By citing your sources you:
You must provide a citation when:
Citations at the end of your paper should always tell you:
Citation styles vary in how they present this information, but generally, these elements are always included.
This video provides a brief introductions to what citations are, why we use citations, when to cite, what a citation includes, and an overview of which citation styles are used by different disciplines.
The Chicago NB (Notes & Bibliography) system is often used in History scholarship and provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through footnote or endnote citation in their writing and through bibliography pages. It also offers writers an outlet for commenting on those cited sources.
To see examples of what Chicago style citations should look like for different source types, check out the following websites. These websites provide guidance on how to format footnotes and bibliography entries for a variety of source types.
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You should include a footnote each time you use a source, whether through a direct quote or through a paraphrase or summary.
Formatting Footnotes:
Bibliographies:
In the Chicago NB system, the bibliography provides an alphabetical list of all sources used in a given work. This page, most often titled Bibliography, is usually placed at the end of the work. It should include all sources cited within the work.
Although bibliographic entries for various sources may be formatted differently, all included sources (books, articles, websites, etc.) are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name. If no author or editor is listed on a source, the title of that source may be used instead for alphabetization in the bibliography.
Common Elements
Entries in the bibliography generally include the author (or editor, compiler, translator), title, and publication information. The publication information includes the publication date. For books, include the city of publication and the name of the publisher. For journal articles, include the name of the journal. For journal articles, also include the volume number, issue number, and page range if this information is available. For online sources, include a DOI (digital object identifier) or URL.
Author’s Names
The first author’s name is inverted in the bibliography, placing the last name first and separating the last name and first name with a comma; for example, John Smith becomes Smith, John. (If an author is not listed first, this applies to compilers, translators, etc.) If there is more than one author, write the first author's name as Surname, First Name. Write the other author's names as First Name Surname.
Titles
Titles of books and journals are italicized. Titles of articles, chapters, webpages, etc. are placed in quotation marks.
Publication Information
The year of publication is listed after the publisher or journal name.
Punctuation
In a bibliography, all major elements are separated by periods.
Formatting the Bibliography:
APA citations were developed by the American Psychological Association and are commonly used in the social sciences.
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Basic Format for a Book:
- Book with One Author:
- Book with Two Authors:
- For more than two authors (three or more), list only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, even the first, unless doing so would create ambiguity between different sources. Example: (Kernis et al., 1993)
Basic Format for a Book Chapter:
- Example of a Book Chapter Citation:
Basic Format for an Online Article:
- Online Journal Article with DOI Assigned:
- Online Journal Article with no DOI Assigned:
- Newspaper Article Found on a Newspaper's Website:
Basic Format for citing an image in the Reference List:
Note: If you can only find the screen name of an author, use that as the author's name. Maintain the formatting of the screen name. For example, if a screen name is in all lower case, keep the name in lower case in your citations. If there is no title, create your own title that describes the content of the image.
Example of a Reference List citation for an image:
Formatting Figures in Your Paper:
Each image in your paper should have a figure number, a title, and a caption. The caption should describe the image, provide a citation for the image, and provide copyright information. For example:
Figure 1
Two Cats Resting
Note. This photo shows two orange cats resting in the "loaf" position. From Nap time [Photograph], by D. Sipler, 2005, Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/photofarmer/284159867/in/set-72157594353612286). CC BY 2.0.
If you have taken the photo or created the image, you do not need to cite it or provide copyright information for it. You will still need to label the picture with a figure number and title, and you will need to provide a caption with information on what the image shows.
For more information on formatting tables and figures in your APA style paper, see:
Zotero is a free open-source citation manager that can help you organize your sources and generate citations. Go to zotero.org to create a Zotero account and download Zotero. You can use any of your email addresses to create your account. You need to download Zotero in order to fully use it.
You can find additional support documents on Zotero's website: https://www.zotero.org/support/
Go to zotero.org/groups to create a group library. One person from your team should create the group and then invite the other team members to join.
There are multiple ways to add sources to your Zotero library.
1. Use the Zotero browser extension.
2. Add a source manually.
3. Add a pdf
Learn more about adding items to Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/support/adding_items_to_zotero
1. GoogleDocs
The Zotero Connector adds a Zotero menu to the Google Docs interface:
Add/Edit Citation: Add a new citation or edit an existing citation in your document at the cursor location.
The first time you select this option, a pop-up will ask you to log in to your Zotero account.
Then another pop-up will ask you to select your citation style.
Then a red box will appear where you can search for the source you wish to cite (start typing in the author or title to see a drop-down list of sources that match your search).
If you do not see the red Zotero search box, click on the Zotero icon at the bottom of your desktop to bring it up
Add/Edit Bibliography: Insert a bibliography. (You must already have at least one in-text citation in your document before you can add the bibliography. As you add in-text citations for new sources, those sources will also be added to your bibliography.)
Learn more about using Zotero with GoogleDocs: https://www.zotero.org/support/google_docs
2. Word
Add/Edit Citation: Add a new citation or edit an existing citation in your document at the cursor location.
A pop-up will ask you to select your citation style.
Then a red box will appear where you can search for the source you wish to cite (start typing in the author or title to see a drop-down list of sources that match your search).
If you do not see the red Zotero search box, click on the Zotero icon at the bottom of your desktop to bring it up
Add/Edit Bibliography: Insert a bibliography. (You must already have at least one in-text citation in your document before you can add the bibliography. As you add in-text citations for new sources, those sources will also be added to your bibliography.)
Learn more about the Zotero Word plug-in: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage
3. Right-Click to Create Citation/Bibliography
ZoteroBib is free online citation generator. It is useful for quickly generating a citation that you can copy and paste. You do not need an account, and ZoteroBib will not save your sources. Go to zbib.org to use ZoteroBib.