See our related citation guides:
Not sure which citation style to use? Ask your professor which they prefer!
Each citation style is formatted a bit differently but the good news is most (if not all) citations require most of the same information. Here is a breakdown of the most common information required in a citation.
You can usually find these at the beginning of a source or on the information (or record) page if you found it online. Can't find something for your citation? Ask a librarian and we can help you find that information.
Author(s): Who wrote the source your citing? Could be one or multiple authors.
Title: The name of the specific source your using, whether it be an article, or a book chapter, or an entire book.
Date of Publication: When was that source released?
Pages: What pages numbers in the journal or book contain the article your citing. If an article is from an online journal, you may not find page numbers.
Journal Title: The name of the periodical that published the article your citing. It may say "The Journal of... ".
Volume and issue number: Volume typically refers to the number of years the publication has been circulated, and issue refers to how many times that periodical has been published during that year.
DOI: A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a string of numbers, letters and symbols used to permanently identify an article or document and link to it on the web.
Publisher: The company that released the book.