VT ENGL1106 course template: Citations
Citation examples
Although the following citations are APA citation style and may not look like the format you will use for your discipline or assignment, the information will be the same.
Book citation
Book citations will have author, title, date of publication and place of publication and the publisher.
Article citation
An article citation will contain the article title, author and date of publication. It will also contain the journal title and the date, volume, issue and pages.
Book chapter citation
There is an easy way to tell the difference between an essay or book chapter and a journal article. A book chapter or essay will have the publisher and the place of publication listed. A journal article will not have a place of publication but will have the volume, issue and page numbers listed. An essay or chapter in a book will list the title along with the chapter author and page numbers, plus the book title and the authors or editors of the book.
Article with DOI
A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique code assigned to articles to identify them (think of a fingerprint) and provide a permanent link to their location on the internet. Publishers assign the DOI codes when articles are published. In APA format, when a DOI code is available, you must include it as part of the citation. The DOI code is generally listed on the first page of the article. If you have a DOI code and want to find the article it is assigned to, there are a few ways to get to that article. Often DOIs are hyperlinked, so you can simply click them to get to the article. Otherwise, use the search tool linked on the library's home page under the Search menu. (Note: if you are off-campus, you will want to make sure you have logged into the Off-Campus Sign In.
Why do we cite?
In the short video, all peer reviewed articles have a bibliography. As you join in these conversations, you will begin to search for more information. One excellent place to start is by searching the bibliographies for other articles on the topic. When you look at these article citations, do you know what you are looking at? To what does the citation refer? Is it a book? Is it an article?
A citation serves several purposes. It can be used to locate the actual item or it can be used to document sources in your research. It is extremely important to record all parts of a citation.
Citation Managers
Virginia Tech Libraries supports three different citation managers:
Each of these tools can be helpful, depending on what type of project you're working on. View this citation manager comparison chart from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for help deciding which tool to use:
Citation Manager Comparison Chart
If you have questions about using these tools, don't hesitate to contact your librarian!
Research Log
While tools like citation managers can help you effectively organize research, being able to organize the process of research is even more helpful! The research template linked below is one that is often recommended for students working on their theses and dissertations, as they try to track the progress of their literature searching.
Understanding Citations
For the assignment in this class, you need to be able to both understand how to read citations and create citations. You'll be creating citations according to the APA guidelines--see the information at the left for how to do this.
However, as you read through your articles and try to use bibliographies in order to find additional articles, you'll be coming across a lot of different citation styles. Citation styles, while they may look different, all contain the same basic information:
Use this information to search for the full text of the article. See the box below for more information about this!
Searching for a Citation
When you have a citation for an article that you're trying to find, there are a couple of different ways you can try to track down the article.
1. Use Summon. Summon can link you directly to articles. Simply type in the full title of the article (such as, W. G. Sebald: The Pleasure and Pain of Beauty"). If we have access to the article, Summon will link you to it.
2. Check the journal subscription. If using Summon to find the article doesn't work, then you'll want to check and see if we subscribe to the journal that the article is from. In the example above, the journal title is German Life and Letters. In order to see if we have access to that journal, I will use the journal search on the library website:
3. Contact your librarian!
Why Cite?
Aside from avoiding plagiarism, why should you cite? What's important about creating good citations, especially in the academic world? Watch the video below for more information. Thanks to our friends at Kimbel Library at Coastal Carolina University for producing such fantastic videos!