Citation Elements

What is a citation? What is a bibliographical reference? What is a reference?
They are one and the same and can be defined as follows:

A citation is a short, multi-part description of a specific information source.   A citation provides the necessary information to find the cited source.   A citation is used to give credit to the sources you use to create an intellectual work.       [adapted from Kansas State University Libraries]

Below are examples of the two most common types of citations, citations for books and journal articles:

I. Articles (in magazines, journals, newspapers)

Here is a reference to a journal article as found in an online database:

Here is a citation of the same article based on the APA style guide:

Apostolou, N. G., Crumbley, D. L., & VanDenburgh, W. M. (2004). Ignore footnotes at your peril. The Forensic Examiner, 13 (1), 29-35.

II. Books

Here is a reference to a book found in an online catalog:

Here is a citation of the same book based on the MLA style guide:

Zerby, Chuck. The devil's details: A history of footnotes. New York: Touchstone, 2003.

KEY: Author(s) of book Complete Title of book/article Place of publicaton Publisher Year of publication

APA, MLA, Chicago Style ...????
Be sure to use the right style guide for your project.
Want to know more? See Citing in the Humanities/ Citing in the Social Sciences/ Citing in the Sciences