Citations

Ferris State University Library for Information, Technology and Education (FLITE).

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Citations

What is a Citation?

Citations provide basic information about an information source that allows you or others to locate the same source again. The information source may be a book, journal article, webpage, radio broadcast, etc. Although the information needed to locate a journal article vs. a webpage (or a book vs. a radio broadcast) may vary, some basic information such as who, what, when, and where should be made available in the citation (see bulleted list of Basic Components of an Article Citation below).

When writing papers, it is essential to cite your sources, meaning that you must say where the information came from. If you do not cite your sources, you may be guilty of plagiarism. When in doubt if you should cite a source, err on the side of precaution and note where the information came from.

Basic Components of an Article Citation

Author (Who)
Title (What)
Publication date (When)
Journal Volume (Where)
Journal Issue (Where)
Page number(s) (Where)

Click here to see examples of citations from 2 different databases.

Bibliographies, References, Works Cited... It's all Greek to Me!

When your professor says that your paper should include a bibliography, works cited page, list of references, etc., they are not speaking another language!! Simply, they want you to gather and present citations for all of the information sources you used when writing your paper. Works cited pages tend to present the citations in alphabetical order, or possibly in the order they were cited in your paper. Citation order differs depending on the citation style that was used. Your professor should specify his or her preferred citation style. Three of the main citation styles include:

If the citation guides above do not provide enough information for formatting your citations, the full style guides are available in the Ready Reference section by the FLITE Oval Information Desk - just ask a librarian for help.

Are There Computer Programs/Websites to Help Me Format My Citations?

Yes...but still cross-check the citation format with a citation guide!!

RefWorks: A wonderful resource subscribed to by the library. You can create an account and format your citations in a fraction of the time it takes to format citations without this great tool.
RefWorks Tutorial: Need help using RefWorks? Check out this extensive tutorial that can assist you with using RefWorks. Don't miss the A-Z database exporting guide that will show you how to use all of the FLITE databases with RefWorks.
Citation Machine (Son of Citation Machine): Select the citation style you want to use, the type of resource you were using, and fill in the form to have your citation arranged to the proper citation style.
EasyBib: Another website that will help you format your citations after you select the information type and where you retrieved the information from. (EasyBib offers free citations only in MLA.)
KnightCite: A third website to help you format your citations using APA, MLA or Chicago styles. Select your resource from the column on the left, fill in the necessary information, and KnightCite will generate a citation for you. If you complete a free registration, you can build a bibliography to export into Word.