Becoming a Professional I: Citing Sources

Whenever you use a source, you must properly cite or give attribution to the originator of that piece of information (whether it is text, an image, a video, etc.).  This includes how both intext and bibliographic (aka: works cited, references, sources) citations look.  In-text citations follow one of two general formats:

  • author/date
    • the bibliography is in alphabetic order by first author's last name, regardless of the order the citation is found in the text
  • numeric
    • the first in-text citation is the first citation listed in the bibliography, regardless of the name of the first author in the publication.

Citation styles provide a method for that citation to follow a consistent format.  There are literally thousands of citation styles, as not only do some disciplines use a particular format, but some journals will modify or create a citation style specifically for that publication.

For this class, you must use the modified citation style from Veterinary Research provided in this document that includes how you are to cite your journal articles for the second assignment with examples.

 

Assigned Citation Style for this Assignment

If you would like to see further examples of how information sources are cited in this style, see see “References” on the author guidelines page. Notice that there is more available in this document than the shortened version provided above, and includes additional author guidelines to establish standards for consistency in writing, including the grammar, punctuation, and layout for the publication. They also include information for how to present tables and figures, the format of headings and page numbers, which words to capitalize or abbreviate, and what nomenclature to use in a field. Consulting these aspects of a style guide before beginning to write can save time and lead to better communication within the discipline.

Journal abbreviations

To locate commonly used abbreviations, use PubMed journal catalog: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals

Search for the title (e.g. Veterinary Record) and in the list of results (particularly for those that retrieve multiple options for your title) look for the "NLM Title Abbreviation" and based on the citation style, add periods if necessary between the abbreviated words of the journal title.