selected bibliography in research

Chicago Referencing Guide

• Notes - basic patterns
• Bibliography - basic patterns

Types of bibliographies

Bibliography formatting guide, multiple works by the same author or editor, location of online works, secondary source - in bibliography, sources that can be omitted, bibliography example.

• Chapters and other parts of a book
• Journal articles
• Magazine articles
• Newspaper articles
• Reference works
• Theses and dissertations
• Social media
• Generative artificial intelligence (AI)
• Graphic arts
• Live performances
• Exhibition catalogues
• Television and radio
• Advertisements
• Online videos
• Sound recordings
• Legal resources
• Lectures and paper presentations
• Personal communications, unpublished interviews and AI content
• Tables - Examples
• Figures - Examples

Bibliography

Your bibliography should include every work that you cite in your text, as well as works that were important to your thinking, even if you did not mention them in your text. Label this standard type Bibliography or Sources Consulted .

There are other types of bibliography which you may be asked to create:

Selected bibliography

If a bibliography only includes some of the sources you have used, it should be labelled Selected Bibliography . If you choose to create this type of biblography, make sure your lecturer or supervisor knows that you are only citing selected sources, and give a good reason for this.

Single-author bibliography

This is a list of works by a single author. Label it  Works of [Author's Name] .  You can arrange it chronologically or alphabetically by title.

Annotated bibliography

This is a bibliography with added annotations - descriptions of each work's content and/or its relevance to your research. Check with your lecturer or supervisor to see what their requirements are in regards to the length and purpose of the annotations. Brief annotations (usually a single phrase) can be added in brackets after the publication data.

Longer annotations can be added on a new line, without brackets.

Foreign language titles (not in English) are the exception - they should be formatted sentence style (capitalise only the first word of the title and subtitle, and any proper nouns).

This is the city where the publisher's main editorial offices are listed. Look for it on the title page or with the copyright information. Where two or more cities are listed, use only the first. If the city of publication might be confused with another city of the same name, add a state abbreviation, province or country as necessary.

For more details on formatting individual elements of a bibliographic reference, see the examples of each source type in the left-hand menu, and the detailed notes below.

• When you reference more than one work by an author (or editor) in your paper, list them alphabetically by title (ignoring words such as a or the ).
• For all references after the first, a group of three em dashes and a period should replace the author’s name. You can insert an em dash in Microsoft Word 2016 by choosing Insert > Symbol > Special Character > Em Dash . Alternatively, you can use six small dashes.

List all these works before any that the individual co-authored or co-edited.

For a work that you found online, choose the appropriate location information to include:

• If there is a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) listed with the work, use that.
• If no DOI is available, use a stable URL.
• If you found the work by searching a library or commercial database, you can use the database name instead of a URL.

DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier.

• A DOI is a string of characters that commonly identifies a journal article, but can also be found on other publication types, including books.
• All DOIs start with 10 . and include numbers and letters. For example: doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2009.08.001
• The DOI provides a permanent internet address for the item, making it easy to locate.
• You may search by DOI numbers in Library Search or at  http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz , to locate articles.

Always use the DOI in your citation, if available.  

To cite a DOI, append the DOI number (starting with 10.) to https://doi.org/

If there is no DOI for an online work, include a URL in your reference.If a URL is listed along with the work, use that one rather than the one in your browser's address bar (which may not be a stable URL). 

Database name

If you found the work by searching a library or commercial database, you may give the name of the database instead of a URL.

If a source that you are using includes a useful quotation from another source, you should try to obtain the original and cite that, in order to verify that the quotation is accurate and quoted in context. However, if the original source is unavailable, you can cite it as quoted in  the secondary source.

By convention, you can leave references to the following source types out of your bibliography. Cite them in your notes only, unless they are critical to your argument or frequently cited , in which case you should include them:

• newspaper articles
• classical, medieval, and early English literary works
• the Bible and other sacred works
• well-known reference works, such as major dictionaries and encyclopedias
• unpublished interviews and personal communications
• online videos and podcasts
• social media posts
• some sources in the visual and performing arts, including artworks and live performances (but note that for Art & Design writing, these sources are likely to be critical to your argument, and in this case they should be included)
• cartoons, maps, and print advertisements
• the US Constitution, legal cases, and some other public documents

If you are unsure about which of these you should include in your bibliography, consult Turabian's  A Manual for Writers , or contact your Liaison Librarian for advice.

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If you are using Chicago style footnotes or endnotes, you should include a bibliography at the end of your paper that provides complete citation information for all of the sources you cite in your paper. Bibliography entries are formatted differently from notes. For bibliography entries, you list the sources alphabetically by last name, so you will list the last name of the author or creator first in each entry. You should single-space within a bibliography entry and double-space between them. When an entry goes longer than one line, use a hanging indent of .5 inches for subsequent lines. Here’s a link to a sample bibliography that shows layout and spacing . You can find a sample of note format here .

Complete note vs. shortened note

Here’s an example of a complete note and a shortened version of a note for a book:

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 27-35.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated , 27-35.

Note vs. Bibliography entry

The bibliography entry that corresponds with each note is very similar to the longer version of the note, except that the author’s last and first name are reversed in the bibliography entry. To see differences between note and bibliography entries for different types of sources, check this section of the Chicago Manual of Style .

For Liquidated , the bibliography entry would look like this:

Ho, Karen, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.

Citing a source with two or three authors

If you are citing a source with two or three authors, list their names in your note in the order they appear in the original source. In the bibliography, invert only the name of the first author and use “and” before the last named author.

1. Melissa Borja and Jacob Gibson, “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics: The Case of Evangelical Responses to Southeast Asian Refugees,” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 17, no. 3 (2019): 80-81, https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2019.1643983 .

Shortened note:

1. Borja and Gibson, “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics,” 80-81.

Bibliography:

Borja, Melissa, and Jacob Gibson. “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics: The Case of Evangelical Responses to Southeast Asian Refugees.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 17. no. 3 (2019): 80–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2019.1643983 .

Citing a source with more than three authors

If you are citing a source with more than three authors, include all of them in the bibliography, but only include the first one in the note, followed by et al. ( et al. is the shortened form of the Latin et alia , which means “and others”).

1. Justine M. Nagurney, et al., “Risk Factors for Disability After Emergency Department Discharge in Older Adults,” Academic Emergency Medicine 27, no. 12 (2020): 1271.

Short version of note:

1. Justine M. Nagurney, et al., “Risk Factors for Disability,” 1271.

Nagurney, Justine M., Ling Han, Linda Leo‐Summers, Heather G. Allore, Thomas M. Gill, and Ula Hwang. “Risk Factors for Disability After Emergency Department Discharge in Older Adults.” Academic Emergency Medicine 27, no. 12 (2020): 1270–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/acem.14088 .

Citing a book consulted online

If you are citing a book you consulted online, you should include a URL, DOI, or the name of the database where you found the book.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 27-35, https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1215/9780822391371 .

Bibliography entry:

Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1215/9780822391371 .

Citing an e-book consulted outside of a database

If you are citing an e-book that you accessed outside of a database, you should indicate the format. If you read the book in a format without fixed page numbers (like Kindle, for example), you should not include the page numbers that you saw as you read. Instead, include chapter or section numbers, if possible.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), chap. 2, Kindle.

Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. Kindle.

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The bibliography is a separate page at the end of your paper, listing all the sources used in alphabetical order. It's a comprehensive list of works related to your subject, and you might consider calling it a "Selected Bibliography" for accuracy.

Here are some key differences between footnotes and bibliographies:

• Bibliography entries are organized alphabetically by the author's last name (e.g., Jones, Mark).
• Periods are used to separate different pieces of information in bibliography entries.
• Complete source information is provided in bibliographies, rather than specific page numbers.
• Bibliography entries start at the left margin, with subsequent lines indented by 5 spaces.

In both footnotes and bibliographies, if an author's name is missing, move on to the next element as it should appear. Alphabetize the list based on the first letter of each entry, whether it's a last name or a title.

Book with 1 author

Nadler, Steven. A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Boyer, Paul S. Purity in Print: Book Censorship in America from the Gilded Age to the Computer Age . 2nd ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.

Book with 2 authors

Marwell, Gerald, and Pamela Oliver. The Critical Mass in Collective Action . Cambridge: Cambridge  University Press, 2007.

Book with 3 authors

Child, Julia, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking . New York: Knopf, 1961.

Book with more than 3 authors

Geller, Anne Ellen, Michele Owen, Frank Johnson, Tristan Jones, Louis Bissett, and Jonathan Howell. The Everyday Writing Center . Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2007.

Book without an author

CIA World Factbook . Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2009.

Work in an anthology or collection of works by different authors

Dunlavy, Colleen. “Why Did American Businesses Get So Big?” In Major Problems in American Business History , edited by Regina Blaszczyk and Philip Scranton. New York: Houghton- Mifflin, 2006. 257-263.

Newspaper article (print)

Marshall, Tyler. "200th Birthday of Grimms Celebrated." Los Angeles Times , 15 March 1985, sec. 1A, p. 3.

Journal article (print)

Sánchez, Raúl. “Outside the Text: Retheorizing Empiricism and Identity.” College English 74 (2012): 234- 246.

Davidson, Richard. Interview by author. Madison, WI, April 20, 2012.

Soderbergh, Steven, director. Che . DVD. New York: Criterion Collection, 2008.

Electronic book (e-book)

Note: you may use either the URL or database name.

Adams, Ian, and R.W. Dyson. Fifty Major Political Thinkers . London: Routledge, 2003. Accessed December 3, 2015. site.ebrary.com/lib/surricc/detail.action?docID=10211497.

Paine, Thomas. Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution, Part 1. London: G.P. Putnam, 1894. Accessed November 16, 2015. ProQuest Ebrary.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success . Boston: Little, Brown, 2008. Kindle.

Journal article (online)

Note: you may use either URL, database name, or DOI number (if available).

Nash, David. "The Gain from Paine." History Today 59 (June 2009): 12-18. Accessed December 2, 2015. ProQuest Central.

Cooper, Mary H. "Social Security Reform." CQ Researcher Online 14 (September 24, 2004): 790. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre.

Wandel, Lee Palmer. “Setting the Lutheran Eucharist.” Journal of Early Modern History 17 (1998): 124-55. doi: 10.1163/157006598X00135.

Magazine article (online)

Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Real Patriots Speak Their Minds." Time (July 8, 1991): 66. Accessed December 2, 2015. ProQuest Research Library.

Conason, Joe. "Liberalism Is as Patriotic as Apple Pie." Salon (July 7, 1998). Accessed November 19, 2015. http://www.salon.com/news/col/cona/1998/07/07/cona/index.html.

Newspaper article (online)

Chen, David W. "Rehabilitating Thomas Paine, Bit by Bony Bit." New York Times (March 30, 2001). Accessed November 6, 2015. http://search.proquest.com/docview/431684606.

Kreis, Steven. "Thomas Paine, 1737-1809." The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History. Last modified May 30, 2015. Accessed November 4, 2015. http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/paine.html.

ChatGPT or Artificial Intelligence Model

You should not cite ChatGPT in your Bibliography or Reference List. The URL created by your prompt are not stable and cannot be reproduced by your instructor. ChatGPT should be treated like an email, phone, or text conversation, or another form of personal communication. Simply put the ChatGPT (or other AI model) information in a footnote in your paper.

Tweet or other social networking post

Thomas Paine Society. Twitter Post. June 16, 2015, 8:05 PM. https://twitter.com/CitizenPaine.

YouTube or video on a website

GEICO Insurance. “GEICO Hump Day Camel Commercial – Happier than a Camel on Wednesday.” Filmed [May 2013]. YouTube video, 00:30. Posted [May 2013]. http://youtu.be/kWBhP0EQ1lA.

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• Harvard Style Bibliography | Format & Examples

Harvard Style Bibliography | Format & Examples

Published on 1 May 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 7 November 2022.

In Harvard style , the bibliography or reference list provides full references for the sources you used in your writing.

• A reference list consists of entries corresponding to your in-text citations .
• A bibliography sometimes also lists sources that you consulted for background research, but did not cite in your text.

The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. If in doubt about which to include, check with your instructor or department.

The information you include in a reference varies depending on the type of source, but it usually includes the author, date, and title of the work, followed by details of where it was published. You can automatically generate accurate references using our free reference generator:

Harvard Reference Generator

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Table of contents

Formatting a harvard style bibliography, harvard reference examples, referencing sources with multiple authors, referencing sources with missing information, frequently asked questions about harvard bibliographies.

Sources are alphabetised by author last name. The heading ‘Reference list’ or ‘Bibliography’ appears at the top.

Each new source appears on a new line, and when an entry for a single source extends onto a second line, a hanging indent is used:

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Reference list or bibliography entries always start with the author’s last name and initial, the publication date and the title of the source. The other information required varies depending on the source type. Formats and examples for the most common source types are given below.

• Entire book
• Book chapter
• Translated book
• Edition of a book

Journal articles

• Print journal
• Online-only journal with DOI
• Online-only journal without DOI
• General web page
• Online article or blog
• Social media post

Newspapers and magazines

• Newspaper article
• Magazine article

When a source has up to three authors, list all of them in the order their names appear on the source. If there are four or more, give only the first name followed by ‘ et al. ’:

Sometimes a source won’t list all the information you need for your reference. Here’s what to do when you don’t know the publication date or author of a source.

Some online sources, as well as historical documents, may lack a clear publication date. In these cases, you can replace the date in the reference list entry with the words ‘no date’. With online sources, you still include an access date at the end:

When a source doesn’t list an author, you can often list a corporate source as an author instead, as with ‘Scribbr’ in the above example. When that’s not possible, begin the entry with the title instead of the author:

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Though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a difference in meaning:

• A reference list only includes sources cited in the text – every entry corresponds to an in-text citation .
• A bibliography also includes other sources which were consulted during the research but not cited.

In Harvard referencing, up to three author names are included in an in-text citation or reference list entry. When there are four or more authors, include only the first, followed by ‘ et al. ’

In Harvard style referencing , to distinguish between two sources by the same author that were published in the same year, you add a different letter after the year for each source:

• (Smith, 2019a)
• (Smith, 2019b)

Add ‘a’ to the first one you cite, ‘b’ to the second, and so on. Do the same in your bibliography or reference list .

To create a hanging indent for your bibliography or reference list :

• Highlight all the entries
• Click on the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the ‘Paragraph’ tab in the top menu.
• In the pop-up window, under ‘Special’ in the ‘Indentation’ section, use the drop-down menu to select ‘Hanging’.
• Then close the window with ‘OK’.

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 Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, November 07). Harvard Style Bibliography | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 4 November 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-bibliography/

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Jack Caulfield

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How to Write a Bibliography for a Research Paper

Do not try to “wow” your instructor with a long bibliography when your instructor requests only a works cited page. It is tempting, after doing a lot of work to research a paper, to try to include summaries on each source as you write your paper so that your instructor appreciates how much work you did. That is a trap you want to avoid. MLA style, the one that is most commonly followed in high schools and university writing courses, dictates that you include only the works you actually cited in your paper—not all those that you used.

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• If your assignment calls for a bibliography, list all the sources you consulted in your research.
• If your assignment calls for a works cited or references page, include only the sources you quote, summarize, paraphrase, or mention in your paper.
• If your works cited page includes a source that you did not cite in your paper, delete it.
• All in-text citations that you used at the end of quotations, summaries, and paraphrases to credit others for their ideas,words, and work must be accompanied by a cited reference in the bibliography or works cited. These references must include specific information about the source so that your readers can identify precisely where the information came from.The citation entries on a works cited page typically include the author’s name, the name of the article, the name of the publication, the name of the publisher (for books), where it was published (for books), and when it was published.

The good news is that you do not have to memorize all the many ways the works cited entries should be written. Numerous helpful style guides are available to show you the information that should be included, in what order it should appear, and how to format it. The format often differs according to the style guide you are using. The Modern Language Association (MLA) follows a particular style that is a bit different from APA (American Psychological Association) style, and both are somewhat different from the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). Always ask your teacher which style you should use.

A bibliography usually appears at the end of a paper on its own separate page. All bibliography entries—books, periodicals, Web sites, and nontext sources such radio broadcasts—are listed together in alphabetical order. Books and articles are alphabetized by the author’s last name.

Most teachers suggest that you follow a standard style for listing different types of sources. If your teacher asks you to use a different form, however, follow his or her instructions. Take pride in your bibliography. It represents some of the most important work you’ve done for your research paper—and using proper form shows that you are a serious and careful researcher.

Bibliography Entry for a Book

A bibliography entry for a book begins with the author’s name, which is written in this order: last name, comma, first name, period. After the author’s name comes the title of the book. If you are handwriting your bibliography, underline each title. If you are working on a computer, put the book title in italicized type. Be sure to capitalize the words in the title correctly, exactly as they are written in the book itself. Following the title is the city where the book was published, followed by a colon, the name of the publisher, a comma, the date published, and a period. Here is an example:

Format : Author’s last name, first name. Book Title. Place of publication: publisher, date of publication.

• A book with one author : Hartz, Paula.  Abortion: A Doctor’s Perspective, a Woman’s Dilemma . New York: Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1992.
• A book with two or more authors : Landis, Jean M. and Rita J. Simon.  Intelligence: Nature or Nurture?  New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Bibliography Entry for a Periodical

A bibliography entry for a periodical differs slightly in form from a bibliography entry for a book. For a magazine article, start with the author’s last name first, followed by a comma, then the first name and a period. Next, write the title of the article in quotation marks, and include a period (or other closing punctuation) inside the closing quotation mark. The title of the magazine is next, underlined or in italic type, depending on whether you are handwriting or using a computer, followed by a period. The date and year, followed by a colon and the pages on which the article appeared, come last. Here is an example:

Format:  Author’s last name, first name. “Title of the Article.” Magazine. Month and year of publication: page numbers.

• Article in a monthly magazine : Crowley, J.E.,T.E. Levitan and R.P. Quinn.“Seven Deadly Half-Truths About Women.”  Psychology Today  March 1978: 94–106.
• Article in a weekly magazine : Schwartz, Felice N.“Management,Women, and the New Facts of Life.”  Newsweek  20 July 2006: 21–22.
• Signed newspaper article : Ferraro, Susan. “In-law and Order: Finding Relative Calm.”  The Daily News  30 June 1998: 73.
• Unsigned newspaper article : “Beanie Babies May Be a Rotten Nest Egg.”  Chicago Tribune  21 June 2004: 12.

Bibliography Entry for a Web Site

For sources such as Web sites include the information a reader needs to find the source or to know where and when you found it. Always begin with the last name of the author, broadcaster, person you interviewed, and so on. Here is an example of a bibliography for a Web site:

Format : Author.“Document Title.” Publication or Web site title. Date of publication. Date of access.

Example : Dodman, Dr. Nicholas. “Dog-Human Communication.”  Pet Place . 10 November 2006.  23 January 2014 < http://www.petplace.com/dogs/dog-human-communication-2/page1.aspx >

After completing the bibliography you can breathe a huge sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back. You probably plan to turn in your work in printed or handwritten form, but you also may be making an oral presentation. However you plan to present your paper, do your best to show it in its best light. You’ve put a great deal of work and thought into this assignment, so you want your paper to look and sound its best. You’ve completed your research paper!

Back to  How To Write A Research Paper .

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What is a Bibliography?

What is an annotated bibliography, introduction to the annotated bibliography.

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• the authors' names
• the titles of the works
• the names and locations of the companies that published your copies of the sources
• the dates your copies were published
• the page numbers of your sources (if they are part of multi-source volumes)

Ok, so what's an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is the same as a bibliography with one important difference: in an annotated bibliography, the bibliographic information is followed by a brief description of the content, quality, and usefulness of the source. For more, see the section at the bottom of this page.

What are Footnotes?

Footnotes are notes placed at the bottom of a page. They cite references or comment on a designated part of the text above it. For example, say you want to add an interesting comment to a sentence you have written, but the comment is not directly related to the argument of your paragraph. In this case, you could add the symbol for a footnote. Then, at the bottom of the page you could reprint the symbol and insert your comment. Here is an example:

This is an illustration of a footnote. 1 The number “1” at the end of the previous sentence corresponds with the note below. See how it fits in the body of the text? 1 At the bottom of the page you can insert your comments about the sentence preceding the footnote.

When your reader comes across the footnote in the main text of your paper, he or she could look down at your comments right away, or else continue reading the paragraph and read your comments at the end. Because this makes it convenient for your reader, most citation styles require that you use either footnotes or endnotes in your paper. Some, however, allow you to make parenthetical references (author, date) in the body of your work.

Footnotes are not just for interesting comments, however. Sometimes they simply refer to relevant sources -- they let your reader know where certain material came from, or where they can look for other sources on the subject. To decide whether you should cite your sources in footnotes or in the body of your paper, you should ask your instructor or see our section on citation styles.

Where does the little footnote mark go?

Whenever possible, put the footnote at the end of a sentence, immediately following the period or whatever punctuation mark completes that sentence. Skip two spaces after the footnote before you begin the next sentence. If you must include the footnote in the middle of a sentence for the sake of clarity, or because the sentence has more than one footnote (try to avoid this!), try to put it at the end of the most relevant phrase, after a comma or other punctuation mark. Otherwise, put it right at the end of the most relevant word. If the footnote is not at the end of a sentence, skip only one space after it.

What's the difference between Footnotes and Endnotes?

The only real difference is placement -- footnotes appear at the bottom of the relevant page, while endnotes all appear at the end of your document. If you want your reader to read your notes right away, footnotes are more likely to get your reader's attention. Endnotes, on the other hand, are less intrusive and will not interrupt the flow of your paper.

If I cite sources in the Footnotes (or Endnotes), how's that different from a Bibliography?

Sometimes you may be asked to include these -- especially if you have used a parenthetical style of citation. A "works cited" page is a list of all the works from which you have borrowed material. Your reader may find this more convenient than footnotes or endnotes because he or she will not have to wade through all of the comments and other information in order to see the sources from which you drew your material. A "works consulted" page is a complement to a "works cited" page, listing all of the works you used, whether they were useful or not.

Isn't a "works consulted" page the same as a "bibliography," then?

Well, yes. The title is different because "works consulted" pages are meant to complement "works cited" pages, and bibliographies may list other relevant sources in addition to those mentioned in footnotes or endnotes. Choosing to title your bibliography "Works Consulted" or "Selected Bibliography" may help specify the relevance of the sources listed.

This information has been freely provided by plagiarism.org and can be reproduced without the need to obtain any further permission as long as the URL of the original article/information is cited. 

How Do I Cite Sources? (n.d.) Retrieved October 19, 2009, from http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_how_do_i_cite_sources.html

The Importance of an Annotated Bibliography

An Annotated Bibliography is a collection of annotated citations. These annotations contain your executive notes on a source. Use the annotated bibliography to help remind you of later of the important parts of an article or book. Putting the effort into making good notes will pay dividends when it comes to writing a paper!

Good Summary

Being an executive summary, the annotated citation should be fairly brief, usually no more than one page, double spaced.

• Focus on summarizing the source in your own words.
• Avoid direct quotations from the source, at least those longer than a few words. However, if you do quote, remember to use quotation marks. You don't want to forget later on what is your own summary and what is a direct quotation!
• If an author uses a particular term or phrase that is important to the article, use that phrase within quotation marks. Remember that whenever you quote, you must explain the meaning and context of the quoted word or text. 

Common Elements of an Annotated Citation

• Summary of an Article or Book's thesis or most important points (Usually two to four sentences)
• Summary of a source's methodological approach. That is, what is the source? How does it go about proving its point(s)? Is it mostly opinion based? If it is a scholarly source, describe the research method (study, etc.) that the author used. (Usually two to five sentences)
• Your own notes and observations on the source beyond the summary. Include your initial analysis here. For example, how will you use this source? Perhaps you would write something like, "I will use this source to support my point about . . . "
• Formatting Annotated Bibliographies This guide from Purdue OWL provides examples of an annotated citation in MLA and APA formats.

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Citing Sources: What are citations and why should I use them?

What is a citation.

Citations are a way of giving credit when certain material in your work came from another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again-- it provides an important roadmap to your research process. Whenever you use sources such as books, journals or websites in your research, you must give credit to the original author by citing the source. 

Why do researchers cite?

Scholarship is a conversation  and scholars use citations not only to  give credit  to original creators and thinkers, but also to  add strength and authority  to their own work.  By citing their sources, scholars are  placing their work in a specific context  to show where they “fit” within the larger conversation.  Citations are also a great way to  leave a trail  intended to help others who may want to explore the conversation or use the sources in their own work.

In short, citations

(1) give credit

(2) add strength and authority to your work

(3) place your work in a specific context

(4) leave a trail for other scholars

"Good citations should reveal your sources, not conceal them. They should honeslty reflect the research you conducted." (Lipson 4)

Lipson, Charles. "Why Cite?"  Cite Right: A Quick Guide to Citation Styles--MLA, APA, Chicago, the Sciences, Professions, and More . Chicago: U of Chicago, 2006. Print.

What does a citation look like?

Different subject disciplines call for citation information to be written in very specific order, capitalization, and punctuation. There are therefore many different style formats. Three popular citation formats are MLA Style (for humanities articles) and APA or Chicago (for social sciences articles).

MLA style (print journal article):  

Whisenant, Warren A. "How Women Have Fared as Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Since the Passage of Title IX." Sex Roles Vol. 49.3 (2003): 179-182.

APA style (print journal article):

Whisenant, W. A. (2003) How Women Have Fared as Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Since the Passage of Title IX. Sex Roles , 49 (3), 179-182.

Chicago style (print journal article):

Whisenant, Warren A. "How Women Have Fared as Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Since the Passage of Title IX." Sex Roles 49, no. 3 (2003): 179-182.

No matter which style you use, all citations require the same basic information:

• Author or Creator
• Container (e.g., Journal or magazine, website, edited book)
• Date of creation or publication
• Publisher 

You are most likely to have easy access to all of your citation information when you find it in the first place. Take note of this information up front, and it will be much easier to cite it effectively later.

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