include a page number if you're directly quoting a work or discussing an observation from the work, but if you're speaking more generally about the gist of the work, page numbers are not needed.

• How to Cite

For short quotations or paraphrases , works can be cited in-text in two ways, always within the punctuation (that is, before the period):

" Orlofsky discovered the powerful effects of fried potatoes on small children ( 2013 , p. 23 ) ."

"one study found that small children are enraptured by fried potatoes and would eat as many as allowed ( orlofsky , 2013 , p. 23 ) .".

For quotations longer than 40 words , the text must be block-indented and the parenthetical citation must come after the sentence's punctuation.

In 2008, Burhans noted that:

As more and more Florida potato farms are lost to development, recent events in potato breeding may reduce chippers’ dependence on early Florida potatoes. At the time of this writing, new varieties, such as Dakota Pearl and Glacier Chips, have been successfully stored into June, well past the April date when storage potatoes are usually giving out. According to some, these varieties will be able to tolerate storage temperature fluctuations as great as ten to twenty degrees without turning to sugar, chipping white the whole time. (p. 9)

Capitalize titles: If citing a title in-text, capitalize the key words (unlike the Reference list, in which only the first word of a title is capitalized)

Author Details

You refer only to authors by their last name , either in the use of the author's name in the text itself or in the parentheses. Use a page number if what you're citing is directly from a page (a quote or observation), but do not if you're speaking more generally about the gist of the work. The last of multiple authors is marked with an ampersand in parentheses, but spell out "and" if used in text.

• In text: Orlofsky (2013) studied the effects of...fried potatoes (p. 12).
• Parentheses: (Orlofsky, 2013, p. 12)  

Two authors

• In text: Orlofsky and Walsh (2014) noted...
• Parentheses: (Orlofsky & Walsh, 2014)  
• In text: Orlofsky et al. (2015) suggest...
• Parentheses: (Orlofsky et al., 2015)
• Orlofsky, Walsh and Espinel (2015) suggest.... (Orlofsky, Walsh & Espinel, 2015)
• Orlofsky, Walsh, Espinel, Smith and Valverde (2016) discuss.... (Orlofsky, Walsh, Espinel, et al., 2016)  

Unknown author

• Note that while the article title would be in sentence case in the reference list (only first word capitalized), when cited in-text, it's written in title case (all words capitalized).  

Organization as author

Two or more works in the same parentheses.

For answers to other author questions, see In-Text Citations: Author/Authors (Purdue OWL) .

Full bibliographic information for the works you refer to in the text of your paper.

Section format.

• The list of references starts on a new page in your paper.
• The page is titled References in bold and center-justified.
• Each work cited in your paper must be included, and the list is alphabetized by author .
• Each entry in the Reference list should have a hanging indent (every line after the first line indented 1/2 inch from the left margin).

Basic citation format

Author(s) . (year, month day) . Title of article . Journal Title , volume (number) , page number-page number . DOI or URL.

Orlofsky, V. L. (2013). French fries and small children . Journal of Fried Foods, 43 (2), 19-34. https://doi.org/1234567/etc

Author, A. A. (Year of publication) . Title of work: Subtitle of work . Publisher Name.

Burhans, D. (2008). Crunch!: A history of the great American potato chip . University of Wisconsin Press.

For more help:

• APA Formatting and Style Guide / Purdue OWL APA (American Psychological Association) style is commonly used in the social sciences. This guide is created and maintained by the Purdue OWL.

Write all author names, starting with the listed first author, as Last name, First initial. Second initial (if applicable). (example: Orlofsky, V. L.). The last of multiple authors is marked with an ampersand unless there are more than 20 authors (see example below).

3-20 authors

More than 20 authors.

For answers to other author questions, see Reference List: Author/Authors (Purdue OWL) .

Scholarly journal article (print or online)

• Include the DOI for an online article as the permalink to the publisher website for the article.

Single author

• Biddle C. J. (2020). Epidemics and pandemics as high consequence events: Expanding leadership challenges and responsibilities in business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning , 14 (1), 6–16.

Multiple authors

• Peng, Y., Pei, C., Zheng, Y., Wang, J., Zhang, K., Zheng, Z., & Zhu, P. (2020). A cross-sectional survey of knowledge, attitude and practice associated with COVID-19 among undergraduate students in China. BMC public health , 20 (1), 1292. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09392-z

Online article (non-scholarly)

From a newspaper.

• Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Publication . URL
• Guy, J. (2020, August 31). A plum crumble that meets you where you are. New York Times . https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/dining/plum-crumble-recipe.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage&contentCollection=AtHome&package_index=1

Not from a newspaper

• Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of article . Name of publishing website. URL
• Streefkerk, R. (2019, October 11). APA Manual 7th edition: The most notable changes . Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-seventh-edition-changes/

Book with a single author

Garrett-Scott, S. (2019). Banking on freedom: Black women in U.S. finance before the New Deal . Columbia University Press.

Book with multiple authors

Evans, S. Y., Domingue, A. D., & Mitchell, T. D. (2019). Black women and social justice education: Legacies and lessons . SUNY Press.

Chapter in a book

Cobb, C. E. Who Is Fannie Lou Hamer? A movement veteran reflects on teaching civil rights history. In H.K. Jeffries (Ed.), Understanding and teaching the Civil Rights Movement (pp. 13-21). University of Wisconsin Press.

Per the Purdue OWL APA guide : "It is not necessary to note that you have used an eBook or audiobook when the content is the same as a physical book. However, you should distinguish between the eBook or audiobook and the print version if the content is different or abridged, or if you would like to cite the narrator of an audiobook."

For example:

Lastname, F. M. (Year).  Title of book . Publisher. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year).  Title of book [ebook edition]. Publisher. URL

When citing a review of a work (music recording, film, artwork, book, etc.), it's important to include the name of the work being reviewed as well as citation information about the review itself.

• Lastname, F. (Year, Month Day). Title of review. [Review of the {medium} Title of work , by A. Author]. Title of P eriodical, Volume (Number), page(s). doi: ___ (if applicable).
• Dickar, M. (2000, March). Coming of age in New Jersey. [Review of the book Teenage New Jersey, 1941-1975 , by K. Grover]. American Quarterly, 52 (1), 127-144

Translations

• Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (T. Translator, Trans.). Publisher. (Original work published YEAR)
• Ariosto, L. (2009). Orlando furioso: A new verse translation (D. R. Slavitt,Trans.). Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1516-1532 CE)

Websites & Social Media

Page from a website, named author:.

• Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of page . Site name. URL

Organization as author:

• Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page . Site name. URL
• NJ Department of State. (2020). Register to vote! New Jersey Division of Elections. https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/voter-registration.shtml

Note : you can determine who to name as the author of the page by looking to the website's footer for the copyright notice. That will also tell you the year of publication, if you haven't found that info elsewhere on the site.

• Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Tweet]. Site Name. URL

Wildland Tours [@WildlandsOceans]. (2020, August 21). Had a wonderful morning picking blueberries along the East Coast Trail in Petty Harbour! #berrypicking #blueberries #pettyharbour #EastCoastTrail #Hiking #locallove [Video attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/WildlandsOceans/status/1296816254406328320

Refer to the author of the tweet in text by name, not their Twitter account.

Emojis and hashtags count as words toward the 20-word total for the tweet title.

For more on citing tweets, see Twitter References (APA Style blog).

Government Documents

National Cancer Institute. (2019). Taking time: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2059) . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf

• Parenthetical citation: (National Cancer Institute, 2019)
• Narrative citation: National Cancer Institute (2019)

Example taken from Report by a Government Agency References (APA Style blog) .

Website from a government agency

National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). Anxiety disorders . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

• Parenthetical citation: (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018)
• Narrative citation: National Institute of Mental Health (2018)

Example taken from Webpage on a Website References (APA Style blog).

Note: If there is no author name listed, use the agency. Parent agencies should be listed in the reference citation, but not in-text.

• How to Cite US Government Documents in APA (Cornell) A research guide from Cornell University explaining how to cite various government documents in APA.
• APA 7 Legal References (Purdue OWL) Purdue OWL's page for legal and government documents in APA 7, including court cases, legislative documents, patents, constitutions, and other material.

APA 7 Manuals

Writing Help at Stevens

• Stevens Writing & Communications Center (WCC) Writing help for Stevens students from writing and communications professionals. Check the website for semester hours and services.
• << Previous: How to Find & How to Track
• Next: Cite Your Sources: ACS >>
• Last Updated: Apr 1, 2024 1:50 PM
• URL: https://library.stevens.edu/ch398

1 Castle Point Terrace, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201.216.5200

• Journal Finder

Research Help

• Research Assistance
• Make an Appointment
• Research Guides
• Borrow & Renew
• Interlibrary Loan
• Print & Copy
• Study Spaces
• Thesis/Dissertations

[email protected]

201-216-5200

Staff Directory

• Research Guides
• CUNY Graduate Center's Mina Rees Library

Cite Your Sources

• Citing Sources
• Chicago & Turabian Style
• Additional Style Guides & Resources
• Citing Social Media & Other Digital Sources This link opens in a new window
• Mendeley & EndNote
• Citation Managers Compared
• Citation Generators
• Avoiding Plagiarism

There are many tools for managing citations during the research and writing process. At the Graduate Center, the most popular option is Zotero , a free, open source tool that is flexible and easy to use.

Zotero Basics

• GC Library's Using Zotero Tutorial
• Zotero Video Tutorials (made by others)

Zotero Instruction

The library provides Zotero instruction in a variety of ways:

• Online Step-by-Step Guide: Check out our Using Zotero tutorial .  
• Virtual Office Hours:   Stephen Klein holds virtual office hours dedicated to Zotero help on Mondays 1-2pm. Click here to join during Mondays 1-2pm and if another person is being assisted, you'll be kept in the "waiting room" until the librarian is available.  
• Workshops:  The library offers Zotero workshops every semester. Consult the library's workshop calendar for information about upcoming workshops.  
• One-on-One Consultations : Request a dedicated one-on-one consultation about Z otero (or other topics).

Downloading Zotero

Go to the Zotero Downloads page. It should detect your operating system and browser, and present you with the proper version of Zotero to download, as well as the Connector for the browser you are currently in. Simply click the the appropriate buttons to download the standalone application and browser Connector.

Also browse Zotero plugins for additional tools, including plugins for Microsoft Word and LibreOffice .

Using Zotero on a GC computer? Consult our guide to adding the Z otero Connector to your browser on GC computers.

• << Previous: Citation Management Tools
• Next: RefWorks >>
• Last Updated: Mar 26, 2024 10:32 AM
• URL: https://libguides.gc.cuny.edu/citation

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9 th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the  MLA Handbook  and in chapter 7 of the  MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.

In-text citations for print sources with known author

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for sources with non-standard labeling systems

If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).

Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's  The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the  internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in  Nature  in 1921, you might write something like this:

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .

Citing authors with same last names

Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author :

Citing two books by the same author :

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.

Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.

Here is an example from O'Neill's  The Iceman Cometh.

WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.

ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.

WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's  Evaluating Sources of Information  resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like  CNN.com  or  Forbes.com,  as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:

In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

Time-based media sources

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

Other Sources

The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers⁠ —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.

SOC 101 - Brutlag - Spring 2024: Cite Your Sources - ASA

• Find Books & Ebooks
• SocINDEX & EBSCO
• PsycARTICLES & ProQuest
• Google Scholar
• Cite Your Sources - ASA
• Library Orientation Survey

ASA Tutorial Video

ASA 7th Ed. Style Guide

The Library has copies of the ASA Style Guides in the Circulating, Reference, and Reserves Collections.

• American Sociological Association Style Guide by American Sociological Association Call Number: HM569.A54 2019 ISBN: 9780912764580 Publication Date: 2022-06-01

Citations from Databases

Some of the online databases that the Library subscribes to will show you how to cite the article you found. 

This is a great shortcut, but be aware that the citation may not be quite right for ASA formatting.  Be sure to check the citation and verify that all the details are correct.

Note: EBSCO and Gale databases DO NOT currently contain ASA citations.

ZoteroBib  is a free and easy way to create bibliographies made by the creators of Zotero. It can create bibliographies in 9,000 different styles that you can copy and paste into your paper

ASA (7th Edition) Quick Guide

Download the ASA (7th Edition) Quick Guide HERE .

Need More Help?

Visit the online ASA in-text citation and references page  formatting guides created by the OWL!

• << Previous: Google Scholar
• Next: Library Orientation Survey >>
• Last Updated: Apr 1, 2024 8:26 AM
• URL: https://libguides.riohondo.edu/soc101_brutlag_2024

Featured Clinical Reviews

• Screening for Atrial Fibrillation: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement JAMA Recommendation Statement January 25, 2022
• Evaluating the Patient With a Pulmonary Nodule: A Review JAMA Review January 18, 2022
• Download PDF
• Share X Facebook Email LinkedIn
• Permissions

Industry Payments to US Physicians by Specialty and Product Type

• 1 Ain Shams University, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt
• 2 Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
• 3 Baptist Health, Louisville, Kentucky
• 4 Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
• 5 Department of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
• Research Letter Trends in Industry Payments to Physicians in the United States From 2014 to 2018 Deborah C. Marshall, MD, MAS; Elizabeth S. Tarras, MD; Kenneth Rosenzweig, MD; Deborah Korenstein, MD; Susan Chimonas, PhD JAMA
• Research Letter Comparison of Industry Payments to Physicians and Advanced Practice Clinicians Audrey D. Zhang, MD; Timothy S. Anderson, MD, MAS JAMA
• Brief Report Trends in Industry Payments to US Oncologists Since the Open Payments Program, 2014 to 2019 Elizabeth S. Tarras, MD; Deborah C. Marshall, MD; Kenneth Rosenzweig, MD; Deborah Korenstein, MD; Susan Chimonas, PhD JAMA Oncology

Despite evidence that financial conflicts of interest may influence physician prescribing and may damage patients’ trust in medical professionals, 1 - 3 such relationships remain pervasive. 4 The Physician Payments Sunshine Act led to the creation of the Open Payments database in August 2013, a repository of industry payments to health care professionals. 5 We examined the distribution of payments within and across specialties and the medical products associated with the largest total payments.

Read More About

Sayed A , Ross JS , Mandrola J , Lehmann LS , Foy AJ. Industry Payments to US Physicians by Specialty and Product Type. JAMA. Published online March 28, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.1989

Manage citations:

© 2024

Artificial Intelligence Resource Center

Cardiology in JAMA : Read the Latest

Browse and subscribe to JAMA Network podcasts!

Others Also Liked

Select your interests.

Customize your JAMA Network experience by selecting one or more topics from the list below.

• Academic Medicine
• Acid Base, Electrolytes, Fluids
• Allergy and Clinical Immunology
• American Indian or Alaska Natives
• Anesthesiology
• Anticoagulation
• Art and Images in Psychiatry
• Artificial Intelligence
• Assisted Reproduction
• Bleeding and Transfusion
• Caring for the Critically Ill Patient
• Challenges in Clinical Electrocardiography
• Climate and Health
• Climate Change
• Clinical Challenge
• Clinical Decision Support
• Clinical Implications of Basic Neuroscience
• Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Consensus Statements
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Critical Care Medicine
• Cultural Competency
• Dental Medicine
• Dermatology
• Diabetes and Endocrinology
• Diagnostic Test Interpretation
• Drug Development
• Electronic Health Records
• Emergency Medicine
• End of Life, Hospice, Palliative Care
• Environmental Health
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
• Facial Plastic Surgery
• Gastroenterology and Hepatology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Genomics and Precision Health
• Global Health
• Guide to Statistics and Methods
• Hair Disorders
• Health Care Delivery Models
• Health Care Economics, Insurance, Payment
• Health Care Quality
• Health Care Reform
• Health Care Safety
• Health Care Workforce
• Health Disparities
• Health Inequities
• Health Policy
• Health Systems Science
• History of Medicine
• Hypertension
• Images in Neurology
• Implementation Science
• Infectious Diseases
• Innovations in Health Care Delivery
• JAMA Infographic
• Law and Medicine
• Leading Change
• Less is More
• LGBTQIA Medicine
• Lifestyle Behaviors
• Medical Coding
• Medical Devices and Equipment
• Medical Education
• Medical Education and Training
• Medical Journals and Publishing
• Mobile Health and Telemedicine
• Narrative Medicine
• Neuroscience and Psychiatry
• Notable Notes
• Nutrition, Obesity, Exercise
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Occupational Health
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedics
• Otolaryngology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Care
• Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
• Patient Care
• Patient Information
• Performance Improvement
• Performance Measures
• Perioperative Care and Consultation
• Pharmacoeconomics
• Pharmacoepidemiology
• Pharmacogenetics
• Pharmacy and Clinical Pharmacology
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Physical Therapy
• Physician Leadership
• Population Health
• Primary Care
• Professional Well-being
• Professionalism
• Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
• Public Health
• Pulmonary Medicine
• Regulatory Agencies
• Reproductive Health
• Research, Methods, Statistics
• Resuscitation
• Rheumatology
• Risk Management
• Scientific Discovery and the Future of Medicine
• Shared Decision Making and Communication
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports Medicine
• Stem Cell Transplantation
• Substance Use and Addiction Medicine
• Surgical Innovation
• Surgical Pearls
• Teachable Moment
• Technology and Finance
• The Art of JAMA
• The Arts and Medicine
• The Rational Clinical Examination
• Tobacco and e-Cigarettes
• Translational Medicine
• Trauma and Injury
• Treatment Adherence
• Ultrasonography
• Users' Guide to the Medical Literature
• Vaccination
• Venous Thromboembolism
• Veterans Health
• Women's Health
• Workflow and Process
• Wound Care, Infection, Healing
• Register for email alerts with links to free full-text articles
• Access PDFs of free articles
• Manage your interests
• Save searches and receive search alerts

• Langson Library
• Science Library
• Grunigen Medical Library
• Law Library
• Connect From Off-Campus
• Accessibility
• Gateway Study Center

Email this link

Engineering 190w - spring 2024 - harnick-shapiro section.

• Assignments
• Conducting Research
• Using Databases
• Specialized Resources
• Media Resources Center
• Finding & Using Images
• All about AI & Writing

Liaison Librarian

All about the UCI Libraries

• Library Hours
• Connecting from Off-Campus, VPN & Duo Authentication
• Reserve a Study Room
• Ask-a-Librarian For Chat, text, eMail and to schedule a Research Consultation with a Librarian
• UCI Safety Escorts Call 949-824-7233 for rides to campus housing and parking lots when alone or at night.
• Mobile Access Optimized @ UCI

  WiFi Wants To Be Free!

H o t s p o t r : Find a Wi-Fi hotspot in your area with Hotspotr, a Google Maps mashup that relies entirely on user input.  As with other Wi-Fi finders, you can search for hotspots by city, ZIP code or place, then get maps, driving directions, phone numbers, etc. 

Engineering 190W Overview

This class focuses on your career as an Engineering major and allows you to focus on communicating the major issues that you have focused on and and how to jump-start your career in practice as an Engineer or if you continue your graduate education.  It introduces you to:

• the work style of engineers in different settings
• how engineering information is released using specialized content such as patents, standards, papers, proceedings, journal literature, book content and related materials
• how written and verbal communication, both technical and casual conducted individually and within groups can determine the outcomes you want for success
• engineering ethics
• the value of sourcing & correctly citing your information, evaluating it carefully, and being informed about misinformation
• thinking about presentation, using images, prompts, and addressing different audiences

There is an accompanying PowerPoint presentation below that reviews technical communication issues with examples of resources highlighting the forms and formats of engineering literature.

Evaluating Information

When using Online or Internet Resources , consider Search Engines vs. metasites - evaluate resource - be attentive to domain -may include .com, .edu, .org, .gov, .net

Evaluation of evaluating strategies - there are many different strategies and this guide highlights two, CRAAP and S.I.F.T. and at the end I will also note some other methods - but consider the following criteria:

Applying the CRAAP Test - for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose

https://www.csuchico.edu/lins/handouts/eval_websites.pdf

Goal is to establish relevancy.  The evaluation criteria includes these issues:

Scope of coverage

Currency – be able to distinguish currency from timeliness

Relevance – meaningful to what audience; at what level; will you cite it as authoritative?

Authority – stem is author – establishes the source of the information – author/publisher/source/sponsor; organizational affiliations & credentials; contact information

Accuracy – reliability, correctness of content; supported by evidence; is it verifiable; is tone unbiased, objective, impartial & free of emotion; free of errors?

Purpose – are hypotheses and authors’ intentions clear?  Why is content important – to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade?  Any political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?

Ease of use – Capturing, copying, citing; design & presentation

Another method to evaluate is S.I.F.T - so:

• CCOW - for Credentials, Claims, Objectives
• RADAR Test - Relevancy, Authority, Date, Appearance, Reason for Writing

Remember when we cite or quote, we are CHOOSING to bring other voices into our paper or scholarly work.

Let's ask, Why we cite?

• to give credit to authors
• to show your work
• to be a responsible researcher
• to avoid plagiarism

Often called Citation Chasing we have the standard two parts:

• Backward chasing - refers to the set of references or bibliography of a work that has influenced current citation
• Forward chasing - refers to the method of future citations that referenced the specific work - may be more nuanced or specific but also provides new applications

Think of 5 criteria you use to evaluate information and what questions to you ask yourself to determine relevancy or whether your information need is met?

• consider that we are on information overload - how to distinguish between accurate information & misinformation
• stop - open up a browser tab & enter a search term
• investigate the source(s) - who wrote or said this? who is the author? what process or methodology was used to produce this information and what systems are in place with this source to catch mistakes and correct them?
• find better coverage - consult other sources, demonstrating the historical context, disciplinary approaches, are there patterns of perspectives or dominant ideas that emerge, and what voices are missing?
• trace things back to the original context - is the evidence misquoted or misrepresented; where is the data from & how was it collected and can we make legitimate conclusions from it?
• watch this video on lateral reading strategies (3.47) from the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum, co-sponsored by the Stanford History Education Group

Citing Sources

In order to avoid plagiarism and to honor intellectual integrity, make sure that you cite the authority in a bibliographic reference to anything that is not your original writing or creation - that means when you quote a passage, insert a graphic image, figures, or illustration, that you cite the original source. The style manual you choose to follow should document how you cite electronic resources. Standard formats include the following reference elements:

Standard formats include the following reference elements:

For a Journal article or conference proceeding:

Author(s) - last name, first name, MI, - [include multiple authors if noted] (date), Title of article. Source of Article/Title of Journal. volume #, (issue #): pages. If it is only an electronic publication with no reference to print pages, then you cite the DOI - Digital Object Identifier and the date last visited.

If it is a conference paper, then you cite the Source of the Publication, Title of conference, date and location of meeting.

For books, the format is:

Author, editor of volume or chapter, (imprint date). Title of chapter in Title of Book, edited by editor if different. City of Publication: Publisher, page references. Note if it is an eBook.

For full volume:

Author, (date). Title of Book. City of Publisher, Publisher: pages

ACM Style Guide   - there are some examples in the link to MS Word in the list of references provided that can be used as a model for different writing elements

IEEE Citation Style  -  The IEEE Editorial Style Manual  (2019) notes the specific ways that references and footnotes are to be handled in submissions to IEEE publications.  The  IEEE Referencing Guide  notes practices and they are different than other styles, so follow this and perhaps these guides from the following university libraries will give more examples:   Murdoch University o r  Purdue University's Owl series for IEEE.

MLA Style Format is documented by the with these resources  and in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 2009 at Langson Library Reference Desk at:  LL REF LB 2369 G53 2009

APA Style - The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed., 2020 is at every Reference Desk - REF BF76.7 .P83 2020 .  Additional resources with examples are noted at this site. A cheat sheet with many examples of how to cite different types of sources in many formats can be consulted.  

Other hints:

• Avoid plagiarism, be ethical – OVERCITE! Plagiarism: what it is and how to recognize and avoid it. A guide prepared by the Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Consult Turnitin , a plagiarism detection program - ask your professor if you are interested in this.
• Be consistent
• very important now
• when interviewing for job

Bibliographic Management Software

BIBLIOGRAPHIC MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE - allows you to discover, find, manage, recall and apply the citations you retrieve from all formats of work - journal articles, book chapters, edited volumes, standards, specifications, patents, conference papers & proceedings, lectures, etc. Neither Zotero nor EndNote support BibTeX or LaTeX, only the usual wordprocessing languages or Legal Style Manual.  For additional information, please visit the  Bibliographic Management Software page.  A comparison of all kinds of different products are noted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software

• EndNote more... less... There is an abbreviated free web version available via the Web of Science Databases at https://access.clarivate.com/login?app=endnote.
• Zotero Zotero is a free extension for Firefox 2.0, which enables browsers to capture citation information from Web pages quickly and easily. Must be downloaded to personal computer. Supports nonconventional scripts & images well. more... less... Researchers can add searchable notecards to their citations, organize them with tags, attach files to them, arrange them into folders, or export them as formatted citations. Zotero can capture a single citation or an entire results list of sources, which researchers can work with either online or offline.
• Complore Complore encourages scholars and students to save their lectures, articles, and papers in the bibliographic bookmarking service. Researchers can join groups, subscribe to a site-wide RSS feed, and generate BibTeX records.
• Bibsonomy Bibsonomy is a scholarly bookmarking service that offers its users related tags, the ability to create groups, and the ability to export records to BibTeX. more... less... Bibsonomy members can construct friends networks, import their del.icio.us links, generate private entries, and import their BibTeX libraries.
• Mathematica Provides quick links to support documents for Mathematica software.
• Mendeley An open source free software package that has some web components and is iPhone compatible and has strong funtionality to support PDFs
• Next: Assignments >>
• Last Updated: Mar 31, 2024 9:17 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/ENGR190W_Harnick-Shapiro_Spring2024

Off-campus? Please use the Software VPN and choose the group UCIFull to access licensed content. For more information, please Click here

Software VPN is not available for guests, so they may not have access to some content when connecting from off-campus.

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• March Madness
• AP Top 25 Poll
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

England is limiting gender transitions for youths. US legislators are watching

FILE - The rainbow flag, a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, flies over a building next to Nelson’s Column monument, right, in Trafalgar Square, central London, Britain, March 28, 2014. Legislators in at least two U.S. states are citing England’s recent decision to severely restrict gender transitions for young people as support for their own related bills. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

• Copy Link copied

Legislators in at least two U.S. states are citing a recent decision in England to restrict gender transitions for young people as support for their own related proposals.

They weren’t the first to turn to other countries, notably in Europe, for policy and research ideas. Lawmakers across the U.S., where at least 23 states now have tightened or removed access to transgender health care for minors, have routinely cited non-U.S. research or policies as justification for their legislation.

Yet leading health organizations in the United States and Europe continue to decisively endorse gender-affirming care for both transgender youths and adults.

Among other things, they argue that restrictions on things like hormone therapy tend to single out transgender youths, even though other young people also can benefit from them. And transgender advocates and allies see a political attempt to erase them, cloaked as concern for children.

Some information and perspectives on the global patchwork of health and public policies on gender-affirming care:

WHAT DID ENGLAND CHANGE AND WHY?

England, through rules put forth by its public health system, is limiting the ability of people younger than 16 to begin a medical gender transition.

The National Health Service England recently cemented a policy first issued on an interim basis almost a year ago that sets a minimum age at which puberty blockers can be started, along with other requirements. NHS England says there is not enough evidence about their long-term effects, including “sexual, cognitive or broader developmental outcomes.”

Starting April 1, NHS England will not prescribe puberty blockers — drugs that suppress sex hormones during puberty — as a “routine treatment” to children and other young people seeking gender transitions. In practice, the decision also applies to Wales, which does not have any NHS gender clinics for children. Northern Ireland says it will adopt England’s policy; Scotland is weighing it.

But it’s not a blanket, nationwide restriction. NHS England is just one health provider in the country, albeit a major one.

Puberty blockers are available for a cost at a few private clinics. And young people already taking them through the NHS — fewer than 100 in England, according to the BBC — can continue. The drugs will also be available to participants in clinical trials.

Britain’s Conservative government, which has been broadly critical of youth gender transitions, welcomed the NHS England decision. Even so, a proposal in Parliament to flatly make it illegal to provide puberty blockers to those under 16 is unlikely to become law.

The use of puberty blockers is not limited to gender transitions, but they can be an early step in one. They can pause puberty for gender-questioning youths until they are old enough to decide, after discussions with their families and health providers, on treatments that bring more-permanent changes.

WHAT ARE US LEGISLATORS SAYING?

U.S. legislators and statehouse bills seeking to restrict transgender health care have often cited European science and policy, from countries including Finland, France, Sweden and Norway, as well as the U.K.

In Kansas, state Sen. Beverly Gossage cited England’s new policy last week when briefing fellow Republicans on a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

“In England, they’ve declared that there could be no gender-affirming care other than therapy for children because the scientific proof is not there,” Gossage said in comments that mischaracterized the NHS England guidelines. They do call for starting with counseling, as do those of other leading health organizations.

Republican leaders expect the ban to pass this week and hope they can override any veto by Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat.

In Georgia, Republican state Sen. Ben Watson pointed to Europe as he pushed a ban on gender-affirming care for children: “In light of the information and what’s been going on, not only in Europe, in the U.K., but here in the United States, this is the change that I’m proposing.”

‘DEEP CONCERNS ABOUT HOSTILITY AND HARM’

Puberty blockers for adolescents who meet certain criteria are endorsed by major U.S. medical groups, along with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, when administered properly. Those criteria include no age requirement.

“Puberty blockers have been prescribed for more than 40 years for safe and effective treatment of medical conditions including early puberty. The fact that NHS England is targeting only trans and gender diverse youth with this policy raises deep concerns about hostility and harm to LGTBQ+ people and their families,” WPATH and the European Association for Transgender Health said in a statement last week.

“Decisions about healthcare must be driven by clinical evidence, not by politics,” the statement continued. “The NHS has provided no indication what criteria it will use to monitor the harm its decision may cause, putting youth and families at enormous risk for no legitimate medical purpose.”

Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics, which represents 67,000 pediatricians, unanimously voted to reaffirm its pro-stance on gender-affirming care for transgender children, including hormone treatments when appropriate.

Iridescent Riffel, a 27-year-old transgender woman and activist from Lawrence, Kansas, said she views the English policy as too conservative.

Puberty blockers help prevent people from developing physical features not in line with their gender identity, such as beards or breasts. For most teenagers, puberty is well underway or nearly complete by age 16. Treatments to alter physical features later in life to align with one’s identity can be costly and painful.

Transgender youths may find it harder to begin the process of social transitioning — or how a trans person changes how they present themselves to other people — once they start puberty, she said.

“It’s not just, ‘Oh, I’m uncomfortable with my body.’ It’s, ‘How are people perceiving me? Am I going to get judged? Are people going to judge me? Am I going to be unsafe for going out this way?’” she said.

A ban on gender-affirming care isn’t the true goal, Riffel said. Instead, it’s, “We just don’t want to see trans people in public life at all.”

McMillan reported from northeastern Pennsylvania. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Jeff Amy in Atlanta.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Citing sources

Citation Styles Guide | Examples for All Major Styles

Published on June 24, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on November 7, 2022.

A citation style is a set of guidelines on how to cite sources in your academic writing . You always need a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize a source to avoid plagiarism . How you present these citations depends on the style you follow. Scribbr’s citation generator can help!

Different styles are set by different universities, academic associations, and publishers, often published in an official handbook with in-depth instructions and examples.

There are many different citation styles, but they typically use one of three basic approaches: parenthetical citations , numerical citations, or note citations.

Parenthetical citations

• Chicago (Turabian) author-date

CSE name-year

Numerical citations

CSE citation-name or citation-sequence

Note citations

• Chicago (Turabian) notes and bibliography

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Table of contents

Types of citation: parenthetical, note, numerical, which citation style should i use, parenthetical citation styles, numerical citation styles, note citation styles, frequently asked questions about citation styles.

The clearest identifying characteristic of any citation style is how the citations in the text are presented. There are three main approaches:

• Parenthetical citations: You include identifying details of the source in parentheses in the text—usually the author’s last name and the publication date, plus a page number if relevant ( author-date ). Sometimes the publication date is omitted ( author-page ).
• Numerical citations: You include a number in brackets or in superscript, which corresponds to an entry in your numbered reference list.
• Note citations: You include a full citation in a footnote or endnote, which is indicated in the text with a superscript number or symbol.

Citation styles also differ in terms of how you format the reference list or bibliography entries themselves (e.g., capitalization, order of information, use of italics). And many style guides also provide guidance on more general issues like text formatting, punctuation, and numbers.

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

In most cases, your university, department, or instructor will tell you which citation style you need to follow in your writing. If you’re not sure, it’s best to consult your institution’s guidelines or ask someone. If you’re submitting to a journal, they will usually require a specific style.

Sometimes, the choice of citation style may be left up to you. In those cases, you can base your decision on which citation styles are commonly used in your field. Try reading other articles from your discipline to see how they cite their sources, or consult the table below.

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) recommends citing your sources using Chicago author-date style . AAA style doesn’t have its own separate rules. This style is used in the field of anthropology.

APA Style is defined by the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association . It was designed for use in psychology, but today it’s widely used across various disciplines, especially in the social sciences.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

The citation style of the American Political Science Association (APSA) is used mainly in the field of political science.

The citation style of the American Sociological Association (ASA) is used primarily in the discipline of sociology.

Chicago author-date

Chicago author-date style is one of the two citation styles presented in the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). It’s used mainly in the sciences and social sciences.

The citation style of the Council of Science Editors (CSE) is used in various scientific disciplines. It includes multiple options for citing your sources, including the name-year system.

Harvard style is often used in the field of economics. It is also very widely used across disciplines in UK universities. There are various versions of Harvard style defined by different universities—it’s not a style with one definitive style guide.

Check out Scribbr’s Harvard Reference Generator

MLA style is the official style of the Modern Language Association, defined in the MLA Handbook (9th edition). It’s widely used across various humanities disciplines. Unlike most parenthetical citation styles, it’s author-page rather than author-date.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

The American Chemical Society (ACS) provides guidelines for a citation style using numbers in superscript or italics in the text, corresponding to entries in a numbered reference list at the end. It is used in chemistry.

The American Medical Association ( AMA ) provides guidelines for a numerical citation style using superscript numbers in the text, which correspond to entries in a numbered reference list. It is used in the field of medicine.

CSE style includes multiple options for citing your sources, including the citation-name and citation-sequence systems. Your references are listed alphabetically in the citation-name system; in the citation-sequence system, they appear in the order in which you cited them.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ) provides guidelines for citing your sources with IEEE in-text citations that consist of numbers enclosed in brackets, corresponding to entries in a numbered reference list. This style is used in various engineering and IT disciplines.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) citation style is defined in Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (2nd edition).

Vancouver style is also used in various medical disciplines. As with Harvard style, a lot of institutions and publications have their own versions of Vancouver—it doesn’t have one fixed style guide.

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is the main style guide for legal citations in the US. It’s widely used in law, and also when legal materials need to be cited in other disciplines.

Chicago notes and bibliography

Chicago notes and bibliography is one of the two citation styles presented in the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). It’s used mainly in the humanities.

The Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities ( OSCOLA ) is the main legal citation style in the UK (similar to Bluebook for the US).

There are many different citation styles used across different academic disciplines, but they fall into three basic approaches to citation:

• Parenthetical citations : Including identifying details of the source in parentheses —usually the author’s last name and the publication date, plus a page number if available ( author-date ). The publication date is occasionally omitted ( author-page ).
• Numerical citations: Including a number in brackets or superscript, corresponding to an entry in your numbered reference list.
• Note citations: Including a full citation in a footnote or endnote , which is indicated in the text with a superscript number or symbol.

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

A scientific citation style is a system of source citation that is used in scientific disciplines. Some commonly used scientific citation styles are:

• Chicago author-date , CSE , and Harvard , used across various sciences
• ACS , used in chemistry
• AMA , NLM , and Vancouver , used in medicine and related disciplines
• AAA , APA , and ASA , commonly used in the social sciences

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

MLA Style  is the second most used citation style (after APA ). It is mainly used by students and researchers in humanities fields such as literature, languages, and philosophy.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, November 07). Citation Styles Guide | Examples for All Major Styles. Scribbr. Retrieved March 25, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/citation-styles/

Is this article helpful?

Jack Caulfield

Other students also liked, apa vs. mla | the key differences in format & citation, the basics of in-text citation | apa & mla examples, how to avoid plagiarism | tips on citing sources, scribbr apa citation checker.

An innovative new tool that checks your APA citations with AI software. Say goodbye to inaccurate citations!

ChatGPT will finally cite the sources it used to generate its answers

However, there's a slight catch.

Key Takeaways

• ChatGPT now cites its sources, enhancing credibility.
• Feature is only available with paid versions.
• Copilot remains superior due to citing sources for free.

As popular as OpenAI's AI chatbots are, there are some things that ChatGPT could learn from Microsoft's Copilot . One learning point was how Copilot cited its sources when it gave you information; not only did it make its information more credible and less likely to be a hallucination, but you could follow the link yourself and read more about the topic. Fortunately, it seems that OpenAI has taken a leaf out of Copilot's book, as ChatGPT will now let you know where it got its information from.

How to use ChatGPT: Making an account, prompts, and more

Chatgpt will now cite its information for you, but there's a catch.

OpenAI made its announcement on its official X feed. In the post, the AI giant showed off the new citation feature that ChatGPT uses when responding to you. The example animation shows the chatbot adding websites to the end of its claims, which you can click to read more about the topic. However, if you want to use it, you're going to have to pay up:

Microsoft Copilot may still be the king of research

As welcome as this feature is, it's a shame that it's locked behind ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise. Having an AI tell you where it got its information from is important for the sake of trustworthiness, and putting that behind a paywall may not sit well with some. As such, as much as it's good to see ChatGPT implementing some of Copilot's best features, the fact that the latter will cite its sources for free users may make it the better choice if you need reliable and traceable information.