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Citing Sources

Check with your instructor to find out if a specific citation format is required.

MLA Format (commonly used for English and other humanities papers):

Important: Significant revisions in 2009 MLA format
Key examples: No more underlining--use italics for book and periodical titles; include publication medium (usually "Print" or Web")

APA Format (commonly used for psychology and other social science papers):

Chicago Style (commonly used for history papers):

CSE Style (commonly used for science papers):

Automated Bibliography Formatting

How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography

How to Cite a Work within the Text of Your Paper (Parenthetical Citations)

Tutorials on Citing Sources

 

Why Cite Sources?

Once you have located and read an adequate number of sources, incorporated ideas from your reading with your own understanding of the topic, and presented your analysis of your topic in a research paper, it is essential to cite the sources and you must use the proper bibliographic format to do so.

The main reason for citing your sources is to give credit to those authors whose ideas you used in your research. Even when you do not quote directly from another work, if reading that source contributed to the ideas presented in your paper, you must give the authors proper credit by including their work in your bibliography. Citing your sources allows readers of your work to easily find the sources to which you've referred.

If you do not cite the sources upon which your research is based, you will be guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is using the ideas and writings of others and representing them as your own. Even if you do not copy another source word-for-word, but rather rephrase the source without attributing it to the original author by including a citation, you are guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic standards and is punishable with a failing grade, possible expulsion from the institution, and may subject you to ostracism by your peers. The increasing availability of electronic information has unfortunately made it easy to copy another author's works.

 


"Works Cited" or "References" vs. "Bibliography"

The most common way to cite sources is to use a "Works Cited" or "References" list at the end of your research paper. "Works Cited" is the title of your list of citations when using the MLA (Modern Language Association) format; the title "References" is used when citing sources using APA (American Psychological Association) style. The list includes a citation for each of the sources you used to write your paper. The citations are formatted in a consistent style according to whichever citation format is used. Many instructors specify which format they prefer; some leave it up to the students as long as they maintain one consistent format.

A "Bibliography" is not the same as a "Works Cited" or "References" list. In your "Works Cited" or "References" you only list items you have actually cited in your paper. In a "Bibliography" you list all of the material you may have consulted in preparing your essay, whether or not you have actually cited the work. A "Bibliography" may include any sources related to the topic of the research paper.

The list of all citations is commonly organized in a single alphabetical list. Each different type of source--book, magazine article, journal article, newspaper article, article from a reference book, World Wide Web page--has a precise format that is specified by the given format (MLA, APA or other).

See: Works Cited List example


Citing Database Information for Full Text Sources Accessed from Online Databases

With the increasing availability of full-text articles from online periodical databases (online, CD-ROM and other electronic formats), students have questions about how to cite documents that have been accessed electronically. If the full text of an article or other document is accessed from an electronic database (even if the document was originally published in a traditional print publication), the name of the database, the database service or publisher and the date the information was accessed must be included in addition to the information for the originally published document. But, if an electronic database was used just to find a reference (a citation and/or abstract) to a document, and the full text of the document was accessed from the original print publication, the database information should not be included in the bibliographic citation. (See examples below in the "Citation Format for Articles from Periodicals" for either MLA or APA format.)

Below are examples of how to cite most of the common types of sources according to the:


Automated Bibliography Formatting

If your sources are relatively standard types, you can try using an automated bibliography formatting website, in which you enter the information for each of your sources and the website formats citations for you. If you want to try using one of these sites, we recommend:

MLA FORMAT

MLA FORMAT FOR A "WORKS CITED" LIST-- EXAMPLES BY TYPE OF SOURCE

For more detailed explanations of how to use the MLA format, you should consult one of the following:

  • The official MLA style manuals: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (REF/LB2369.G53 2003) & MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (REF PN 147 G444 1998) (Ask a librarian to show you these guide books.)
  • The official MLA webpage: Frequently Asked Questions about MLA Style
  • Hacker, Diane and Barbara Fister. Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age . 2010. Bedford / St. Martin's. 1 Dec. 2003. <http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/>.

 

In-text documentation: How to Cite a Work within the Text of Your Paper (Parenthetical Citations)

 

Remember that you need to give credit to authors whose words or ideas you are using in your paper. The citations you will provide within the text of your paper will help your reader a) to know who said the words you quoted or paraphrased, and b) to locate the full information about that source on your Works Cited page in case the reader wishes to consult the sources you've used.

In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what is known as parenthetical citation. Immediately following a quotation from a source or a paraphrase of a source's ideas, you place information in parentheses that identifies the source, i.e. where you found the quote or information. The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends on a few factors-- a) whether or not you include information about the source in the text, b) whether or not there is a known author of the source and c) whether or not the source has page numbers. in include the author's name followed by a space and the relevant page number(s).

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:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

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 at the end of the paper, where, alphabetically, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. London: Oxford U.P., 1967. Print.

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.

Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3).

Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

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 in the Works Cited:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . Berkeley: UC Press, 1966. Print.

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. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (e.g. articles) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire websites) and provide a page number.

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has “more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change . . . ” (“Impact of Global Warming” 6).

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title of the article appears in the parenthetical citation which corresponds to the full name of the article which appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry in the Works Cited. 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. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

[* The information above on In-text Citations is from the Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide. Click on the link for more details.]

  • Note: There is no punctuation after the author's name or before the page number. Do not use commas, p., pgs., or any other such notation in the citation.
  • When a source has no page number, just include the author's name in parentheses.

 

When you are citing online sources (from a webpage or an online database such as PowerSearch or Proquest), you run into a special problem: electronic sources don't have page numbers. In these cases, you will need to cite the author's name as usual, but don't include page numbers, e.g.

  • According to C.A. Mitchie, "Folate deficiency in women of childbearing age increases their risk of having a pregnancy affected by a neural-tube defect."
  • Research shows that "supplementing a woman's diet early in pregnancy with folic acid can prevent up to 70% of neural tube defects" (Moore).

Note: If you happen to be using a source which numbers its paragraphs or has section divisions, headings or numbers, you can use this information in place of page numbers. For example:

    • Research shows that "supplementing a woman's diet early in pregnancy with folic acid can prevent up to 70% of neural tube defects" (Moore, par. 20).
    • "Negroponte's uncomplicated, personal tone fools the reader into a sense that his theses are simplistic" (Herrington "Introduction")

      Do not use the page numbers from your paper printout.

When a writer's or a speaker's quoted words appear in a source written by someone else, begin the parenthetical citation with the abbreviation "qtd. in."

    • According to Richard Retting, "As the comforts of home and the efficiency of the office creep into the automobile, it is becoming increasingly attractive as a work space" (qtd. in Johnson 23)

 

 

General Information

  • In a bibliography or "Works Cited" list, all citations are listed in alphabetical order, according to the last name of the author. If no author is listed, alphabetize by the first word in the title (ignoring "A", "An" or "The" at the beginning of a title).
  • In all cases, the citation begins with the author's name (last name first) whenever the author's name is listed.
    If the author's name is not given, then the citation begins with the title of the work (book, article or other document).
    Only the first author's name should be listed last name first.
    If there are two or three authors, the second and third authors' names are listed first name first, as shown in the book example     below.
    For a work with more than 3 authors, list only the first author's name followed by a comma and the words et al.     (also shown in the book example below.)
  • Book, magazine, journal and newspaper titles are always italicized.
  • Article titles are always put in "quotations".
  • Subtitles are designated by a colon (:).
  • All words in any titles (of books, articles or other documents) are capitalized, except the following parts of speech (when they are not the first word in a title or subtitle):
    • Articles (a, an, the)
    • Prepositions (e.g., in, of , to, against, between)
    • Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet)
    • the to in infinitives (as in How to Play Chess)
  • Medium: All citations must include a word or phrase that describes the medium in which the source was accessed, read, viewed or heard. The word or phrase must be capitalized (but not italicized or in quotations.) The two most commonly cited media are Web or Print. Web includes any type of source--web page, audio, video, text--that was accessed on the Internet. Print includes any source that was read in the original print format, e.g. printed book, printed newspaper or magazine article. (Note: If you are citing a source, such as an old newspaper or magazine article, that originally appeared in print, but was accessed on the Web, the cited medium is Web, not Print.)
    For audio or video sources that were not accessed on the Web, indicate the specific medium in which you viewed or heard it, such as Radio, Television, CD, DVD, MP3, Film, Videocassette or Audiocassette.

Citation Format for Books

Books with a single author:

Citation description:
Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). Title. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Medium of Publication.

Citation example:

Gamson, Joshua. R. Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press,1994. Print.

Books with two, three or more authors: 

Citation description:
First author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any), and Second author's First name Middle initial (if any) Last name. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Medium of Publication.
Note: For a book with three authors, list all three author's names. Only the first author's name should be listed last name first. For a book with more than 3 authors, list only the first author's name followed by a comma and the words et al.

Citation examples:

Stewart, David W., and David H. Furse. Effective Television Advertising: A Study of 1000 Commercials. Lexington: Lexington Books, 1986. Print.

Jonson, Albert, Thomas Gray, and Jessie Muncy. Information Access. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Print.

Baker, Nellie, et al. Book Publishing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Print.


Books with editor(s) rather than author(s):

Citation description:
Editor's last name, First name Middle initial (if any), ed. Title. Place of publication: Year of publication. Medium of Publication.

Citation example:

Baughman, Cynthia, ed. Women on Ice: Feminist Essays on the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle. New York: Routledge, 1995. Print.


Essay, article, story, poem or chapter in a book with an editor (if the book is an anthology of works by multiple writers):

Citation description:
Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). "Title of Chapter or Essay." Title of Book. Ed. Editor's first and last name. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Page numbers for the chapter. Medium of Publication.

Citation example:

Fox, Aaron A. "Split Subjectivity in Country Music and Honky-Tonk Discourse." All That Glitters: Country Music in America. Ed. George H. Lewis. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1993. 131-139. Print.
 

Essay, article, story, or poem in a book that is an anthology of works by a single author (If the specific literary work is part of an author's own collection, i.e. all of the works have the same author, then there will be no editor to reference):

Citation description:
Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). "Title of Essay, Article, Story, or Poem." Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Page numbers for the essay, article, story, or poem. Medium of Publication.

Whitman, Walt. "I Sing the Body Electric." Selected Poems. New York: Dover, 1991. 12-19. Print.

Carter, Angela. "The Tiger's Bride." Burning Your Boats: The Collected Stories. New York: Penguin, 1995. 154-69. Print.

 

Citation Format for Articles from Periodicals (Magazines, Journals & Newspapers)

Magazine article (the following information is for paper copies of articles, see below for additional information required for articles from databases):

Citation description:
Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). "Title of Article." Title of Magazine Day (if given) Month (abbreviated except May, June, and July) Year: Page numbers of article (if the article is not printed on consecutive pages, give the first page followed by a +). Medium of publication.

Citation examples:

Bazell, Robert. "Science and Society: Growth Industry." New Republic 15 Mar. 1993: 13-14. Print.

Frank, Michael. "The Wild, Wild West." Architectural Digest June 1993: 180+. Print.

Journal article (the following information is for paper copies of articles, see below for additional information required for articles from databases):

Citation description:
Author's Last name, First name Middle initial (if any). "Title of article." Journal title Volume number. Issue number (if each issue number begins on page 1) (Date of publication): page numbers. Medium of publication.

Citation example:

Babrow, Austin S. "Student Motives for Watching Soap Operas." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 31.3 (Summer 1997): 309-321. Print.

Newspaper article (the following information is for paper copies of articles, see below for additional information required for articles from databases):

Citation description:
Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). "Article Title." Title of Newspaper Day Month (abbreviated except May, June, and July) Year: Section and page number(s) (if the article is not printed on consecutive pages, just give the first page followed by +). Medium of publication.

Citation example:

MacKenzie, Bill. "Packin' the Heat." San Francisco Chronicle 4 Nov. 1993: A16+. Print.

Book review article (the following information is for paper copies of articles, see below for additional information required for articles from databases):

Citation description:
Reviewer's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). "Article Title." (if more than "Book Review" and/or title of the book) Rev. of Title of Book, by Book author's first name Middle initial (if any) Last name. Title of the Periodical Volume and/or date and page information for the appropriate type of periodical as shown above. If the full text of the article is accessed from an electronic database, include database information and access date as shown below. Medium of publication.

Citation examples:

Hendrickson, Donald. Rev. of The Case Against Immigration: The Moral, Economic Social and Environmental Reasons for Reducing United States Immigration Back to Traditional Levels, by Roy Howard Beck. Foreign Affairs 75.4 (July-August 1996): 146. Print.

Fukuyama, Francis. "No Vacancy." Rev. of The Case Against Immigration: The Moral, Economic Social and Environmental Reasons for Reducing United States Immigration Back to Traditional Levels, by Roy Howard Beck. New York Times Book Review 1 Sept. 1996:18. Print.


Article accessed from an online library periodical database (such as Gale, or Proquest web-based databases):

Citation description:
Article information as shown above for magazine, journal or newspaper; then add: Title of Database. Name of database service or publisher. Medium of publication. Date of researcher's access. <URL (electronic address)>. (The URL is optional.)

Citation examples:

a. Popular magazine article from PowerSearch databases (click here to see actual article from the database):

Adler, Jonathan H. "A Child's Garden of Misinformation."  Consumers' Research Magazine Sept. 1993: 11+. General OneFile. Gale. Web. 8 May 2008.

b1. Academic journal article from Proquest Psychology database (click here to see actual article from the database):

Dodge, Brian, et. al. "Sexual Compulsivity Among Heterosexual College Students." The Journal of Sex Research 41.4 (Nov 2004): 343+. ProQuest Psychology Journals. Proquest. Web. 21 Nov. 2009.

b2. Academic journal article from History In Context database (click here to see actual article from the database):

Hoganson, Kristin. " ‘As Badly Off As The Filipinos’: U.S. Women's Suffragists and the Imperial Issue at the Turn of the Twentieth Century." Journal of Women's History13.2 (Summer 2001): 9+. U.S. History in Context. Gale. Web. 21 Nov. 2009.

c. Newspaper article from PowerSearch databases (click here to see actual article from the database):

Nevius, C. W. "Homeless Remedy: Serve San Francisco First." San Francisco Chronicle 20 Dec. 2008: A1+. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. Web. 8 May 2010.

d. A complete academic journal article reprinted in a collected volume from Literature Resource Center database (click here to see actual article from the database):

McFarland, Ron. "Sherman Alexie's Polemical Stories." Studies in American Indian Literatures: The Journal of the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures. 9.4 (Winter 1997): 27-38. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Vol. 107. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center .  Gale.  Web. 1 Dec. 2009.

e. An excerpt from an academic journal article reprinted in a collected volume from Literature Resource Center database (click here to see actual article from the database):

Ullman, Leslie. "Betrayals and Boundaries: A Question of Balance." Kenyon Review. 15.3 (Summer 1993): 186. Excerpt in Contemporary Literary Criticism Select.  Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Web. 1 Dec. 2008.

f. Article from a book from the Opposing Viewpoints In Context database (click here to see actual article from the database):

Lunneborg, Patricia. "An Unwanted Pregnancy Justifies an Abortion." Opposing Viewpoints: Abortion. Ed. Tamara L. Roleff. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Gale. Web. 21 Nov. 2008.

g. Book review article from an academic journal from PowerSearch databases (click here to see actual article from the database):

Forman, James, Jr.  Rev. of  Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, by Paul Butler. Michigan Law Review 108.6 (April 2010): 993+. General OneFile. Gale. Web. 21 Nov. 2010.

Article for which only the abstract (summary) of the article is accessed from an online periodical database on the World Wide Web (such as Medline database on PubMed):

Citation description:
Article information as shown above for magazine, journal or newspaper. Abstract. Title of Database. Name of database service or publisher. Medium of publication. Date of researcher's access. <URL (electronic address)> (The URL is optional. Also, because the length of the URL may sometimes be excessively long, the cited URL may be either the complete address for the web page of the full-text article or the basic address for accessing the database).

Citation example:

LeGrand, E. K. "Potential Risk of Enhancing Survival of Infected Cells." Journal of the American Veterinary Medicine Association 213.12 (15 Dec. 1998): 1698. Abstract. Medline. PubMed. Web. 18 Feb. 2006. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>.

 

Citation Format for Articles from Encyclopedias or Other Reference Sources, including Online Reference Sources

Article from a Major Print Encyclopedia

Citation description:
Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). [If no author listed, begin with article title.] "Title of Article: Subtitle of Article (if any)." Title of Encyclopedia or Other Reference Source. Year of Publication ed. Medium of publication.

Citation example:

Naisbitt, John, Thea K. Flaum and Oscar Handlin. "United States: Immigration." Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia. 1998 ed. Print.

Article from a Non-Major Print Encyclopedia or Other Reference Source

Citation description:
Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). [If no author listed, begin with article title.] "Title of Article: Subtitle of Article (if any)." Title of Encyclopedia or Other Reference Source. Ed. Encyclopedia Editor's name (if any). Edition (if not first edition). Number of volumes. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Medium of publication.

Citation example:

Helweg, Arthur W. "Immigration." Encyclopedia of Social Issues. Ed. John K. Roth. 6 vols. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1997. Print.

Article from an Online Encyclopedia or Other Online Reference Database

Citation description:
Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). [If no author listed, begin with article title.] "Title of Article: Subtitle of Article (if any)." Title of Encyclopedia or Other Reference Source. Date of Publication or Latest Update. Publisher, Sponsoring Organization or Website name. Medium of publication. Day Month Year of researcher's visit. <URL (web address) of the page>.

Citation example:

Berthoff, Roland. "United States of America: The People: Colonial and National Immigration." Encyclopedia Americana. 2004. Grolier Online. Web. 29 Mar. 2007. <http://www.go.grolier.com/gol>.

"Charles Dickens." Authors and Artists for Young Adults. Vol. 23. Gale Research, 1998. Biography Resource Center. 2004. Gale. Web. 26 Mar. 2007. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC>.

 

Citation Format for World Wide Web Pages

NOTE: The MLA format for online publications is not completely standardized. Various websites provide specific information on how to cite information from the Web according to their current interpretations of official citation formats.

General web page format:

Citation description:

•  Author or editor's last name (if an author is given), first name, middle initial (if any).
•  “Title of the Page.” (in quotation marks)
•  Title of the Overall Website (in italics)
•  Version or edition used
•  Publisher or sponsor of the site (if not given, use n.p.)
•  Date of publication (day, month, and year, as available). If not given, use n.d.
•  Medium of publication (Web)
•  Date of access (day, month, and year)
•  URL (optional – provide if it helps your reader locate the source or if your instructor requires it). Enclose the URL in angle brackets and end with a period.

NOTE : If you cannot locate any of the above components, leave it out.

NOTE : Each of the above sections of your citation is followed by a period, except the publisher or sponsor, which is followed by a comma
.

Citation example (basic web page):

Brenner, Eric. "Citing Sources." Skyline College Library. Skyline College, 28 May 2008. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
xxxxx <http://www.skylinecollege.edu/library/citing.html>.


Citation examples for specific types of Web sources:

Web page:

Barnes-Young, Christian. "Violent Media and Aggression." What They Play: The Family Guide to Video Games. What They Like, Inc., 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://www.whattheyplay.com/features/violent-media-and-aggression/>.

“Thai Idioms.” Thai-language.com. Internet Resource for the Thai Language. n.p. n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://www.thai-language.com/id/589868>.

"William Faulkner." William Faulkner on the Web. University of Mississippi , 6 Feb. 2003. Web. 20 Sept. 2007. <http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/ faulkner.html>.

 

 

Entire website or website homepage:

NAIC Online. National Association of Inventors Corporation,. 9 Sept. 2008. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. <http://www.better-investing.org/>.

U. S. Department of Education. US Dept. of Education, 21 Apr. 2007. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. <http://www.ed.gov/index.html>.

The William Faulkner Society. William Faulkner Society, 5 Oct. 2003. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. <http://www.english.ufl.edu/faulkner/>.

 

Blog:

“SWC Teachers Suspended after Rally Participation.” Save Our Southwestern College . 23 Oct. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://saveourswc.blogspot.com/2009/10/swc-teachers-suspended-after-rally.html>.

 

Wikipedia page:

"Skyline College ." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . 7 Nov 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.phptitle=Skyline_College&oldid=324537976>.


Personal web page:

Bell, Rosemary. Home page. Fall 2003. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. <http://www.smccd.net/accounts/bellro/>.

Online book:

An online book may be the electronic text of part or all of a printed book, or a book-length document available only on the Internet (e.g., a work of hyperfiction).

Bird, Isabella L. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1881. Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. Indiana Univerity, 20 Apr. 1998. Web. 4 Oct. 2007. <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/bird/rocky.html>.

Online book chapter:

Bryant, Peter J. "The Age of Mammals." Biodiversity and Conservation. University of California, Irvine, 2002. Web. 4 Oct. 2007. <http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/lec02/b65lec02.htm>.

 

Article in an online journal:

Wysocki, Anne Frances. "Monitoring Order: Visual Desire, the Organization of Web Pages, and Teach the Rules of Design." Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 3.2 (Fall 1998). English Dept., Texas Tech University, Web. 21 Oct. 2007. <http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/3.2/features/wysocki/mOrder0.html>.


Article in an online magazine:

Fording, Laura. "Globalization and its Discontents." Newsweek MSNBC News, 1 Dec. 2003. Web. 1 Dec. 2007. <http://www.msnbc.com/news/999004.asp?0cv=KB20&cp1=1>.

 

Newspaper article from a newspaper website:

Author Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Name of Website. Sponsor/Publisher of Website, Date of last update. Web. Date of Access. <URL> (optional).

Lattin, Don. "Religions Have Complicated Role in Globalization." SF Gate. San Francisco Chronicle, 23 February 2003. Web. 13 Nov. 2007. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/23/LV133895.DTL>.

Bilmes, Linda J. and Joseph E. Stiglitz.  "The Iraq War will Cost Us $3 Trillion, and Much More." Washingtonpost.com. Washington Post, 9 March 2008.Web. 27 May 2008. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846.html>.

 

Poem or short story from a website:

Collins, Billy. "More than a Woman." Poetry Magazine. Poetry Foundation. February 2002. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/179/5#20605580>.

Nesbit, Edith. "Marching Song." Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908. Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. Indiana University, May 2000. Web. 26 June 2007. <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/ballsoc.html#p9>.

 

Photograph or other image from a website:

"Alcatraz_island.jpg." PRBO Conservation Science. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://www.prbo.org/cms/images/marine/Alcatraz/Alcatraz_island.jpg>.

 

Digital files

Digital files are any documents, images or other media that exist in digital form, independent of a Web site.

Citation description:

Begin with information required for the source (such as a photograph, a report, a sound recording, or a radio program), following the guidelines for the specific source. Then for the medium, indicate the type of file: “JPEG file,” “PDF file,” “MP3 file,” and so on.

Citation examples:

Hine, Lewis W. Girl in Cherryville Mill. 1908. Prints and Photographs Div., Lib. of Cong. JPG file.

“Scenes from a Recession.” This American Life. Narr. Ira Glass. NPR, 30 Mar. 2009. MP3 file.

National Institute of Mental Health. What Rescue Workers Can Do. Washington: US Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2006. PDF file.

 

E-Mail Messages

Citation description:
Author of email. "Subject line of email." Email to (name of receiver). Date of email.

Citation example:
Librot, Janet. "How to Cite Information." E-mail to Josh Stuyvesant. 24 Nov. 2009.

 

Citation Format for Audio/Video/Media

Film or Video Recording

Citation description:
Title. Dir. Director’s First Name Last Name. Optionally you may add narr. (narrated by), perf. (performers), prod. (produced by), writ. (written by). Original release date, if relevant. Distributor, Year of current release. Medium.

Citation examples:

Bioterror. Dir. Kirk Wolfinger. Prod. and Writer, Matthew Collins. WGBH Education Foundation, 2002. Videocassette.

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. Dir. and Prod. Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick. 1992. Zeitgeist Films, 2002. DVD.

The Tuxedo. Dir. Kevin Donovan. Prod. John H. Williams, and Adam Schroeder. Perf. Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt. DreamWorks, 2002. Film.

Television or Radio Program

Citation description:
Title of specific program. Author, Director or Narrator. Title of Series. Producing company. Network. Broadcasting station (if from local station rather than directly from a network). Date of broadcast. Medium of reception (e.g., Radio , Television ).

Citation example:

"Cuba and Cocaine." Narr. Bill Moyers. Frontline. Documentary Consortium. PBS. WTVS, Miami. 18 Jan. 2002. Television.

Sound Recording

Citation description:
Artist, performer, composer, or conductor depending on which person is most responsible for the production or who you wish to emphasize. "Title of song" (if specifying.) Title of the recording (or the titles of the works included). Artist or artists (when distinct from a first-listed person or group). Manufacturer, year of issue (if the year is unknown, write n.d. ). Medium.

Citation examples:

song from a compact disc:

Coltrane, John. "Giant Steps." The Last Giant: The John Coltrane Anthology. Rhino, 1993. CD.

No composer shown:

Lewiston, David. Fiestas of Peru: Music of the High Andes. LP. Nonesuch Records, 1972. Audiocassette.

Composer and performer different:

Guthrie, Woody. Pete Seeger Sings Woody Guthrie. Perf. Pete Seeger. Audiocassette. Folkways, 1968. LP.

Online Video Clip, e.g. YouTube video

Citation description:
Filmmaker's name, if available. Title. Date of the video itself. Title of Web site. Date the video was posted on the site. Medium of publication. Date of viewing. <URL.>

Citation example:

Sherman Alexie Speaks. 3 Nov. 2007. YouTube. 9 Nov. 2007. Web. 23 Apr. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwiQb8OQ6dY>.

 

Work of art

Citation description:
Artist’s name; the title of the artwork, italicized; the date of composition; the medium of composition (for instance, “Lithograph on paper,” “Photograph,” “Charcoal on paper”); and the institution and city in which the artwork is located. For artworks found online, omit the medium of composition and include the title of the Web site, the medium (“Web”), and your date of access.

Citation examples:
Constable, John. Dedham Vale. 1802. Oil on canvas. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Hessing, Valjean. Caddo Myth. 1976. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha. Joslyn Art Museum. Web. 19 Apr. 2009.

 

Advertisement

Citation description:
Name the product or company being advertised, followed by the word “Advertisement.” Give publication information for the source in which the advertisement appears.

Citation examples:
Truth by Calvin Klein. Advertisement. Vogue Dec. 2000: 95-98. Print.

Arbella Insurance. Advertisement. Boston.com. NY Times, n.d. Web. 3 June 2009.


Citation Format for Interviews

Important: Always begin your citation with the name of the person interviewed.

Interview you saw on television or heard on the radio

Citation examples:

Blackmun, Harry. Interview with Ted Koppel and Nina Totenberg. Nightline. ABC. WABC, New York. 5 Apr. 1994. Television.

Nader, Ralph. Interview with Ray Suarez. Talk of the Nation. Natl. Public Radio. KQED, San Francisco, 16 Apr. 1998. Television.


Interview you read in a magazine or newspaper

Citation examples:

Lansbury, Angela. "The Grand Woman of Mystery Reveals Her Own Mysteries." People 15 June 2002: 52-55. Print.

Gordimer, Nadine. "Novelist Speaks of Life, Love, Travels." New York Times 10 Oct. 1991, late ed. : C25. Print.


Interview that you conducted

1) Name of the person interviewed
2) The kind of interview (personal interview, telephone interview)
3) Date you conducted the interview

Citation examples:

Smith, Will. Personal interview. 22 July 2003.

Spears, Britney. Telephone Interview. 10 Dec. 2002.

 

Performance or Lecture

Citation description:
Speaker. “Title” or description. Sponsoring event or course name. Location. Performance date. Type of performance (Address, Lecture, Keynote speech, Reading)

Citation example:

Westfall, Jeff.  Lecture on homelessness. English 100. Skyline College. 7 Mar. 2007. Lecture.

 

Unpublished Document, Including Class Handout

Unpublished document

Citation description:
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Document." Description of document (e.g. flyer, leaflet, memo or handout). Organization associated with document. City of production/distribution. Date of document. (If no date listed, enter: n.d.) Medium.
Note: If any of the above information is not given, leave the information out.

 

Citation example:

Jackson, Boris. "Security Policy." Memo to college faculty. Brookfield State College. Brookfield, MN. n.d. Print.

Class handout quoting another source

Citation description:
Author of quoted source. "Title of work from a published collection. (e.g. poem or article)." Title of Publication. (book or periodical). "Title of Handout." Handout. Title of course. (Name of instructor.) Name of school. Date of handout.
Note: If any of the above information is not given, leave the information out.

 

Citation example:

Aldiss, Brian. "Flight 063." Icarus Poems: A Selective Arachniography.
Handout. Composition, Literature and Critical Thinking: English 110.
(Professor Jeff Westfall.) Skyline College. Feb. 2006. Print.



Putting Together the Works Cited List

  • The Works Cited list appears at the end of the paper on a separate page (or pages, if necesary). It lists the citations for all of the cited sources in alphabetical order according to the last name of the author. If no author is listed, alphabetize by the first word in the title (ignoring "A", "An" or "The" at the beginning of a title).  Do not organize the citations by type of source.
  • Put the title, "Works Cited", at the beginning of the list.
  • In all cases, the citation begins with the author's name (last name first) whenever the author's name is listed. If the author's name is not given, the citation begins with the title of the work (book, article or other document).
  • The first line of each citation is not indented, but each line of each citation after the first line is indented (the opposite of a typical paragraph).
  • Skip a line between each citation.
  • Book, magazine, journal and newspaper titles are always italicized .
  • Article titles are always put in "quotations".
  • Subtitles are preceded by a colon ( : ).
  • All words in any titles (of books, articles or other documents) are capitalized , except the following parts of speech (when they are not the first word in a title or subtitle):
    • Articles ( a , an , the )
    • Prepositions (e.g., in , of , to , against , between )
    • Coordinating conjunctions ( and , but , for , nor , or , so , yet )
    • the to in infinitives (as in How to Play Chess )

Example:

Works Cited

Anderson, Craig A. "Effects of Violent Movies and Trait Hostility on Hostile Feelings and Aggressive Thoughts." Aggressive Behavior 23.3 (May-June 1997): 161+. Print.

Andrews, Sam. "Videos Not Blamed for Violence." Billboard 24 Jan. 1998: 82+. Print.

Bok, Sissela. Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,1998. Print.

Brenner, Eric. "Ethical Issues: Citing Sources." Skyline College Library. 30 Mar. 2003. Web. 10 Apr. 2003. <http://www.skylinecollege.edu/library/citing.html>

Cesarone, Bernard. "Television Violence and Children." Childhood Education 75.1 (Fall 1998): 56+. Academic OneFile. Gale. Web. 18 Oct. 2002. <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.

 Doi, David. "Media and Juvenile Violence: The Connecting Threads." Nieman Reports (Winter 1998): 35. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Web. 9 July 1999. <http://search.epnet.com>.

 Fording, Laura. "Violent Media and its Discontents." Newsweek 1 Dec. 2003. MSNBC News. Web. 1 Dec. 2003. <http://www.msnbc.com/news/999004.asp?0cv=KB20&cp1=1>.

Gibeaut, John. "Deadly Inspiration." ABA Journal June 1997: 62+. Print.

Goldstein, Jeffrey, ed. Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.

Hough, Kirstin J., and Philip G. Erwin. "Children's Attitudes Toward Violence on Television." Journal of Psychology 131.4 (July 1997): 411+. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Web. 9 July 1999. <http://search.epnet.com>.

Kellerman, Jonathan. "Violence Doesn't Begin in the Theater." Wall Street Journal 9 June 1999, eastern ed.: A26. ProQuest Newspapers. ProQuest. Web. 9 July 1999. <http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb>.

Knowlton, Steven R. "Images of Violence: Ratchet Up? Or Ratchet Down?" News Photographer July 1999: S3. InfoTrac OneFile. Gale Group. Web. 8 Apr. 2001. <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.

Lazar, Bonnie A. "The Lull of Tradition: A Grounded Theory Study of Television Violence, Children and Social Work." Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 15.2 (April 1998): 117+. Print.

---. "Old Battles, New Frontiers: A Study of Television Violence and Social Work with Children." Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 13.6 (Dec. 1996): 527+. Print.

Levine, Madeline. Viewing Violence: How Media Violence Affects Your Child's and Adolescent's Development. New York: Doubleday, 1996. Print.

Males, Mike. "Who Us? Stop Blaming Kids and TV." Progressive Oct. 1997: 25+. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Web. 9 July 1999. <http://search.epnet.com>.

Mifflin, Lawrie. "Many Researchers Say Link is Already Clear on Media and Youth Violence." New York Times 9 May 1999, late ed., sec. 1: 23. Print.

Murray, John P., Eli A. Rubinstein, and George A. Comstock, eds. Television and Social Behavior, Reports and Papers: A Technical Report to the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior. Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health, 1972. Print.

Sampson, John. Weather Makers. New York : Atlantis Press, 1999. Print.

Strasburger, Victor C. Adolescents and the Media: Medical and Psychological Impact. Developmental Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, 33. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995. Print.

Tribe, Laurence. "The Internet vs. the First Amendment." Editorial. New York Times 28 Apr. 1999, late ed.: A29. Print.

"TV Violence." Center for Media Education. 9 Oct. 1997. Web. 9 July 1999. <http://www.cme.org/ctatool/violence.html>.

Wekesser, Carol, ed. Violence in the Media. Current Controversies. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1995. Print.

 

APA FORMAT

For more detailed explanations of how to use the APA format, you should consult the official APA style manual:

  • Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (REF BF 76.7 P83 1994)

Ask a librarian to show you this guide book.

Citation Format for Books

Books with a single author:

Citation description:
Author's last name, First initial. Middle initial (if any). (Year of publication). Title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Citation example:

 

Gamson, J. R. (1994). Claims to fame: Celebrity in contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Books with two, three or more authors: 

Citation description:
First author's last name, First initial. Middle initial (if any), Second author's last name, First initial., Middle initial (if any), & Last author's last name, First initial. Middle initial (if any), (Year of publication). Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
Note: Invert all authors' names; give last names and initials for all authors, regardless of the number of authors.

Citation example:

Stewart, D. W., & Furse, D. H. (1986). Effective television advertising: A study of 1000 commercials. Lexington: Lexington Books.

Books with editor(s) rather than author(s):

Citation description:
Editor's last name, First initial. Middle initial (if any). (Ed. ). (Year of publication). Title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Citation example:

Baughman, C., (Ed. ). (1995). Women on ice: Feminist essays on the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan spectacle. New York: Routledge. 

Chapter in a book with an editor:

Citation description:
Author's last name, First initial. Middle initial (if any). (Year of publication). "Title of Chapter or Essay." In Editor's first initial. Middle initial (if any). Last name. (Ed.), Title of book. (pp. Page numbers for the chapter.). Publisher. Place of publication.

Citation example:

Fox, A. A. (1993). Split subjectivity in country music and honky-tonk discourse." In G. H. Lewis (Ed.), All that glitters: Country music in America, (pp.131-139). Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. 
 

Citation Format for Articles from Periodicals (Magazines, Journals & Newspapers)

Magazine article:

Citation description:
Author's last name, First initial. Middle initial (if any). (Year, Month Day (if given)). Title of article. Title of Magazine, volume number, Page numbers of article.

Citation examples:

Bazell, R. (1993, March 15) Science and society: Growth industry. New Republic, 208, 13-14.

Frank, M. (1993, June) The wild, wild west. Architectural Digest, 50, 180-186, 199.

Journal article:

Citation description:
Author's last name, First initial. Middle initial (if any). (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number (issue number, if each number of journal begins on page 1), Page numbers of article.

Citation example:

Babrow, A. S. (1997) Student motives for watching soap operas. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 31(3), 309-321.

Newspaper article:

Citation description:
Author's last name, First initial. Middle initial (if any). (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, pp. section and page number(s).

Citation example:

MacKenzie, B. (1993, November 4). Packin' the Heat. San Francisco Chronicle, pp. A16, A18.

Electronic copy of a journal article retrieved from a database:

 

Citation description:
When referencing material obtained by searching an aggregated database (such as InfoTrac or Proquest  databases), follow the format appropriate to the work retrieved and add a retrieval statement that gives the date of retrieval and the proper name of the database.

 

Citation example:

Ayalon, L & Young, M. A. (2005). Racial Group Differences in Help-Seeking Behaviors. Journal of Social Psychology 145, 443-449. Retrieved July 17, 2005, from Proquest Psychology Journals database.

Article based on a print source for which the full text is accessed from the Internet:

Citation description:
Article information as shown above for magazine, journal or newspaper, with the addition of [Electronic version] after the article title.

Citation example:

Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A., & Schwartz, A. A. (1999). A history of facilitated
communication: Science, pseudoscience, and antiscience: Science working group on facilitated communication [Electronic version]. American Psychologist, 50, 750-765.

Article from an Internet-only journal (for which there is no print version)

Citation description:
Article information as shown above for magazine, journal or newspaper, with the addition of:  Retrieved Month Day, Year from URL (web address).


Citation example:

Gmytrasiewicz, P. J. & Doshi, P. (2005)  A Framework for Sequential Planning in Multi-Agent Settings.  Journal of Artifical Intelligence Research 24, 49-79. Retrieved July 27, 2005, from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/jair/pub/volume24/gmytrasiewicz05a.pdf

 

World Wide Web pages

Note: The APA official website, listed below, provides some information on citing electronic documents, but the format information provided by this site is somewhat limited.

 

Citation description:
If a document is contained within a large and complex Web site (such as that for a university or a government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department before giving the URL for the document itself. Precede the URL with a colon.

Citation example:

 

Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F., Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and

education: New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures. Retrieved August 24, 2000, from Columbia University, Institute for Learning Technologies Web site: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/papers/newwine1.html

 

 

 

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last revised: 12-8-11
by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA
These materials may be used for educational purposes if you inform and credit the author and cite the source as:
Skyline College Library. All commercial rights are reserved.
To contact the author, or send comments or suggestions, email: Eric Brenner at brenner@smccd.edu