Referencing at your Fingertips

The Harvard citation style is one that is universally used by students, researchers as well as writers to integrate the quotes, ideas and findings of other authors into their work. They include this information in order to validate as well as support their own ideas and arguments without breaking intellectual property laws.

How to use this style?

Harvard citation is done in two ways – in-text (i.e. within the body of your assignment) and referencing list (i.e. at the end of your paper where you give a list of all the resources you have used for the completion of the same).

For in-text citation in the Harvard style, you will have to provide the surname of the author and the date of publication in parenthesis either at the end of the sentences or right after introducing the said concept.

For instance –   If we try to analyze the concept of division of labour, what we will find is that... (Durkheim, 2006).

To cite the resource at the end of the list in Harvard style, you will first have to mention the name of the author, the year of publication, the name of the book, the edition and the name of the publication in this particular sequence.

For instance-   Bell, J. (2010) Doing your research project. 5th edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

The way each resource cited can vary depending on the number of authors of a single article or book, whether you have lifted quotes or paraphrased the entire thing and more. If you get confused, you should use our Harvard citation generator for free.

The Chicago referencing style is quite similar to the Harvard citation style. Students use this style too to acknowledge the fact that they have used other’s ideas and words to justify their own without committing to plagiarism.

How to use this style?

Here’s where the difference between Harvard and Chicago style citation becomes apparent. The Chicago style of citation is made up of two different systems. The first one is known as the Notes-Bibliography System, wherein you are supposed to add footnotes or end-notes along with a bibliography.

For instance –   11. Richard Read, Art and its Discontents: The Early Life of Adrian Stokes (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2002), 65. (This is an example in footnotes)

Read, Richard. Art and its Discontents: The Early Life of Adrian Stokes. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2002. (This is the corresponding example in bibliography)

The other one is referred to as the Author-Date System in which you put author-date citations in parenthesis and correspond it to a reference list at the end that contains all the details of publication. For the in-text citations of this type, you are supposed to mention the last name of the author along with the year.

For instance –   (Smith 2016)

As you can see above, unlike Harvard, the comma is missing in the Chicago style.

To mention a resource in the reference list in the Chicago style, you have to put in the author’s name, the year, the book title as well as the page number.

For instance – Olney, William W. 2015. "Impact of Corruption on Firm-Level Export Decisions." Economic Inquiry 54 (2): 1105–27.

The Chicago referencing style is considered to be one of the hardest, so take the help of our Chicago format generator for this one.

The APA referencing style is completely parenthetical, relying heavily on the author and the date. It was developed by the American Psychological Association. Citing in APA is relatively easier as compared to those in other formats. You just have to enter the last name of the author as well as the year of publication in parenthesis wherever you have made use of someone else’s ideas. This form is widely used among those studying behavioural and social sciences.

How to use this style?

As mentioned before, citing in this style is much easier. The APA citation has several citation editions, and currently, the 6th edition is in use. To cite in-text, you simply have to mention the last name of the author, the year of publishing and the page number although it’s not a necessity. Use it in case you’re lifting a quote out of a particular book.

For instance – The authors of the research revealed that... (Sania et al., 2011)

The above example is in case if there are multiple authors of one article/book. You can also mention the article name if you’re not sure of the author.

As for citing in your referencing list, you will have to start with the name of the author, the year of publication, the name of the book, its edition, and its publishing house.

For instance -   Hawking, S. W. (1998). A brief history of time: From the big bang to black holes (10th ed.). New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.

Despite being relatively easier, many students still get confused between the APA and the Harvard styles. If you are one of them, then you should make use of our APA citation builder.

Developed by the Modern Languages Association, the MLA format is widely prescribed by professors to students for academic writing. The style is mostly reminiscent of those used in humanities and liberal arts. The best part of this style is that it helps in bringing about a certain consistency in formatting throughout the paper, which is visibly absent in most other popular styles.

How to use this style?

Like every other format out there, referencing in the MLA format too can be done in two ways – in-text and in the referencing list. Before you get down to referencing in this format, though, you should keep in mind that the citation should be accurate, clear and brief, displaying only the information that is needed.

To cite in-text in this style, you need to include the last name of the author within parenthesis along with the page number of the book from which you have lifted the matter. There’s no need for you to add a comma in the middle.

For instance –   Many echo the thoughts that having a collection of the choicest of photographs is equivalent “to collect(ing) the world” (Sontag 3).

If you are making use of this style in the bibliography of your paper, make sure that you mention each and every detail pertaining to the publication of the book you are referring to.

For instance – Franke, Damon. Modernist Heresies: British Literary History, 1883-1924. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2008. Print.

Notice how different it is from the rest as the name of the book has been mentioned in italics.

You can always make use of our MLA citation generator if you get stuck with this referencing style.

Created by the American Medical Association, this referencing style is not quite as popular but is still used by many academic authors to display how another author’s work has helped them to support the views and theories presented in their own work. Even though it was devised by the medical association, it has been modified to a large extent to support the rules of various publications and universities.

How to use this style?

If you wish to use this style for in-text citations, you will have to include a number in the superscript where citing the source is relevant. The citation is generally displayed at the end of a sentence or a quote. The number entered should follow a chronological order for subsequent citations within the same paper.

For instance –   The rainbow consists of seven colours.

When you’re using AMA citation to reference in the bibliography, you will have to maintain the same serial number as you did in your text, and these numbers should correspond with and be relevant to each other. Along with it, the name of the author will come first, followed by the name of the book in italics and the publishing house along with the year.

For instance – 1. Cottrell S. The Study Skills Handbook. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2013.

The use of superscript in this style can overwhelm many. If you are one of them, our AMA citation generator is the one for you.

The IEEE citation style was developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and has been derived from the widely popular Chicago referencing style. The IEEE referencing format, even though borrowed from the Chicago, is still quite different from it. In the IEEE style, you are supposed to make use of a numbering system to reference.

How to use this style?

The thing with IEEE references is that each in-text citation is supposed to have a corresponding reference in the bibliography section of your paper. The number you mention in the in-text citation should be shown within square brackets. You may almost think that this style is very similar to the AMA, and may end up confusing the two more often than not.

For instance – A crow mostly has black feathers with grey ones on its chest.

To reference in the bibliography using the IEEE citation, you have to make sure that all the necessary information is present so that the reader can know about the exact source. So when mentioning the source in the bibliography, start with the number in third brackets first and then go on to give the details.

For instance –   [1] S. Cottrell, The study skills handbook. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Keep in mind that the IEEE citation style makes use of different formats for different source types, making it tougher than it first appears. If that is too much for you to take in, you can employ our free IEEE citation maker to solve all your problems.

The ASA citation style was formed by the American Sociological Society, and is heavily used by the scholars and researchers of the world of sociology. This style is parenthetical in its approach and relies on the author-date documentation system. Footnotes are not a part of this style, and it has a rather clean and consistent look.

How to use this style?

For in-text citations, you simply have to mention the name of the author as well as the year of the publication of the book/article, etc. You can also add in page numbers when needed. Be careful though as every in-text citation you make must have a corresponding one in the bibliography.

For instance – It can be argued that the real scenario was much different than what has been put forward (Welch 1991).

As for bibliography citation in this style, it’s slightly more complex. Unlike others, where you just had to mention the surname of the author along with the initial of the first name, here you have to mention the full name. The rest of the details remain more or less the same as the rest of the formats.

For instance – Welch, Kathleen E. 1999. Electric Rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric, Oralism, and a New Literacy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

The ASA citation style is quite similar to the Chicago and the APA styles. So if you find yourself unable to distinguish between the three, take the help of our ASA citation generator.

Devised by the American Chemical Society and meant to be used in the academic works of Chemistry, the ACS citation style is now used by students too. The best part of this style is that it is quite practical and convenient which makes it really easy to use.

How to use this style?

The in-text citations in the ACS referencing style can be carried out in three different ways, depending on what your professor prescribes. You can either make use of italicized numbers, superscript numbers or the author’s name and the year of publication. However, keep in mind to maintain consistency and to put each of these within brackets.

For instance – The aim of this learning technique is to...

The aim of this learning technique is to...

The aim of this leaning technique is to... (Cottrell, 2013).

Using this style for your referencing list is dead simple. You just have to mention the name of the author, the book title, the publication date, name of the publisher and the city of publication. Even though the entries may vary depending on the type of source, this is more or less the standard.

For instance –   Cottrell, S. The study skills handbook; Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2013.

If you want an easier option to reference your paper in the ACS style, try out our ACS citation generator. It always gives accurate results.