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Citing Sources at DKU

Citing Sources

Most citation styles require you to cite twice: an in-text citation and a reference page.

  • An in-text citation appears in the text of a paper, at the exact point where a source is quoted or paraphrased. Depending on the reference style, an in-text citation may also appear as a footnote or endnote. 
  • A reference page, variously known as Bibliography, References or Works Cited, occurs at the end of a paper and includes all sources used in that paper.

What elements should you include in a citation?

In-text citations are generally very short. While citation styles differ, most in-text citations contain some or all of the following:

  1. Author 
  2. (Abbreviated) title of publication
  3. Year of publication 
  4. Page number

Different citation styles have different requirements for in-text citations. Here are two examples of in-text citations in the MLA style:

While citation styles differ (see "Major Citation Styles" for more), most citations contain the following elements: 

  1. Author(s), editor(s) and/or translator(s) 
  2. Title of the article or book chapter
  3. Title of the journal (if you are citing an article) or book (if you are citing a chapter)
  4. Publication date

Citations for books or book chapters may also include:

  1. Place of publication
  2. Publisher 
  3. Page numbers (for book chapters)
  4. Edition of the book (if the book has been published multiple times) 

Citations for journal articles include: 

  1. Volume
  2. Issue 
  3. Page numbers

Different citation styles have different requirements for their reference lists. Here is a sample entry on an MLA Works Cited page: