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Citation Style Guides: Home

This guide provides information on the major forms of citation styles.

GW Writing Resources

Citation Help!

Citation Managers let you

  • Import citations from the catalog and databases
  • Store and organize citations
  • Add research notes
  • Format in-text citations
  • Create bibliographies in different citation styles

Citation Style Guides show you how to

  • Document the sources you are using in your work
  • Create citations manually for all types of sources
  • Embed quotations and paraphrases properly in your text

Getting Started

What is a Citation Style Guide? It's a handbook that describes the accepted format for citing the resources and references you used in your research papers, theses, articles, etc.

Don't know which citation style to use?

  • Use APA for papers in psychology, education, and the other social sciences.
  • Use MLA for papers in literature, arts, and humanities.
  • Use Chicago for books, magazines, newspapers, etc.

  •  Turabian is designed for college students to use with all subjects.

Others:

  • AMA (Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library Guide) : medicine, health, and biological sciences.
  • ASA : sociology.
  • APSA : political science, international studies.
  • IEEE: engineering.
  • (here is a Complete Discipline Listing, from OWL)

What is a citation?

A citation is the information needed to locate the article (or book).

For articles, a complete citation generally includes:

  • The author's name 
  • The title of the article 
  • The name of the magazine or journal in which it is located 
  • The volume number of the magazine or journal (and sometimes the issue number) 
  • The page numbers on which the article is located 
  • The date when the article was published

For books, a complete citation generally includes:

  • The author's name 
  • The title of the book 
  • The publication date
  • The city in which the book was published 
  • The book's publisher

Citations are also used to help readers of your papers find the information you used.

About Me

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Dolsy Smith
Contact:
Gelman Library, Rm 551

The George Washington University

(202) 689-5284

dsmith@gwu.edu



Schedule a research appointment with Dolsy.
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