17 Citation Style
Select the citation style to be used for referencing material in your book and note this on your style sheet. If you are writing for a specific discipline, select the citation style appropriate for your area. If you are adapting an existing book, use the citation style chosen by the original author.
Use the citation style you’ve selected to set out rules for your book and record them in your Style Sheet to ensure consistency. Some basic questions to ask yourself:
- What will in-text citations look like?
- When inserting direct quotations, is a page number required?
- How will you list multiple authors for an in-text citation or entry in a reference list?
- Where will the reference list be located?
- Will you use footnotes instead of a reference list?
- How will you ensure that all in-text citations are noted in full in the reference list?
If you are creating a table, chart, or graph, see Citation vs Attribution for information on how to add in-text citations.
If you are adapting a work and remove an in-text citation, remember to remove this reference from the reference list at the end of the chapter.
If you want to indicate sources used for writing that have not been specifically cited in the text, add these items to a Bibliography at the end of the chapter.
Pay close attention to the punctuation used for the citation style you’ve chosen, such as:
- How periods are used
- Use of italics
- Use of brackets
- Use of quotation marks
- Use of spaces
Note: No periods should be used after URLs when they end a reference list entry.
See the Appendix chapter titled Citation Styles for more information on how to format citations depending on MLA, APA, and Chicago.
This chapter is adapted from the Ryerson Open Textbook Authoring Guide, Chapter: Style Guide, published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
