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What is a citation?

What is a citation?

• A citation is a short, multi-part description of a specific information source.
• A citation is used to give credit to the sources you use to create an intellectual work.
• A citation provides the information that is needed to find the cited source.

A book citation and its individual elements

A citation for a book typically contains the following elements:

• Title of the book
• Name(s) of author(s) or editor(s)
• Publication date
• Publisher’s location
• Publisher’s name

A journal/magazine article citation and its individual elements

A citation for a journal or magazine typically contains the following elements:

• Names of the author(s) of the article
• Title of the article
• Name of the journal
• Publication date
• Volume and/or issue number
• Page number(s)

A newspaper article citation and its individual elements

A citation for a newspaper article typically contains the following elements:

• Names of the author(s) of the article
• Title of the article
• Name of the newspaper
• Publication date
• Page numbers

Citations for other types of items

Citations for multimedia items will often state the format of the item.

Citations for U.S. government documents usually list Government Printing Office as the publisher.

Citations for Web documents usually include a URL.