How to Read a Citation

Information on various style guidelines (e.g. APA, MLA), citing electronic information sources (e.g. Internet), etc. can be found on our citation guides page.

When you write a research paper, you normally list the sources that you used in gathering the information. Each book or article listed in your bibliography or reference list is called a citation. Of course, the databases or indexes we use for research are extensive lists of citations to materials on difference topics.

Being able to interpret the various citations you find is an important skill. On this page are some examples of citations you might see in electronic or printed indexes or databases. While they may differ in what information they include and how it is presented, there are some general characteristics you can look for in reading a citation.

Basic Parts of a Citation

In general, citations will have four parts: author, title, source, and year. The main differences concern what source information is given.

	Books	Articles
Source Information	Place of Publication Publisher	Periodical Title Volume/Issue numbers Page numbers

So book citations will typically include a publisher and place of publication; article citations will typically include a periodical title, volume and issue numbers, and page numbers. Both, of course, will have an author, title, and publication date.

Books

Here's an example of a book found in the PsycInfo database.

Note that when there is an editor, the editor's name is usually followed by the abbreviation (Ed.). Also, the total number of pages is sometimes provided. Entries for journal articles give only the range of pages for a particular article. If you plan to list this item in a bibliography, you typically use only some of the information provided: author or editor, title, place of publication, publisher, and publication year. Using the APA style guidelines, you would list this book as follows:

Book Chapters

An entry for a book chapter can be very confusing as it appears to combine elements from both books and articles. It gives the place of publication and publisher, but also gives a range of pages for the chapter. When in doubt, check to see if the "DT" or document type is indicated. If it says chapter or essay, this normally indicates that the entry is from a book. Here's an example from the PsycInfo database.

Using the MLA style guidelines, you would list this book chapter as follows:

Here is another example of a book chapter citation taken from a different source. Notice the word "In" before the editor's name. This is another indication that this is a chapter "in" a book.

Magazine/Journal Articles

An article citation will often include a month/season of publication, in addition to a volume number, issue number, and range of pages. In contrast to a book citation, you will not find a place of publication or publisher.

Using the "Turabian" style guidelines, you would list this article in your bibliography as shown below.

Here's an example from the CINAHL database:

In the example above from CINAHL, observe that there is additional information supplied by the database, such as the abbreviated journal title, that typically will not be used in your bibliography. Using APA guidelines, this citation would appear in your paper as follows:

Newspaper Articles

Citations for articles in newspapers are slightly different than those in journals and magazines. Often a letter of the alphabet representing the section of the paper is given, as well as the column in which the article begins. Below is an example from the print version of a newspaper index.

Some newspaper indexes, especially the print versions, do not include the article's title or author. When you locate the full-text of the article, make note of the title and author so that you can include this in your bibliography. Using MLA style guidelines, the article from the New York Times would appear as follows (with the author and article title added):