Citation Styles Guide | Examples for All Major Styles

Published on June 24, 2022 by Jack Caulfield. Revised on November 6, 2024.

A citation style is a set of guidelines on how to cite sources in your academic writing. You always
need a citation whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source to avoid plagiarism. How
you present these citations depends on the style you follow. Scribbr’s citation generator can help!
Different styles are set by different universities, academic associations, and publishers, often
published in an official handbook with in-depth instructions and examples.
There are many different citation styles, but they typically use one of three basic
approaches: parenthetical citations, numerical citations, or note citations.
QuillBot’s online Notepad can help you keep track of your own ideas and the sources you consult.

Types of citation: Parenthetical, note, numerical

The clearest identifying characteristic of any citation style is how the citations in the text are
presented. There are three main approaches:

 Parenthetical citations: You include identifying details of the source in parentheses in the
text—usually the author’s last name and the publication date, plus a page number if
relevant (author-date). Sometimes the publication date is omitted (author-page).
 Numerical citations: You include a number in brackets or in superscript, which
corresponds to an entry in your numbered reference list.
 Note citations: You include a full citation in a footnote or endnote, which is indicated in
the text with a superscript number or symbol.

Citation styles also differ in terms of how you format the reference list or bibliography entries
themselves (e.g., capitalization, order of information, use of italics). And many style guides also
provide guidance on more general issues like text formatting, punctuation, and numbers.

Which citation style should I use?

In most cases, your university, department, or instructor will tell you which citation style you need
to follow in your writing. If you’re not sure, it’s best to consult your institution’s guidelines or ask
someone. If you’re submitting to a journal, they will usually require a specific style.

Sometimes, the choice of citation style may be left up to you. In those cases, you can base your
decision on which citation styles are commonly used in your field. Try reading other articles from
your discipline to see how they cite their sources, or consult the table below.
Discipline Typical citation style(s)

Economics Harvard

Engineering & IEEE

IT

Humanities Chicago notes and bibliography; Harvard; MLA

Law Bluebook; OSCOLA

Medicine AMA; NLM; Vancouver

Political science APSA

Psychology APA

Sciences ACS; Chicago author-date; CSE citation-name or citation-sequence; CSE name-

year; Harvard

Social sciences AAA; APA; ASA; Chicago author-date

Parenthetical citation styles

AAA
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) recommends citing your sources
using Chicago author-date style. AAA style doesn’t have its own separate rules. This style is used
in the field of anthropology.

AAA Clarke, Kamari M. 2013. “Notes on Cultural Citizenship in the Black Atlantic
reference World.” Cultural Anthropology 28, no. 3 (August): 464–474.
entry https://www.jstor.org/stable/43898483.

AAA in-text (Clarke 2013)

citation
APA
APA Style is defined by the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association. It was designed for use in psychology, but today it’s widely used across various
disciplines, especially in the social sciences.

APA Wagemann, J. & Weger, U. (2021). Perceiving the other self: An experimental first-
reference person account of nonverbal social interaction. The American Journal of
entry Psychology, 134(4), 441–461. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.134.4.0441

APA in- (Wagemann & Weger, 2021)

text
citation

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Citation style
APA 7th edition
Cite

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Cite manually

APSA
The citation style of the American Political Science Association (APSA) is used mainly in the field
of political science.

APSA Ward, Lee. 2020. “Equity and Political Economy in Thomas Hobbes.” American
reference entry Journal of Political Science, 64 (4): 823–35. doi: 10.1111/ajps.12507.

APSA in-text (Ward 2020)

citation

ASA
The citation style of the American Sociological Association (ASA) is used primarily in the
discipline of sociology.
 Kootstra, Anouk. 2016. “Deserving and Undeserving Welfare Claimants in Britain
ASA
and the Netherlands: Examining the Role of Ethnicity and Migration Status Using a
reference
Vignette Experiment.” European Sociological Review 32(3): 325–338.
entry
doi:10.1093/esr/jcw010.

ASA in-text (Kootstra 2016)

citation

Chicago author-date
Chicago author-date style is one of the two citation styles presented in the Chicago Manual of
Style (17th edition). It’s used mainly in the sciences and social sciences.

Encarnação, João, and Gonçalo Calado. 2018. “Effects of Recreational Diving on

Chicago
Early Colonization Stages of an Artificial Reef in North-East Atlantic.” Journal of
reference
Coastal Conservation 22, no. 6 (December): 1209–1216.
entry
https://www.jstor.org/stable/45380397.

Chicago (Encarnação and Calado 2018)

author-date
citation

NoteThis should not be confused with Chicago notes and bibliography. Additionally, Turabian
style is a version of Chicago that’s aimed at students and follows very similar rules.

CSE name-year
The citation style of the Council of Science Editors (CSE) is used in various scientific disciplines.
It includes multiple options for citing your sources, including the name-year system.

CSE name-year Graham JR. 2019. The structure and stratigraphical relations of the Lough
reference entry Nafooey Group, South Mayo. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences. 37: 1–18.

CSE name-year (Graham 2019)

citation

NoteThis should not be confused with CSE citation-name or citation-sequence.

Harvard
Harvard style is often used in the field of economics. It is also very widely used across disciplines
in UK universities. There are various versions of Harvard style defined by different universities—
it’s not a style with one definitive style guide.
Harvard Hoffmann, M. (2016) ‘How is information valued? Evidence from framed
bibliography field experiments’, The Economic Journal, 126(595), pp. 1884–1911.
entry doi:10.1111/ecoj.12401.

Harvard in-text (Hoffmann, 2016)

citation

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MLA
MLA style is the official style of the Modern Language Association, defined in the MLA
Handbook (9th edition). It’s widely used across various humanities disciplines. Unlike most
parenthetical citation styles, it’s author-page rather than author-date.

Davidson, Clare. “Reading in Bed with Troilus and Criseyde.” The Chaucer
MLA Works
Review, vol. 55, no. 2, Apr. 2020, pp. 147–170.
Cited entry
https://doi.org/10.5325/chaucerrev.55.2.0147.

MLA in-text (Davidson 155)

citation

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Citation style
MLA 9th edition
Cite

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Cite manually

Numerical citation styles

ACS
The American Chemical Society (ACS) provides guidelines for a citation style using numbers in
superscript or italics in the text, corresponding to entries in a numbered reference list at the end. It
is used in chemistry.
ACS 1. Hutchinson, G.; Alamillo-Ferrer, C.; Fernández-Pascual, M.; Burés, J.
reference Organocatalytic Enantioselective α-Bromination of Aldehydes with N-
entry Bromosuccinimide. J. Org. Chem. 2022, 87, 7968–7974.

NoteACS also provides guidelines for an alternate author-date style of citation, but this is less
commonly used than the numerical version.

AMA
The American Medical Association (AMA) provides guidelines for a numerical citation style using
superscript numbers in the text, which correspond to entries in a numbered reference list. It is used
in the field of medicine.

AMA 1. Jabro JD. Predicting saturated hydraulic conductivity from percolation test
reference entry results in layered silt loam soils. J Environ Health. 2009;72(5):22–27.

CSE citation-name or citation-sequence

CSE style includes multiple options for citing your sources, including the citation-name and
citation-sequence systems. Your references are listed alphabetically in the citation-name system;
in the citation-sequence system, they appear in the order in which you cited them.

CSE citation-sequence or 1. Nell CS, Mooney KA. Plant structural complexity mediates trade-
citation-name reference off in direct and indirect plant defense by birds. Ecology.
entry 2019;100(10):1–7.

NoteThis should not be confused with CSE name-year.

IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) provides guidelines for citing your
sources with IEEE in-text citations that consist of numbers enclosed in brackets, corresponding to
entries in a numbered reference list. This style is used in various engineering and IT disciplines.

IEEE 1. J. Ive, A. Max, and F. Yvon, “Reassessing the proper place of man and machine
reference in translation: A pre-translation scenario,” Mach. Transl., vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 279–
entry 308, Dec. 2018, doi: 10.1007/s10590-018-9223-9.

NLM
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) citation style is defined in Citing Medicine: The NLM
Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (2nd edition).
NLM 1. Hage J, Valadez JJ. Institutionalizing and sustaining social change in health
reference systems: the case of Uganda. Health Policy Plan. 2017 Nov;32(9):1248–55.
entry doi:10.1093/heapol/czx066.

Vancouver
Vancouver style is also used in various medical disciplines. As with Harvard style, a lot of
institutions and publications have their own versions of Vancouver—it doesn’t have one fixed
style guide.

1. Bute M. A backstage sociologist: Autoethnography and a populist vision. Am

Vancouver
Soc. 2016 Mar 23; 47(4):499–515. Available from:
reference
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12108-016-9307-z doi:10.1007/s12108-
entry
016-9307-z

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Note citation styles

Bluebook
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is the main style guide for legal citations in the US.
It’s widely used in law, and also when legal materials need to be cited in other disciplines.

Bluebook footnote 1 David E. Pozen, Freedom of Information Beyond the Freedom of

citation Information Act, 165, U. P🇦. L. R🇪🇻. 1097, 1115 (2017).

Chicago notes and bibliography

Chicago notes and bibliography is one of the two citation styles presented in the Chicago Manual
of Style (17th edition). It’s used mainly in the humanities.

Chicago Best, Jeremy. “Godly, International, and Independent: German Protestant

bibliography Missionary Loyalties before World War I.” Central European History 47, no. 3
entry (September 2014): 585–611. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938914001654.

1. Jeremy Best, “Godly, International, and Independent: German Protestant

Chicago
Missionary Loyalties before World War I,” Central European History 47, no. 3
footnote
(September 2014): 599. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938914001654.
NoteThis should not be confused with Chicago author-date. Additionally, Turabian style is a
version of Chicago that’s aimed at students and follows very similar rules.

OSCOLA
The Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is the main legal
citation style in the UK (similar to Bluebook for the US).

1. Chris Thornhill, ‘The Mutation of International Law in Contemporary

OSCOLA
Constitutions: Thinking Sociologically about Political Constitutionalism’
footnote citation
[2016] MLR 207.