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Citation Styles

Common Elements of Citation

The purpose of citation is to:

  • allow other scholars to locate the work you used in your research 
  • avoid academic misconduct.

Different disciplines and different scholarly journals have their own required citation styles. If you are preparing citations for a paper in your course, check with your instructor to be sure you are following the citation style required.

 

Here is the definition of academic misconduct, aka plagiarism, from UMass Lowell's website:

Academic misconduct is an act in which a student:
(a) Seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another without authorization or citation;

(b) Uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any academic exercise;

(c) Forges or falsifies academic documents or records;

(d) Intentionally impedes or damages the academic work of others;

(e) Engages in conduct aimed at making false representation of a student’s academic performance; or

(f) Assists other students in any of these acts.

Citations are designed to help you avoid making these mistakes!

 

Common Elements of  Citations

These are the elements of all citations at their most basic. Remember, part of the point is to allow readers to find your source themselves. These elements are formatted, punctuated, and distributed differently depending on the requirements of your discipline.

 

Author

Maddox, J. T. I.

Date

(2020).

Title

Challenging the black atlantic : The new world novels of zapata olivella and gonçalves.

[this should be on one line]

Source

Bucknell University Press

Depending on the particular style, you may also need to include page numbers, URL or DOI, date accessed. The formatting of the authors' name will be different, and punctuation is crucial. Placement of punctuation differs from style to style.

 

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University maintains a comprehensive website explaining many citation styles.

If you cannot access the above video, you can watch it here

Citation Style by Department/College

Department Citation Style
Manning School of Business APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Accounting APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Finance APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Management APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Marketing, Entrepreneurship, & Innovation APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Operations and Information Systems APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Solomont School of Nursing APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Public Health Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Biomedical & Nutritional Sciences Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Physical Therapy Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Francis College of Engineering Varies*
Chemical Engineering Department AICHE or  APA
Civil & Environmental Engineering Department ASME, ASCE or APA
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department IEEE or APA
Mechanical Engineering Department IEEE (or AIAA, ASME, APA)
Plastics Engineering Department AICHE, ASME or APA
College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Varies*
Art & Design Department MLA (Modern Language Association) Style
Criminology and Justice Studies APA (American Psychological Association)
Economics Department Chicago Manual of Style
English Department

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

History Department Chicago Manual of Style
Music Department MLA (Modern Language Association) Style
Philosophy Department MLA (Modern Language Association) Style
Political Science Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Psychology Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Sociology Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
World Languages & Cultures Department MLA (Modern Language Association) Style
Kennedy College of Sciences *Varies
Biological Sciences Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Chemistry Department APA or ACS
Computer Science Department IEEE Style & ACM Style
Environmental, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Mathematical Sciences Department APA (American Psychological Association) Style
Physics Department AIP Style (American Institute of Physics)
College of Education APA (American Psychological Association) Style

Auto-Generated Citations

If you cannot access the above video, you can watch it here