Citation and Style Guides

The purpose of making citations is so the readers of your paper can follow up and find the sources mentioned. Your professor may require that you use a particular style in your citations. The style you use will dictate such things as punctuation and order of the citation elements (author, title, etc.). On this page, the library provides a brief version of APA, MLA and Chicago citation styles. For more complete information, or if you have any questions, please ask the library reference staff.

Bryn Mawr College Honor Code
The Honor Codes defines the College's official guidelines concerning honesty in academic pursuits. It is important to cite the work of others if you use or refer to it in your work.

APA  |  MLA  |  Chicago  | Other Styles
Annotated Bibliographies  | Getting Help

Citing Science Articles

Style Guides

APA (American Psychological Association)

• Used most frequently in the Social Sciences (Education, Social Work)

• Guide to Using APA Style (from dianahacker.com) - for print and electronic works, in text and in reference lists

Citing Electronic Documents in APA Style (official guide)

Basic Format:

Author's last name, First initial. (date). Article title. Journal Title, volume(issue), pages. Retrieved month day, year, from Database Name database: URL

Some Examples:

Article from a full-text database:

Port, Cynthia Lindman. (2004). Identifying Changeable Barriers to Family Involvement in the Nursing Home for Cognitively Impaired Residents. The Gerontologist, 44(6), 770-778. Retrieved August 25, 2005, from the Proquest Research Library database on the World Wide Web: http://proquest.umi.com/

Report from an online database such as ERIC

Hickok, Eugene W. (2005). Charter Schools: To Enhance Education's Monitoring and Research, More Charter School-Level Data Are Needed. Report to the Secretary of Education. US Government Accountability Office, GAO-05-5. Retrieved August 29, 2005, from the ERIC database on the World Wide Web.

MLA (Modern Language Association)

• Used most frequently in the Humanities

• Documenting Sources: MLA Style, English and Other Humanities (from dianahacker.com) - for print and electronic works, in text and in reference lists

Citing Electronic Documents in MLA Style (official guide)

Basic Format:

Author's Lastname, Firstname. "Title of the Article." Title of the Journal. Volume.Number (Publication Date) pp. Name of Subscription Service. Date of online access <URL>.
(NB: Official guide calls for name and city of the subscribing library to follow name of subscription service. This seems less widely followed.)

Some Examples:

Perricone, Catherine R. "Genre and Metarealism in Allende's Paula." Hispania. 81.1 (Mar., 1998): 42-49. JSTOR. 29 August 2005 <http://www.jstor.org> .

Pollard, Scott. "Transvestism, Masculinity and Latin American Literature: Gender Shares Flesh."
College Literature. 32.3 (Summer 2005): 199-203. Proquest Research Library. 29 August 2005 <http://www.proquest.com>.

Chicago/Turabian Style Guide

• Can be used for any subject but most frequently in the social sciences.
• Guide to Using Chicago Style (from dianahacker.com) - for print and electronic works, in text and in reference lists

Citing Electronic Documents in the Chicago Style

Basic Format:

Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. "Article Title." Journal Title Volume, Number (Date): Pages. Database URL.

Some Examples:

Clancy, Mary E and Barbara L. Hruska. "Developing Language Objectives for English Language Learners in Physical Education Lessons." Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance 76, no. 4 (2005): 30-35. http://www.proquest.edu.

Goodfellow, Samuel. "From Communism to Nazism: The Transformation of Alsatian Communists." Journal of Contemporary History 27, no. 2 (1992): 231-258. http://www.jstor.org.

Other Popular Guides

Columbia Guide to Online Style - "Part 1 of The Columbia Guide to Online Style by Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor (Columbia UP, 2006) presents a guide to locating, translating, and using the elements of citation for both a humanities style (i.e., MLA and Chicago) and a scientific style (APA and CBE) for electronically-accessed sources."

Creating an Annotated Bibliography

How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography - a guide with definitions, suggestions, and examples, from the library at Cornell University

Elements of the Annotation - a useful list of ten points to consider as you write your annotations, from the library at Carleton College

More Help

For individual help in creating reference lists and citing web resources, Bryn Mawr students should consult the Writing Center located in Room 212, Canaday Library or any Reference Librarian.