Citation Styles for Various Disciplines
This page was created with the aim to inform and aid students about the many popular citation styles used in modern writing. This page is a great resource for students writing in various discipli nes, from humanities to the sciences. Each discipline utilizes a different citation style, which is why this page explains when and how each style should be adopted. There are numerous credible sites that outline how to cite AMA, APA, Chicago, CSE/CBE, MLA and Turabian that are linked to this page. Use them as references for your next thesis paper, whether it's for music theory or a scientific dissertation.
AMA: Used for Medical, Health-related and Biological Sciences
University of Washington: AMA Style Guide
This site is a good reference, but it is not very extensive. It provides enough for you to complete a simple bibliography with little trouble. It does not, however, list what needs to be cited, it only shows you examples. If you are unfamiliar with AMA, try this next source for a more detailed explanation.
Long Island University: AMA Citation Styles
This page is extremely unique in that it is color coded to help you better understand the information you need to document. Each piece of information has a specific color so you can make sure you’re properly organizing your material in your bibliography. Additionally, there are notes at the bottom of the page to help clarify some simple AMA guidelines.
Example of AMA citation using a color code
APA: Used for Psychology, Education and Social Sciences
This site provides both citations for bibliography as well as in-text documentation. The page is also easy to navigate, so you can quickly find whatever you’re looking for. However, it does not display explanations with its examples. So, if you are not familiar with APA citation, you may want to check out this next site, which is easier to understand.
The Writers' Workshop: The Center for Writing Studies
This site is very straight forward. All of the information links off the first page and everything is well organized. There are different categories to help you locate proper documentation by author, book, periodical, etc. There are really great explanations that accompany each example to help clarify the information needed for each specific citation.
Chicago: Used for all Subjects, Books, Magazines, News, etc.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center
This is an awesome reference! It covers everything you could possibly want to know including notes, references (first and subsequent) and works cited. This site is great for beginners as well as those familiar with Chicago style citation. The downside is that it only displays one example per situation; sometimes it's helpful to have more than one example.
Chicago style examples of first and subsequent references
University of California Berkeley: Turabian and Chicago Styles Citations in PDF Format
This is a PDF that combines both Chicago with Turabian, which are very similar styles. This source gives you both footnote/endnote and bibliography documentation. It also provides step by step instruction for in-text author-date citations and formatting for reference list entries. At the end of the document, general style rules are listed for further reference.
CSE/CBE: Used for Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics and Physics
Ohio State University: University Libraries
This site is similar to the APA page by Ohio State University. It does a great job of showing how to conduct your citations in a bibliography or in-text. There is also a PDF version of the page if you wish to print it off for personal reference. This type of resource would be better for someone who has had some experience with CSE before.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center
This resource is for CBE, which is basically the same as CSE. It is a thorough reference and is extremely easy to navigate, read and understand. There are two different citation options to use: citation-sequence or name-year. This university site has a full set of different citation styles in a great format for beginners or experienced writers.
MLA: Used for Literature, Arts and Humanities
This resource is by far the best one I've come across on the web. It is thorough and up-to-date. The page has numerous examples of citation and explanations, allowing the reader to be sure what content needs to be included in the citation and where. The page also contains important information in reference to MLA's style, including paper guidelines, formatting and a sample first page. This is a really helpful resource to take advantage of!
Table of Contents for The Owl at Purdue
Research and Documentation: Humanities
This resource gives you a great background to researching humanities. The documentation link offers in-text, works cited, information notes, manuscript format and a sample paper. The paper is very helpful in that it allows you see what your paper should look like visually. Additionally, there are also notes on the document explaining the format.
Turabian: college students in all subjects (dissertations)
Bridgewater State College: Clement C. Maxwell Library
This source provides you with examples for bibliography and in-text notation. There are no descriptions for the examples, so those who want a more informative reference should look to this next site. This page is quite sufficient for those wanting to brush up on Turabian format.
University of South Florida: Tampa Library
This is an interesting page because of the example structure. The information name (like "title" or "place") is given in its proper place instead of supplying an actual title, etc. There is a sample with the information category then another sample showing the realistic information plugged in. I think it is really helpful to see the citation done this way so you know exactly what information needs to be entered and where.
Examples of Turabian book citation
Great Sites for all Citation Styles
This page has a huge range of citation styles and links to find out more about each one. There are helpful tips for various popular citations and explanations about the styles in general. Use this site if you want to learn more about each style, but not necessarily to learn how to use them.
Bedford St. Martins: Citation Styles
This is another great informational page on the various, more popular citation styles. Use it for a more in-depth look into each style and format.
Bedford St. Martins: Research and Documentation
This page has sample papers using MLA, APA, Chicago and CSE. The notes on the papers are really helpful. This is a great resource that presents you with a better visual picture of what each style should look like as a finished product.
