how to cite research paper essay

• MJC Library & Learning Center
• Research Guides

Format Your Paper & Cite Your Sources

• APA Style, 7th Edition
• Citing Sources
• Avoid Plagiarism
• MLA Style (8th/9th ed.)

APA Tutorial

Formatting your paper, headings organize your paper (2.27), video tutorials, reference list format (9.43).

• Elements of a Reference

Reference Examples (Chapter 10)

Dois and urls (9.34-9.36), in-text citations.

• In-Text Citations Format
• In-Text Citations for Specific Source Types

NoodleTools

• Chicago Style
• Harvard Style
• Other Styles
• Annotated Bibliographies
• How to Create an Attribution

What is APA Style?

APA style was created by social and behavioral scientists to standardize scientific writing. APA style is most often used in:

• psychology,
• social sciences (sociology, business), and

If you're taking courses in any of these areas, be prepared to use APA style.

For in-depth guidance on using this citation style, refer to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , 7th ed. We have several copies available at the MJC Library at the call number  BF 76.7 .P83 2020 .

APA Style, 7th ed.

In October 2019, the American Psychological Association made radical changes its style, especially with regard to the format and citation rules for students writing academic papers. Use this guide to learn how to format and cite your papers using APA Style, 7th edition.

You can start by viewing the  video tutorial .

For help on all aspects of formatting your paper in APA Style, see   The Essentials  page on the APA Style website.

• sans serif fonts such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, or
• serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the default font for LaTeX)
• There are exceptions for the  title page ,  tables ,  figures ,  footnotes , and  displayed equations .
• Margins :  Use 1-in. margins on every side of the page.
• Align the text of an APA Style  paper to the left margin . Leave the right margin uneven, or “ragged.”
• Do not use full justification for student papers.
• Do not insert hyphens (manual breaks) in words at the end of line. However, it is acceptable if your word-processing program automatically inserts breaks in long hyperlinks (such as in a DOI or URL in a reference list entry).
• Indent the first line of each paragraph of text 0.5 in . from the left margin. Use the tab key or the automatic paragraph-formatting function of your word-processing program to achieve the indentation (the default setting is likely already 0.5 in.). Do not use the space bar to create indentation. 
• There are exceptions for the  title page ,  section labels ,  abstract ,  block quotations ,  headings ,  tables and figures ,  reference list , and  appendices .

Paper Elements

Student papers generally include, at a minimum: 

• Title Page (2.3)
• Text (2.11)
• References  (2.12)

Student papers may include additional elements such as tables and figures depending on the assignment. So, please check with your teacher!

Student papers generally  DO NOT  include the following unless your teacher specifically requests it:

• Running head
• Author note

For complete information on the  order of pages , see the APA Style website.

Number your pages consecutively starting with page 1. Each section begins on a new page. Put the pages in the following order:

• Page 1: Title page
• Page 2: Abstract (if your teacher requires an abstract)
• Page 3: Text 
• References begin on a new page after the last page of text
• Footnotes begin on a new page after the references (if your teacher requires footnotes)
• Tables begin each on a new page after the footnotes (if your teacher requires tables) 
• Figures begin on a new page after the tables (if your teacher requires figures)
• Appendices begin on a new page after the tables and/or figures (if your teacher requires appendices)

Sample Papers With Built-In Instructions

To see what your paper should look like, check out these sample papers with built-in instructions.

APA Style uses five (5) levels of headings to help you organize your paper and allow your audience to identify its key points easily. Levels of headings establish the hierarchy of your sections just like you did in your paper outline.

APA tells us to use "only the number of headings necessary to differentiate distinct section in your paper." Therefore, the number of heading levels you create depends on the length and complexity of your paper.

See the chart below for instructions on formatting your headings:

Use Word to Format Your Paper:

Use Google Docs to Format Your Paper:

Placement:  The reference list  appears at the end of the paper, on its own page(s). If your research paper ends on page 8, your References begin on page 9.

Heading:  Place the section label References  in bold at the top of the page, centered.

Arrangement:  Alphabetize entries by author's last name. If source has no named author, alphabetize by the title, ignoring A, An, or The. (9.44-9.48)

Spacing:  Like the rest of the APA paper, the reference list is double-spaced throughout. Be sure NOT to add extra spaces between citations.

Indentation:  To make citations easier to scan, add a  hanging indent  of 0.5 in. to any citation that runs more than one line. Use the paragraph-formatting function of your word processing program to create your hanging indent.  

See Sample References Page (from APA Sample Student Paper):

Elements of Reference List Entries: (Chapter 9)

References generally have four elements, each of which has a corresponding question for you to answer:

• Author:   Who is responsible for this work? (9.7-9.12)
• Date:   When was this work published? (9.13-9.17)
• Title:   What is this work called? (9.18-9.22)
• Source:   Where can I retrieve this work? (9.23-9.37)

By using these four elements and answering these four questions, you should be able to create a citation for any type of source.

For complete information on all of these elements, checkout the APA Style website.

This infographic shows the first page of a journal article. The locations of the reference elements are highlighted with different colors and callouts, and the same colors are used in the reference list entry to show how the entry corresponds to the source.

To create your references, you'll simple look for these elements in your source and put them together in your reference list entry.

American Psychological Association.  Example of where to find reference information for a journal article  [Infographic]. APA Style Center. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/basic-principles

Below you'll find two printable handouts showing APA citation examples. The first is an abbreviated list created by MJC Librarians. The second, which is more comprehensive, is from the APA Style website. Feel free to print these for your convenience or use the links to reference examples below:

• APA Citation Examples Created by MJC Librarians for you.
• Common References Examples (APA Handout) Printable handout from the American Psychological Association.
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Edited Book Chapter
• Webpage on a Website

Classroom or Intranet Sources

• Classroom Course Pack Materials
• How to Cite ChatGPT
• Dictionary Entry
• Government Report
• Legal References (Laws & Cases)
• TED Talk References
• Religious Works
• Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Archival Documents and Collections

You can view the entire Reference Examples website below and view a helpful guide to finding useful APA style topics easily:

• APA Style: Reference Examples
• Navigating the not-so-hidden treasures of the APA Style website
• Missing Reference Information

Sometimes you won't be able to find all the elements required for your reference. In that case, see the  instructions in Table 9.1 of the APA style manual in section 9.4 or the APA Style website below:

• Direct Quotation of Material Without Page Numbers

The DOI or URL is the final component of a reference list entry. Because so much scholarship is available and/or retrieved online, most reference list entries end with either a DOI or a URL.

• A  DOI  is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies content and provides a persistent link to its location on the internet. DOIs can be found in database records and the reference lists of published works.
• A  URL  specifies the location of digital information on the internet and can be found in the address bar of your internet browser. URLs in references should link directly to the cited work when possible.

When to Include DOIs and URLs:

• Include a DOI for all works that have a DOI, regardless of whether you used the online version or the print version.
• If an online work has both a DOI and a URL, include only the DOI.
• For works without DOIs from websites (not including academic research databases), provide a URL in the reference (as long as the URL will work for readers).
• For works without DOIs from most academic research databases, do not include a URL or database information in the reference because these works are widely available. The reference should be the same as the reference for a print version of the work.
• For works from databases that publish original, proprietary material available only in that database (such as the UpToDate database) or for works of limited circulation in databases (such as monographs in the ERIC database), include the name of the database or archive and the URL of the work. If the URL requires a login or is session-specific (meaning it will not resolve for readers), provide the URL of the database or archive home page or login page instead of the URL for the work. (See APA Section 9.30 for more information). 
• If the URL is no longer working or no longer provides readers access to the content you intend to cite, try to find an archived version using the Internet Archive , then use the archived URL. If there is no archived URL, do not use that resource.

Format of DOIs and URLs:

Your DOI should look like this: 

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0040251

Follow these guidelines from the APA Style website.

APA Style uses the  author–date citation system , in which a brief in-text citation points your reader to the full reference list entry at the end of your paper. The in-text citation appears within the body of the paper and briefly identifies the cited work by its author and date of publication. This method enables your reader to locate the corresponding entry in the alphabetical reference list at the end of your paper.

Each work you cite  must  appear in the reference list, and each work in the reference list must be cited in the text (or in a table, figure, footnote, or appendix) except for the following (See APA, 8.4):

• Personal communications (8.9)
• General mentions of entire websites, whole periodicals (8.22), and common software and apps (10.10) in the text do not require a citation or reference list entry.
• The source of an epigraph does not usually appear in the reference list (8.35)
• Quotations from your research participants do not need citations or reference list entries (8.36)
• References included in a statistical meta-analysis, which are marked with an asterisk in the reference list, may be cited in the text (or not) at the author’s discretion. This exception is relevant only to authors who are conducting a meta-analysis (9.52).

Formatting Your In-Text Citations

Parenthetical and Narrative Citations: ( See APA Section  8.11)

In APA style you use the author-date citation system for citing references within your paper. You incorporate these references using either a  parenthetical   or a  narrative  style.

Parenthetical Citations

• In parenthetical citations, the author name and publication date appear in parentheses, separated by a comma. (Jones, 2018)
• A parenthetical citation can appear within or at the end of a sentence.
• When the parenthetical citation is at the end of the sentence, put the period or other end punctuation after the closing parenthesis.
• If there is no author, use the first few words of the reference list entry, usually the "Title" of the source: ("Autism," 2008) See APA 8.14
• When quoting, always provide the author, year, and specific page citation or paragraph number for nonpaginated materials in the text (Santa Barbara, 2010, p. 243).  See APA 8.13
• For most citations, the parenthetical reference is placed BEFORE the punctuation: Magnesium can be effective in treating PMS (Haggerty, 2012).

Narrative Citations 

In narrative citations, the author name or title of your source appears within your text and the publication date appears in parentheses immediately after the author name. 

• Santa Barbara (2010) noted a decline in the approval of disciplinary spanking of 26 percentage points from 1968 to 1994.

In-Text Citation Checklist

• In-Text Citation Checklist Use this useful checklist from the American Psychological Association to ensure that you've created your in-text citations correctly.

In-Text Citations for Specific Types of Sources

Quotations from Research Participants

Personal Communications

Secondary Sources  

Use NoodleTools to Cite Your Sources  

NoodleTools can help you create your references and your in-text citations.

• NoodleTools Express No sign in required . When you need one or two quick citations in MLA, APA, or Chicago style, simply generate them in NoodleTools Express then copy and paste what you need into your document. Note: Citations are not saved and cannot be exported to a word processor using NoodleTools Express.
• NoodleTools (Login Full Database) This link opens in a new window Create and organize your research notes, share and collaborate on research projects, compose and error check citations, and complete your list of works cited in MLA, APA, or Chicago style using the full version of NoodleTools. You'll need to Create a Personal ID and password the first time you use NoodleTools.

See How to Use NoodleTools Express to Create a Citation in APA Format

Additional NoodleTools Help

• NoodleTools Help Desk Look up questions and answers on the NoodleTools Web site
• << Previous: MLA Style (8th/9th ed.)
• Next: Chicago Style >>
• Last Updated: May 1, 2024 2:04 PM
• URL: https://libguides.mjc.edu/citeyoursources

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC BY-NC 4.0 Licenses .

Basic Principles of Citation

APA Style uses the author–date citation system , in which a brief in-text citation directs readers to a full reference list entry. The in-text citation appears within the body of the paper (or in a table, figure, footnote, or appendix) and briefly identifies the cited work by its author and date of publication. This enables readers to locate the corresponding entry in the alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper.

Each work cited must appear in the reference list, and each work in the reference list must be cited in the text (or in a table, figure, footnote, or appendix).

Both paraphrases and quotations require citations.

The following are guidelines to follow when writing in-text citations:

• Ensure that the spelling of author names and the publication dates in reference list entries match those in the corresponding in-text citations.
• Cite only works that you have read and ideas that you have incorporated into your writing. The works you cite may provide key background information, support or dispute your thesis, or offer critical definitions and data.
• Readers may find a long string of citations difficult to understand, especially if they are using assistive technology such as a screen reader; therefore, include only those citations needed to support your immediate point.
• Cite primary sources when possible, and cite secondary sources sparingly.
• Cite sources to document all facts and figures that you mention that are not common knowledge.
• To cite a specific part of a source , provide an author–date citation for the work plus information about the specific part.
• Even when sources cannot be retrieved (e.g., because they are personal communications ), still credit them in the text (however, avoid using online sources that are no longer recoverable).

Basic principles of citation are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Sections 8.1 to 8.36 and the Concise Guide Sections 8.1 to 8.34

Related handouts

• In-Text Citation Checklist (PDF, 227KB)
• Six Steps to Proper Citation (PDF, 112KB)

From the APA Style blog

How to cite your own translations

If you translate a passage from one language into another on your own in your paper, your translation is considered a paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Key takeaways from the Psi Chi webinar So You Need to Write a Literature Review

This blog post describes key tasks in writing an effective literature review and provides strategies for approaching those tasks.

How to cite a work with a nonrecoverable source

In most cases, nonrecoverable sources such as personal emails, nonarchived social media livestreams (or deleted and unarchived social media posts), classroom lectures, unrecorded webinars or presentations, and intranet sources should be cited only in the text as personal communications.

The “outdated sources” myth

The “outdated sources” myth is that sources must have been published recently, such as the last 5 to 10 years. There is no timeliness requirement in APA Style.

From COVID-19 to demands for social justice: Citing contemporary sources for current events

The guidance in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual makes the process of citing contemporary sources found online easier than ever before.

Citing classical and religious works

A classical or religious work is cited as either a book or a webpage, depending on what version of the source you are using. This post includes details and examples.

Academic Writer—APA’s essential teaching resource for higher education instructors

Academic Writer’s advanced authoring technology and digital learning tools allow students to take a hands-on approach to learning the scholarly research and writing process.

APA Style webinar on citing works in text

Attend the webinar, “Citing Works in Text Using Seventh Edition APA Style,” on July 14, 2020, to learn the keys to accurately and consistently citing sources in APA Style.

Citing sources: Overview

• Citation style guides

Manage your references

Use these tools to help you organize and cite your references:

• Citation Management and Writing Tools

If you have questions after consulting this guide about how to cite, please contact your advisor/professor or the writing and communication center .

Why citing is important

It's important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

• To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
• To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
• To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
• To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list

About citations

Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site).  They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases.

Citations consist of standard elements, and contain all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:

• author name(s)
• titles of books, articles, and journals
• date of publication
• page numbers
• volume and issue numbers (for articles)

Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. Choose an appropriate style guide for your needs.  Here is an example of an article citation using four different citation styles.  Notice the common elements as mentioned above:

Author - R. Langer

Article Title - New Methods of Drug Delivery

Source Title - Science

Volume and issue - Vol 249, issue 4976

Publication Date - 1990

Page numbers - 1527-1533

American Chemical Society (ACS) style:

Langer, R. New Methods of Drug Delivery. Science 1990 , 249 , 1527-1533.

IEEE Style:

R. Langer, " New Methods of Drug Delivery," Science , vol. 249 , pp. 1527-1533 , SEP 28, 1990 .

American Psychological Association   (APA) style:

Langer, R. (1990) . New methods of drug delivery. Science , 249 (4976), 1527-1533.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style:

Langer, R. " New Methods of Drug Delivery." Science 249.4976 (1990) : 1527-33.

What to cite

You must cite:

• Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge

Publications that must be cited include:  books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, etc.

Another person's exact words should be quoted and cited to show proper credit 

When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!

Avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism occurs when you borrow another's words (or ideas) and do not acknowledge that you have done so. In this culture, we consider our words and ideas intellectual property; like a car or any other possession, we believe our words belong to us and cannot be used without our permission.

Plagiarism is a very serious offense. If it is found that you have plagiarized -- deliberately or inadvertently -- you may face serious consequences. In some instances, plagiarism has meant that students have had to leave the institutions where they were studying.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to cite your sources - both within the body of your paper and in a bibliography of sources you used at the end of your paper.

Some useful links about plagiarism:

• MIT Academic Integrity Overview on citing sources and avoiding plagiarism at MIT.
• Avoiding Plagiarism From the MIT Writing and Communication Center.
• Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It From Indiana University's Writing Tutorial Services.
• Plagiarism- Overview A resource from Purdue University.
• Next: Citation style guides >>
• Last Updated: Jan 16, 2024 7:02 AM
• URL: https://libguides.mit.edu/citing

University Library

Start your research.

• Research Process
• Find Background Info
• Find Sources through the Library
• Evaluate Your Info
• Cite Your Sources
• Evaluate, Write & Cite

• is the right thing to do  to give credit to those who had the idea
• shows that you have read and understand  what experts have had to say about your topic
• helps people find the sources  that you used in case they want to read more about the topic
• provides   evidence  for your arguments
• is professional and  standard practice   for students and scholars

What is a Citation?

A citation identifies for the reader the original source for an idea, information, or image that is referred to in a work.

• In the body of a paper, the  in-text citation  acknowledges the source of information used.
• At the end of a paper, the citations are compiled on a  References  or  Works Cited  list. A basic citation includes the author, title, and publication information of the source. 

From:  Lemieux  Library,  University  of Seattle 

Why Should You Cite?

Quoting Are you quoting two or more consecutive words from a source? Then the original source should be cited and the words or phrase placed in quotes. 

Paraphrasing If an idea or information comes from another source,  even if you put it in your own words , you still need to credit the source.  General vs. Unfamiliar Knowledge You do not need to cite material which is accepted common knowledge. If in doubt whether your information is common knowledge or not, cite it. Formats We usually think of books and articles. However, if you use material from web sites, films, music, graphs, tables, etc. you'll also need to cite these as well.

Plagiarism is presenting the words or ideas of someone else as your own without proper acknowledgment of the source. When you work on a research paper and use supporting material from works by others, it's okay to quote people and use their ideas, but you do need to correctly credit them. Even when you summarize or paraphrase information found in books, articles, or Web pages, you must acknowledge the original author.

Citation Style Help

Helpful links:

• MLA ,  Works Cited : A Quick Guide (a template of core elements)
• CSE  (Council of Science Editors)

For additional writing resources specific to styles listed here visit the  Purdue OWL Writing Lab

Citation and Bibliography Resources

• How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
• << Previous: Evaluate Your Info
• Next: Evaluate, Write & Cite >>

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License except where otherwise noted.

Land Acknowledgement

The land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.

The land acknowledgement used at UC Santa Cruz was developed in partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman and the Amah Mutsun Relearning Program at the UCSC Arboretum .

Have a language expert improve your writing

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• Knowledge Base
• Referencing

A Quick Guide to Referencing | Cite Your Sources Correctly

Referencing means acknowledging the sources you have used in your writing. Including references helps you support your claims and ensures that you avoid plagiarism .

There are many referencing styles, but they usually consist of two things:

• A citation wherever you refer to a source in your text.
• A reference list or bibliography at the end listing full details of all your sources.

The most common method of referencing in UK universities is Harvard style , which uses author-date citations in the text. Our free Harvard Reference Generator automatically creates accurate references in this style.

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Table of contents

Referencing styles, citing your sources with in-text citations, creating your reference list or bibliography, harvard referencing examples, frequently asked questions about referencing.

Each referencing style has different rules for presenting source information. For in-text citations, some use footnotes or endnotes , while others include the author’s surname and date of publication in brackets in the text.

The reference list or bibliography is presented differently in each style, with different rules for things like capitalisation, italics, and quotation marks in references.

Your university will usually tell you which referencing style to use; they may even have their own unique style. Always follow your university’s guidelines, and ask your tutor if you are unsure. The most common styles are summarised below.

Harvard referencing, the most commonly used style at UK universities, uses author–date in-text citations corresponding to an alphabetical bibliography or reference list at the end.

Harvard Referencing Guide

Vancouver referencing, used in biomedicine and other sciences, uses reference numbers in the text corresponding to a numbered reference list at the end.

Vancouver Referencing Guide

APA referencing, used in the social and behavioural sciences, uses author–date in-text citations corresponding to an alphabetical reference list at the end.

APA Referencing Guide APA Reference Generator

MHRA referencing, used in the humanities, uses footnotes in the text with source information, in addition to an alphabetised bibliography at the end.

MHRA Referencing Guide

OSCOLA referencing, used in law, uses footnotes in the text with source information, and an alphabetical bibliography at the end in longer texts.

OSCOLA Referencing Guide

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

In-text citations should be used whenever you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source (e.g. a book, article, image, website, or video).

Quoting and paraphrasing

Quoting is when you directly copy some text from a source and enclose it in quotation marks to indicate that it is not your own writing.

Paraphrasing is when you rephrase the original source into your own words. In this case, you don’t use quotation marks, but you still need to include a citation.

In most referencing styles, page numbers are included when you’re quoting or paraphrasing a particular passage. If you are referring to the text as a whole, no page number is needed.

In-text citations

In-text citations are quick references to your sources. In Harvard referencing, you use the author’s surname and the date of publication in brackets.

Up to three authors are included in a Harvard in-text citation. If the source has more than three authors, include the first author followed by ‘ et al. ‘

The point of these citations is to direct your reader to the alphabetised reference list, where you give full information about each source. For example, to find the source cited above, the reader would look under ‘J’ in your reference list to find the title and publication details of the source.

Placement of in-text citations

In-text citations should be placed directly after the quotation or information they refer to, usually before a comma or full stop. If a sentence is supported by multiple sources, you can combine them in one set of brackets, separated by a semicolon.

If you mention the author’s name in the text already, you don’t include it in the citation, and you can place the citation immediately after the name.

• Another researcher warns that the results of this method are ‘inconsistent’ (Singh, 2018, p. 13) .
• Previous research has frequently illustrated the pitfalls of this method (Singh, 2018; Jones, 2016) .
• Singh (2018, p. 13) warns that the results of this method are ‘inconsistent’.

The terms ‘bibliography’ and ‘reference list’ are sometimes used interchangeably. Both refer to a list that contains full information on all the sources cited in your text. Sometimes ‘bibliography’ is used to mean a more extensive list, also containing sources that you consulted but did not cite in the text.

A reference list or bibliography is usually mandatory, since in-text citations typically don’t provide full source information. For styles that already include full source information in footnotes (e.g. OSCOLA and Chicago Style ), the bibliography is optional, although your university may still require you to include one.

Format of the reference list

Reference lists are usually alphabetised by authors’ last names. Each entry in the list appears on a new line, and a hanging indent is applied if an entry extends onto multiple lines.

Different source information is included for different source types. Each style provides detailed guidelines for exactly what information should be included and how it should be presented.

Below are some examples of reference list entries for common source types in Harvard style.

• Chapter of a book
• Journal article

Your university should tell you which referencing style to follow. If you’re unsure, check with a supervisor. Commonly used styles include:

• Harvard referencing , the most commonly used style in UK universities.
• MHRA , used in humanities subjects.
• APA , used in the social sciences.
• Vancouver , used in biomedicine.
• OSCOLA , used in law.

Your university may have its own referencing style guide.

If you are allowed to choose which style to follow, we recommend Harvard referencing, as it is a straightforward and widely used style.

References should be included in your text whenever you use words, ideas, or information from a source. A source can be anything from a book or journal article to a website or YouTube video.

If you don’t acknowledge your sources, you can get in trouble for plagiarism .

To avoid plagiarism , always include a reference when you use words, ideas or information from a source. This shows that you are not trying to pass the work of others off as your own.

You must also properly quote or paraphrase the source. If you’re not sure whether you’ve done this correctly, you can use the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker to find and correct any mistakes.

Harvard referencing uses an author–date system. Sources are cited by the author’s last name and the publication year in brackets. Each Harvard in-text citation corresponds to an entry in the alphabetised reference list at the end of the paper.

Vancouver referencing uses a numerical system. Sources are cited by a number in parentheses or superscript. Each number corresponds to a full reference at the end of the paper.

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MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

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Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the  MLA Handbook  and in chapter 7 of the  MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.

In-text citations for print sources with known author

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for sources with non-standard labeling systems

If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).

Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's  The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the  internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in  Nature  in 1921, you might write something like this:

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .

Citing authors with same last names

Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author :

Citing two books by the same author :

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.

Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.

Here is an example from O'Neill's  The Iceman Cometh.

WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.

ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.

WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's  Evaluating Sources of Information  resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like  CNN.com  or  Forbes.com,  as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:

In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

Time-based media sources

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

Other Sources

The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers⁠ —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / MLA Format / How to Cite an Essay in MLA

How to Cite an Essay in MLA

The guidelines for citing an essay in MLA format are similar to those for citing a chapter in a book. Include the author of the essay, the title of the essay, the name of the collection if the essay belongs to one, the editor of the collection or other contributors, the publication information, and the page number(s).

Citing an Essay

Mla essay citation structure.

Last, First M. “Essay Title.” Collection Title, edited by First M. Last, Publisher, year published, page numbers. Website Title , URL (if applicable).

MLA Essay Citation Example

Gupta, Sanjay. “Balancing and Checking.” Essays on Modern Democracy, edited by Bob Towsky, Brook Stone Publishers, 1996, pp. 36-48. Essay Database, www . databaseforessays.org/modern/modern-democracy.

MLA Essay In-text Citation Structure

(Last Name Page #)

MLA Essay In-text Citation Example

Click here to cite an essay via an EasyBib citation form.

MLA Formatting Guide

MLA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Sample Paper
• Works Cited
• MLA 8 Updates
• MLA 9 Updates
• View MLA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all MLA Examples

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To cite your sources in an essay in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the author’s name(s), chapter title, book title, editor(s), publication year, publisher, and page numbers. The templates for in-text citations and a works-cited-list entry for essay sources and some examples are given below:

In-text citation template and example:

For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the author on the first occurrence. For subsequent citations, use only the surname(s). In parenthetical citations, always use only the surname of the author(s).

Citation in prose:

First mention: Annette Wheeler Cafarelli

Subsequent occurrences: Wheeler Cafarelli

Parenthetical:

….(Wheeler Cafarelli).

Works-cited-list entry template and example:

The title of the chapter is enclosed in double quotation marks and uses title case. The book or collection title is given in italics and uses title case.

Surname, First Name. “Title of the Chapter.” Title of the Book , edited by Editor(s) Name, Publisher, Publication Year, page range.

Cafarelli, Annette Wheeler. “Rousseau and British Romanticism: Women and British Romanticism.” Cultural Interactions in the Romantic Age: Critical Essays in Comparative Literature , edited by Gregory Maertz. State U of New York P, 1998, pp. 125–56.

To cite an essay in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the author(s), the essay title, the book title, editor(s), publication year, publisher, and page numbers. The templates for citations in prose, parenthetical citations, and works-cited-list entries for an essay by multiple authors, and some examples, are given below:

For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the author (e.g., Mary Strine).

For sources with two authors, use both full author names in prose (e.g., Mary Strine and Beth Radick).

For sources with three or more authors, use the first name and surname of the first author followed by “and others” or “and colleagues” (e.g., Mary Strine and others). In subsequent citations, use only the surname of the first author followed by “and others” or “and colleagues” (e.g., Strine and others).

In parenthetical citations, use only the author’s surname. For sources with two authors, use two surnames (e.g., Strine and Radick). For sources with three or more author names, use the first author’s surname followed by “et al.”

First mention: Mary Strine…

Subsequent mention: Strine…

First mention: Mary Strine and Beth Radick…

Subsequent mention: Strine and Radick…

First mention: Mary Strine and colleagues …. or Mary Strine and others

Subsequent occurrences: Strine and colleagues …. or Strine and others

…. (Strine).

….(Strine and Radick).

….(Strine et al.).

The title of the essay is enclosed in double quotation marks and uses title case. The book or collection title is given in italics and uses title case.

Surname, First Name, et al. “Title of the Essay.” Title of the Book , edited by Editor(s) Name, Publisher, Publication Year, page range.

Strine, Mary M., et al. “Research in Interpretation and Performance Studies: Trends, Issues, Priorities.” Speech Communication: Essays to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Speech Communication Association , edited by Gerald M. Phillips and Julia T. Wood, Southern Illinois UP, 1990, pp. 181–204.

MLA Citation Examples

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 11. Citing Sources
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Applying Critical Thinking
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
• Executive Summary
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
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• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Insiderness
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• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
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• Bibliography

A citation is a formal reference to a published or unpublished source that you consulted and obtained information from while writing your research paper. It refers to a source of information that supports a factual statement, proposition, argument, or assertion or any quoted text obtained from a book, article, web site, or any other type of material . In-text citations are embedded within the body of your paper and use a shorthand notation style that refers to a complete description of the item at the end of the paper. Materials cited at the end of a paper may be listed under the heading References, Sources, Works Cited, or Bibliography. Rules on how to properly cite a source depends on the writing style manual your professor wants you to use for the class [e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, etc.]. Note that some disciplines have their own citation rules [e.g., law].

Citations: Overview. OASIS Writing Center, Walden University; Research and Citation. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Citing Sources. University Writing Center, Texas A&M University.

Citing Your Sources

Reasons for Citing Sources in Your Research Paper

English scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, once wrote, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”* Citations support learning how to "see further" through processes of intellectual discovery, critical thinking, and applying a deliberate method of navigating through the scholarly landscape by tracking how cited works are propagated by scholars over time and the subsequent ways this leads to the devarication of new knowledge.

Listed below are specific reasons why citing sources is an important part of doing good research.

• Shows the reader where to find more information . Citations help readers expand their understanding and knowledge about the issues being investigated. One of the most effective strategies for locating authoritative, relevant sources about a research problem is to review materials cited in studies published by other authors. In this way, the sources you cite help the reader identify where to go to examine the topic in more depth and detail.
• Increases your credibility as an author . Citations to the words, ideas, and arguments of scholars demonstrates that you have conducted a thorough review of the literature and, therefore, you are reporting your research results or proposing recommended courses of action from an informed and critically engaged perspective. Your citations offer evidence that you effectively contemplated, evaluated, and synthesized sources of information in relation to your conceptualization of the research problem.
• Illustrates the non-linear and contested nature of knowledge creation . The sources you cite show the reader how you characterized the dynamics of prior knowledge creation relevant to the research problem and how you managed to identify the contested relationships between problems and solutions proposed among scholars. Citations don't just list materials used in your study, they tell a story about how prior knowledge-making emerged from a constant state of creation, renewal, and transformation.
• Reinforces your arguments . Sources cited in your paper provide the evidence that readers need to determine that you properly addressed the “So What?” question. This refers to whether you considered the relevance and significance of the research problem, its implications applied to creating new knowledge, and its importance for improving practice. In this way, citations draw attention to and support the legitimacy and originality of your own ideas and assertions.
• Demonstrates that you "listened" to relevant conversations among scholars before joining in . Your citations tell the reader where you developed an understanding of the debates among scholars. They show how you educated yourself about ongoing conversations taking place within relevant communities of researchers before inserting your own ideas and arguments. In peer-reviewed scholarship, most of these conversations emerge within books, research reports, journal articles, and other cited works.
• Delineates alternative approaches to explaining the research problem . If you disagree with prior research assumptions or you believe that a topic has been understudied or you find that there is a gap in how scholars have understood a problem, your citations serve as the source materials from which to analyze and present an alternative viewpoint or to assert that a different course of action should be pursued. In short, the materials you cite serve as the means by which to argue persuasively against long-standing assumptions promulgated in prior studies.
• Helps the reader understand contextual aspects of your research . Cited sources help readers understand the specific circumstances, conditions, and settings of the problem being investigated and, by extension, how your arguments can be fully understood and assessed. Citations place your line of reasoning within a specific contextualized framework based on how others have studied the problem and how you interpreted their findings in support of your overall research objectives.
• Frames the development of concepts and ideas within the literature . No topic in the social and behavioral sciences rests in isolation from research that has taken place in the past. Your citations help the reader understand the growth and transformation of the theoretical assumptions, key concepts, and systematic inquiries that emerged prior to your engagement with the research problem.
• Underscores sources that were most important to you . Your citations represent a set of choices made about what you determined to be the most important sources for understanding the topic. They not only list what you discovered, but why it matters and how the materials you chose to cite fit within the broader context of your research design and arguments. As part of an overall assessment of the study’s validity and reliability , the choices you make also helps the reader determine what sources of research may have been excluded.
• Provides evidence of interdisciplinary thinking . An important principle of good research is to extend your review of the literature beyond the predominant disciplinary space where scholars have previously examined a topic. Citations provide evidence that you have integrated epistemological arguments, observations, and/or methodological strategies of other disciplines into your paper, thereby demonstrating that you understand the complex, interconnected nature of contemporary research topics.
• Forms the basis for bibliometric analysis of research . Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative method used, for example, to identify and predict emerging trends in research, document patterns of collaboration among scholars, explore the intellectual structure of a specific domain of research, map the development of research within and across disciplines, or identify gaps in knowledge within the literature. Bibliometrics data can also be used to visually map relationships among published studies. An author's citations to books, journal articles, research reports, and other publications represent the raw data used in bibliometric research.
• Supports critical thinking and independent learning . Evaluating the authenticity, reliability, validity, and originality of prior research is an act of interpretation and introspective reasoning applied to assessing whether a source of information will contribute to understanding the problem in ways that are persuasive and align with your overall research objectives. Reviewing and citing prior studies represents a deliberate act of critically scrutinizing each source as part of your overall assessment of how scholars have confronted the research problem.
• Honors the achievements of others . As Susan Blum recently noted,** citations not only identify sources used, they acknowledge the achievements of scholars within the larger network of research about the topic. Citing sources is a normative act of professionalism within academe and a way to highlight and recognize the work of scholars who likely do not obtain any tangible benefits or monetary value from their research endeavors. Your citations help to validate the work of others.

*Vernon. Jamie L. "On the Shoulder of Giants." American Scientist 105 (July-August 2017): 194.

**Blum, Susan D. "In Defense of the Morality of Citation.” Inside Higher Ed , January 29, 2024.

Aksnes, Dag W., Liv Langfeldt, and Paul Wouters. "Citations, Citation Indicators, and Research Quality: An Overview of Basic Concepts and Theories." Sage Open 9 (January-March 2019): https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019829575; Blum, Susan Debra. My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009; Bretag, Tracey., editor. Handbook of Academic Integrity . Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2020; Ballenger, Bruce P. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers . 7th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012; D'Angelo, Barbara J. "Using Source Analysis to Promote Critical Thinking." Research Strategies 18 (Winter 2001): 303-309; Donthu, Naveen et al. “How to Conduct a Bibliometric Analysis: An Overview and Guidelines.” Journal of Business Research 133 (2021): 285-296; Mauer, Barry and John Venecek. “Scholarship as Conversation.” Strategies for Conducting Literary Research, University of Central Florida, 2021; Öztürk, Oguzhan, Ridvan Kocaman, and Dominik K. Kanbach. "How to Design Bibliometric Research: An Overview and a Framework Proposal." Review of Managerial Science (2024): 1-29; Why Cite? Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale University; Citing Information. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Harvard Guide to Using Sources. Harvard College Writing Program. Harvard University; Newton, Philip. "Academic Integrity: A Quantitative Study of Confidence and Understanding in Students at the Start of Their Higher Education."  Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 41 (2016): 482-497; Referencing More Effectively. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra; Using Sources. Yale College Writing Center. Yale University; Vosburgh, Richard M. "Closing the Academic-practitioner Gap: Research Must Answer the “SO WHAT” Question." H uman Resource Management Review 32 (March 2022): 100633; When and Why to Cite Sources. Information Literacy Playlists, SUNY, Albany Libraries.

Structure and Writing Style

Referencing your sources means systematically showing what information or ideas you acquired from another author’s work, and identifying where that information come from . You must cite research in order to do research, but at the same time, you must delineate what are your original thoughts and ideas and what are the thoughts and ideas of others. Citations help achieve this. Procedures used to cite sources vary among different fields of study. If not outlined in your course syllabus or writing assignment, always speak with your professor about what writing style for citing sources should be used for the class because it is important to fully understand the citation style to be used in your paper, and to apply it consistently. If your professor defers and tells you to "choose whatever you want, just be consistent," then choose the citation style you are most familiar with or that is appropriate to your major [e.g., use Chicago style if you are majoring in history; use APA if its an education course; use MLA if it is literature or a general writing course].

GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Are there any reasons I should avoid referencing other people's work? No. If placed in the proper context, r eferencing other people's research is never an indication that your work is substandard or lacks originality. In fact, the opposite is true. If you write your paper without adequate references to previous studies, you are signaling to the reader that you are not familiar with the literature on the topic, thereby, undermining the validity of your study and your credibility as a researcher. Including references in academic writing is one of the most important ways to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of how the research problem has been addressed. It is the intellectual packaging around which you present your thoughts, ideas, and arguments to the reader.

2. What should I do if I find out that my great idea has already been studied by another researcher? It can be frustrating to come up with what you believe is a great topic only to find that it's already been thoroughly studied. However, do not become frustrated by this. You can acknowledge the prior research by writing in the text of your paper [see also Smith, 2002], then citing the complete source in your list of references. Use the discovery of prior studies as an opportunity to demonstrate the significance of the problem being investigated and, if applicable, as a means of delineating your analysis from those of others [e.g., the prior study is ten years old and doesn't take into account new variables]. Strategies for responding to prior research can include: stating how your study updates previous understandings about the topic, offering a new or different perspective, applying a different or innovative method of gathering and interpreting data, and/or describing a new set of insights, guidelines, recommendations, best practices, or working solutions.

3. What should I do if I want to use an adapted version of someone else's work? You still must cite the original work. For example, you use a table of statistics from a journal article published in 1996 by author Smith, but you have altered or added new data to it. Reference the revised chart, such as, [adapted from Smith, 1996], then cite the original source in your list of references. You can also use other terms in order to specify the exact relationship between the original source and the version you have presented, such as, "based on data from Smith [1996]...," or "summarized from Smith [1996]...." Citing the original source helps the reader locate where the information was first presented and under what context it was used as well as to evaluate how effectively you applied it to your own research.

4. What should I do if several authors have published very similar information or ideas? You can indicate that the topic, idea, concept, or information can be found in the works of others by stating something similar to the following example: "Though many scholars have applied rational choice theory to understanding economic relations among nations [Smith, 1989; Jones, 1991; Johnson, 1994; Anderson, 2003; Smith, 2014], little attention has been given to applying the theory to examining the influence of non-governmental organizations in a globalized economy." If you only reference one author or only the most recent study, then your readers may assume that only one author has published on this topic, or more likely, they will conclude that you have not conducted a thorough review of the literature. Referencing all relevant authors of prior studies gives your readers a clear idea of the breadth of analysis you conducted in preparing to study the research problem. If there has been a significant number of prior studies on the topic [i.e., ten or more], describe the most comprehensive and recent works because they will presumably discuss and reference the older studies. However, note in your review of the literature that there has been significant scholarship devoted to the topic so the reader knows that you are aware of the numerous prior studies.

5. What if I find exactly what I want to say in the writing of another researcher? In the social sciences, the rationale in duplicating prior research is generally governed by the passage of time, changing circumstances or conditions, or the emergence of variables that necessitate new investigations . If someone else has recently conducted a thorough investigation of precisely the same research problem that you intend to study, then you likely will have to revise your topic, or at the very least, review this literature to identify something new to say about the problem. However, if it is someone else's particularly succinct expression, but it fits perfectly with what you are trying to say, then you can quote from the author directly, referencing the source. Identifying an author who has made the exact same point that you want to make can be an opportunity to validate, as well as reinforce the significance of, the research problem you are investigating. The key is to build on that idea in new and innovative ways. If you are not sure how to do this, consult with a librarian .

6. Should I cite a source even if it was published long ago? Any source used in writing your paper should be cited, regardless of when it was written. However, in building a case for understanding prior research about your topic, it is generally true that you should focus on citing more recently published studies because they presumably have built upon the research of older studies. When referencing prior studies, use the research problem as your guide when considering what to cite. If a study from forty years ago investigated the same topic, it probably should be examined and considered in your list of references because the research may have been foundational or groundbreaking at the time, even if its findings are no longer relevant to current conditions or reflect current thinking [one way to determine if a study is foundational or groundbreaking is to examine how often it has been cited in recent studies using the "Cited by" feature of Google Scholar ]. However, if an older study only relates to the research problem tangentially or it has not been cited in recent studies, then it may be more appropriate to list it under further readings .

7. Can I cite unusual and non-scholarly sources in my research paper? The majority of the citations in a research paper should be to scholarly [a.k.a., academic; peer-reviewed] studies that rely on an objective and logical analysis of the research problem based on empirical evidence that reliably supports your arguments. However, any type of source can be considered valid if it brings relevant understanding and clarity to the topic. This can include, for example, non-textual elements such as photographs, maps, or illustrations. A source can include materials from special or archival collections, such as, personal papers, manuscripts, business memorandums, the official records of an organization, or digitized collections. Citations can also be to unusual items, such as, an audio recording, a transcript from a television news program, a unique set of data, or a social media post. The challenge is knowing how to cite unusual and non-scholarly sources because they often do not fit within consistent citation rules of books or journal articles. Given this, consult with a librarian if you are unsure how to cite a source.

NOTE:   In any academic writing, you are required to identify which ideas, facts, thoughts, concepts, or declarative statements are yours and which are derived from the research of others. The only exception to this rule is information that is considered to be a commonly known fact [e.g., "George Washington was the first president of the United States"] or a statement that is self-evident [e.g., "Australia is a country in the Global South"]. Appreciate, however, that any "commonly known fact" or self-evidencing statement is culturally constructed and shaped by specific social and aesthetical biases . If you have any doubt about whether or not a fact is considered to be widely understood knowledge, provide a supporting citation, or, ask your professor for clarification about whether the statement should be cited.

Ballenger, Bruce P. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers . 7th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012; Blum, Susan Debra. My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009; Bretag, Tracey., editor. Handbook of Academic Integrity . Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2020; Carlock, Janine. Developing Information Literacy Skills: A Guide to Finding, Evaluating, and Citing Sources . Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2020; Harvard Guide to Using Sources. Harvard College Writing Program. Harvard University; How to Cite Other Sources in Your Paper. The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style Scientific Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Lunsford, Andrea A. and Robert Connors; The St. Martin's Handbook . New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989; Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace . 3rd edition. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2015; Research and Citation Resources. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Why Cite? Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale Univeraity.

Other Citation Research Guides

The following USC Libraries research guide can help you properly cite sources in your research paper:

• Citation Guide

The following USC Libraries research guide offers basic information on using images and media in research:

Listed below are particularly well-done and comprehensive websites that provide specific examples of how to cite sources under different style guidelines.

• Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• Southern Cross University Harvard Referencing Style
• University of Wisconsin Writing Center

This is a useful guide concerning how to properly cite images in your research paper.

• Colgate Visual Resources Library, Citing Images

This guide provides good information on the act of citation analysis, whereby you count the number of times a published work is cited by other works in order to measure the impact of a publication or author.

Measuring Your Impact: Impact Factor, Citation Analysis, and other Metrics: Citation Analysis [Sandy De Groote, University of Illinois, Chicago]

Automatic Citation Generators

The links below lead to systems where you can type in your information and have a citation compiled for you. Note that these systems are not foolproof so it is important that you verify that the citation is correct and check your spelling, capitalization, etc. However, they can be useful in creating basic types of citations, particularly for online sources.

• BibMe -- APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles
• DocsCite -- for citing government publications in APA or MLA formats
• EasyBib -- APA, MLA, and Chicago styles
• Son of Citation Machine -- APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles

NOTE:   Many companies that create the research databases the USC Libraries subscribe to, such as ProQuest , include built-in citation generators that help take the guesswork out of how to properly cite a work. When available, you should always utilize these features because they not only generate a citation to the source [e.g., a journal article], but include information about where you accessed the source [e.g., the database].

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• Last Updated: Jun 18, 2024 10:45 AM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide

How to Cite a Research Paper in Each Research Paper Format

Dissertations, thesis, and all kinds of academic papers will need to be cited using citation styles, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago. Citing academic papers properly are done to counteract plagiarism. These citing formats are used to recognize related literary pieces and to mention references used. You should study various citing styles and research paper well before producing essays or any other pieces of academic writing. In this article, our term paper writers have prepared information on how to format research papers as well as how to properly reference academic papers.

APA Research Paper Format

APA (American Psychological Association) research paper format is often used in papers related to psychology and social sciences. In this citation, there is a general format in referencing through endnotes/footnotes, in-text, and reference pages. Academic papers in APA citation has general writing guidelines.

Papers should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11") with 1" margins on all sides. You should use a clear font that is highly readable. APA recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman font. Include a page header at the top of every page. To create a page header, insert page numbers flush right. Then type the title of your paper in the header flush left using all capital letters. The page header is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.

Talking about how to write a research paper in APA format, your APA paper should have four major sections :

Be sure to read about how to write an essay format . In article, we talked about the differences between formats.

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How to Cite a Research Paper in APA

There are specific rules to follow when citing a research paper in APA. The following are the specific formats to follow:

These citing formats are used to recognize related literary pieces and to mention references used. You don't need to cite information about yourself or your own thoughts. For example, when listing education on resume you don't need any citations. However, you should study various citing styles and research well before producing any other piece of academic writing.

Do you need to buy a research paper ? They are always here and ready to help with essay .

MLA Research Paper Format

MLA (Modern Language Association) format format is commonly used in liberal arts and humanities. Let’s talk a bit about how to write a research paper in MLA format. This format has principles rather than a set of specific rules to be followed. Papers in MLA format provides a process of documentation.

MLA recommends using Times New Roman font in size 12. The entire paper should be double spaced with 1-inch margins on all sides. Tab once to indent paragraphs (½ inch). Your last name and a page number should be inserted on the upper right-hand corner of the first page.

How to Cite a Research Paper in MLA Format

The following are formats to follow in citing research paper in MLA format:

Read more about HOW TO CITE A RESEARCH PAPER USING MLA FORMAT

Research Paper in Chicago Style

The Chicago style of citing is commonly used in humanities. It requires writers to cite sources in endnotes or footnotes. This citation provides the author with an avenue to express accountability and credibility to related literature or references used in written material. It helps an academic writer provide quotations in a research paper, as well as being commonly used for book bibliographies.

Look at our movie review example at our cheap research paper writing service and try to determine what format it is written in.

How to Cite a Research Paper in Chicago Style

The following are Chicago style formats to follow:

ASA Research Paper Format

The leading American method of referencing and quotation created by Sociological Association. Sociological students and scholars use the ASA citation format primarily for writing university research papers in sociology or for submitting articles to ASA journals.

For the detailed information about ASA elements of style, visit the American Sociological Association official website or read our Guide to ASA Citation and Writing Style.

How to Cite a Research Paper in ASA Format

If you need, you can ask help from EssayPro's custom dissertation writing service .

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If you are having trouble referencing your gathered information, head on over to our paper writing service and you will get research proposal writing services .

How To Format A Research Paper?

How to write a research paper in apa format, how to write a research paper mla format.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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How to Cite an Essay

Last Updated: February 4, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Diya Chaudhuri, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Diya Chaudhuri holds a PhD in Creative Writing (specializing in Poetry) from Georgia State University. She has over 5 years of experience as a writing tutor and instructor for both the University of Florida and Georgia State University. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 558,995 times.

If you're writing a research paper, whether as a student or a professional researcher, you might want to use an essay as a source. You'll typically find essays published in another source, such as an edited book or collection. When you discuss or quote from the essay in your paper, use an in-text citation to relate back to the full entry listed in your list of references at the end of your paper. While the information in the full reference entry is basically the same, the format differs depending on whether you're using the Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), or Chicago citation method.

Template and Examples

• Example: Potter, Harry.

• Example: Potter, Harry. "My Life with Voldemort."

• Example: Potter, Harry. "My Life with Voldemort." Great Thoughts from Hogwarts Alumni , by Bathilda Backshot,

• Example: Potter, Harry. "My Life with Voldemort." Great Thoughts from Hogwarts Alumni , by Bathilda Backshot, Hogwarts Press, 2019,

• Example: Potter, Harry. "My Life with Voldemort." Great Thoughts from Hogwarts Alumni , by Bathilda Backshot, Hogwarts Press, 2019, pp. 22-42.

MLA Works Cited Entry Format:

LastName, FirstName. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection , by FirstName Last Name, Publisher, Year, pp. ##-##.

• For example, you might write: While the stories may seem like great adventures, the students themselves were terribly frightened to confront Voldemort (Potter 28).
• If you include the author's name in the text of your paper, you only need the page number where the referenced material can be found in the parenthetical at the end of your sentence.
• If you have several authors with the same last name, include each author's first initial in your in-text citation to differentiate them.
• For several titles by the same author, include a shortened version of the title after the author's name (if the title isn't mentioned in your text).

• Example: Granger, H.

• Example: Granger, H. (2018).

• Example: Granger, H. (2018). Adventures in time turning.

• Example: Granger, H. (2018). Adventures in time turning. In M. McGonagall (Ed.), Reflections on my time at Hogwarts

• Example: Granger, H. (2018). Adventures in time turning. In M. McGonagall (Ed.), Reflections on my time at Hogwarts (pp. 92-130). Hogwarts Press.

APA Reference List Entry Format:

LastName, I. (Year). Title of essay. In I. LastName (Ed.), Title of larger work (pp. ##-##). Publisher.

• For example, you might write: By using a time turner, a witch or wizard can appear to others as though they are actually in two places at once (Granger, 2018).
• If you use the author's name in the text of your paper, include the parenthetical with the year immediately after the author's name. For example, you might write: Although technically against the rules, Granger (2018) maintains that her use of a time turner was sanctioned by the head of her house.
• Add page numbers if you quote directly from the source. Simply add a comma after the year, then type the page number or page range where the quoted material can be found, using the abbreviation "p." for a single page or "pp." for a range of pages.

• Example: Weasley, Ron.

• Example: Weasley, Ron. "Best Friend to a Hero."

• Example: Weasley, Ron. "Best Friend to a Hero." In Harry Potter: Wizard, Myth, Legend , edited by Xenophilius Lovegood, 80-92.

• Example: Weasley, Ron. "Best Friend to a Hero." In Harry Potter: Wizard, Myth, Legend , edited by Xenophilius Lovegood, 80-92. Ottery St. Catchpole: Quibbler Books, 2018.

' Chicago Bibliography Format:

LastName, FirstName. "Title of Essay." In Title of Book or Essay Collection , edited by FirstName LastName, ##-##. Location: Publisher, Year.

• Example: Ron Weasley, "Best Friend to a Hero," in Harry Potter: Wizard, Myth, Legend , edited by Xenophilius Lovegood, 80-92 (Ottery St. Catchpole: Quibbler Books, 2018).
• After the first footnote, use a shortened footnote format that includes only the author's last name, the title of the essay, and the page number or page range where the referenced material appears.

Tip: If you use the Chicago author-date system for in-text citation, use the same in-text citation method as APA style.

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• ↑ https://style.mla.org/essay-in-authored-textbook/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_page_books.html
• ↑ https://utica.libguides.com/c.php?g=703243&p=4991646
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_in_text_citations_the_basics.html
• ↑ https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/apaquickguide/intext
• ↑ https://guides.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/c.php?g=27779&p=170363
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html
• ↑ http://libguides.heidelberg.edu/chicago/book/chapter
• ↑ https://librarybestbets.fairfield.edu/citationguides/chicagonotes-bibliography#CollectionofEssays
• ↑ https://libguides.heidelberg.edu/chicago/book/chapter

About This Article

To cite an essay using MLA format, include the name of the author and the page number of the source you’re citing in the in-text citation. For example, if you’re referencing page 123 from a book by John Smith, you would include “(Smith 123)” at the end of the sentence. Alternatively, include the information as part of the sentence, such as “Rathore and Chauhan determined that Himalayan brown bears eat both plants and animals (6652).” Then, make sure that all your in-text citations match the sources in your Works Cited list. For more advice from our Creative Writing reviewer, including how to cite an essay in APA or Chicago Style, keep reading. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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What's the correct way to cite a paper cited by another paper?

The example is when you might be reading a certain paper, and the authors refer to another paper. You can't get that other paper as it's unpublished, or it's in a language that you can't read, or maybe something else.

My guess is:

Featherstone et al 1900 (in Thomas and Cullen 2002).

And how is it to be handled in the bibliography?

• 5 I think the answer would depend on why you want to cite Featherstone. Obviously it isn't because of the important things you learned from reading it! –  Nate Eldredge Commented Jun 13, 2012 at 19:59
• 4 Just to make this very specific situation clear (which I didn't want to do, as it works better for all if it's just a little general): I cannot obtain the original paper as our libraries cannot get it (perhaps if I had unlimited time and so on I could find it?). The paper I do have sufficiently details the data from the secondary source, and those data are all I need. Just data, in a table, very simple. There's a lot of hand-wringing going on here, and some insinuations about my character, but just have a little generosity of spirit for and some faith in your fellow humans. –  a different ben Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 2:19
• Possible duplicate of academia.stackexchange.com/q/12391/64 –  JRN Commented Sep 3, 2013 at 23:36

4 Answers 4

In APA style, you can write, (e.g., see this APA tutorial )

Featherstone et al 1900 (as cited in Thomas and Cullen 2002)

Of course, in general you should try your best to read the original and cite the original directly.

Someone in the comments asked:

"In such case do I need to list original paper also in reference section or only the recent one I am referring to?"

The reference to the original article is the more important reference to include, but you should include both in your reference list.

• 3 Thanks. That also tells me that the term is 'secondary source'. Another nice tool I've just found is this one: lib.unimelb.edu.au/recite/index.html –  a different ben Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 5:12
• I always interpret this to mean that Thomas and Cullen (2002) said something about Featherstone et al (1900) that is not obvious and often contentious or wrong. –  StrongBad Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 8:21
• 1 I associate it most with student lab reports. –  Jeromy Anglim Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 4:53
• In such case do I need to list original paper also in reference section or only the recent one I am referring to? –  Rajesh Commented Nov 22, 2017 at 9:47

The following is with regards to Chicago Style as of 11/25/2018 14.260: Citations taken from secondary sources Chapter Contents / Special Types of References / Citations Taken from Secondary Sources To cite a source from a secondary source (“quoted in . . .”) is generally to be discouraged, since authors are expected to have examined the works they cite. If an original source is unavailable, however, both the original and the secondary source must be listed.

If you are using a quote from author A that author B is citing, you would go ahead and use the quote from author A and cite it like this:

Blah blah, blahblahblah, blah blah blah-blah blah (qtd. in Author B 65).

If you cannot get that paper, you should not cite it.

What is a citation? The word citation comes from Latin verb cio (past participle: citum ) that means to call somebody , to invite somebody , or preferably to demand someone to give his own testimony .

So, in your case, if you would like to cite that paper, that means that you invite that paper to give its own testimony. But if it's not available , how could it do it?

Simply, it can't .

• 18 No, you have a moral obligation to cite it regardless (and the etymology is completely irrelevant). Deliberately not citing a relevant paper because you couldn't track down a copy is a potentially career-destroying ethical mistake. It's a matter of credit and historical information, not just ease of availability. (Of course, if you don't have access yourself you need to trust someone else as to what is in there, and you should indicate that, but it's not a reason to erase someone from history.) –  Anonymous Mathematician Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 14:41
• 6 This is plainly wrong: unfortunately, sometimes author A refers to private communication with B, so there is no other way fo you to cite B then by an indirect reference. –  Alexander Serebrenik Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 18:54
• 3 @AnonymousMathematician I think the obligation is to get the source (and have it translated if necessary) and then decide if you should cite it. Citing a source without having the source is unethical. –  StrongBad Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 8:05
• 12 Citing something has nothing to do with reading or not reading it. It means having it appear in your bibliography and get referred to in your text. You're right that there are issues in how you refer to it: you have a scholarly obligation to say correct things about it, and an ethical obligation not to be sloppy or misleading. Pretending to have read something you haven't is indeed ethically problematic, but that's a matter of how you cite it, not whether you cite it. Omitting the citation entirely is tantamount to pretending you aren't aware of the paper. –  Anonymous Mathematician Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 14:41
• 3 @AnonymousMathematician: "Citing something has nothing to do with reading or not reading it": see Simkin & Roychowdhury 2003 ... –  cbeleites unhappy with SX Commented Feb 6, 2013 at 19:56

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Predicting citation impact of academic papers across research areas using multiple models and early citations

• Open access
• Published: 25 June 2024

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Fang Zhang 1 , 2 &
• Shengli Wu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2008-1736 1 , 3  

178 Accesses

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As the volume of scientific literature expands rapidly, accurately gauging and predicting the citation impact of academic papers has become increasingly imperative. Citation counts serve as a widely adopted metric for this purpose. While numerous researchers have explored techniques for projecting papers’ citation counts, a prevalent constraint lies in the utilization of a singular model across all papers within a dataset. This universal approach, suitable for small, homogeneous collections, proves less effective for large, heterogeneous collections spanning various research domains, thereby curtailing the practical utility of these methodologies. In this study, we propose a pioneering methodology that deploys multiple models tailored to distinct research domains and integrates early citation data. Our approach encompasses instance-based learning techniques to categorize papers into different research domains and distinct prediction models trained on early citation counts for papers within each domain. We assessed our methodology using two extensive datasets sourced from DBLP and arXiv. Our experimental findings affirm that the proposed classification methodology is both precise and efficient in classifying papers into research domains. Furthermore, the proposed prediction methodology, harnessing multiple domain-specific models and early citations, surpasses four state-of-the-art baseline methods in most instances, substantially enhancing the accuracy of citation impact predictions for diverse collections of academic papers.

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Introduction

The rapid advancement of science and technology has led to a staggering increase in the number of academic publications produced globally each year (Zhu & Ban, 2018 ). In this ever-growing landscape, effectively evaluating the impact of research papers has become a critical issue (Castillo et al., 2007 ; Chakraborty et al., 2014 ; Li et al., 2019 ; Yan et al., 2011 ). Citation count, which measures the frequency with which a paper is referenced by other works, is widely recognized as the most prevalent metric for assessing the influence of academic papers, authors, and institutions (Bu et al., 2021 ; Cao et al., 2016 ; Lu et al., 2017 ; Redner, 1998 ; Stegehuis et al., 2015 ; Wang et al., 2021 ). Building upon the foundation of citation counts, numerous additional measures have been proposed to quantify research impact from various perspectives (Braun et al., 2006 ; Egghe, 2006 ; Garfield, 1972 , 2006 ; Hirsch, 2005 ; Persht, 2009 ; Yan & Ding, 2010 ).

Predicting the impact of scientific papers has garnered significant research attention due to its profound implications (Abramo et al., 2019 ; Abrishami & Aliakbary, 2019 ; Bai et al., 2019 ; Cao et al., 2016 ; Chen & Zhang, 2015 ; Li et al., 2019 ; Liu et al., 2020 ; Ma et al., 2021 ; Ruan et al., 2020 ; Su, 2020 ; Wang et al., 2013 , 2021 , 2023 ; Wen et al., 2020 ; Xu et al., 2019 ; Yan et al., 2011 ; Yu et al., 2014 ; Zhao & Feng, 2022 ; Zhu & Ban, 2018 ). See “ Citation count prediction ” section for more detailed discussion about them. Accurately forecasting the future citation impact of academic papers, particularly those recently published, offers invaluable benefits to various stakeholders within the research ecosystem. Precisely predicting the impact of papers, especially those published for a short time, would be helpful for researchers to find potentially high-impact papers and interesting research topics at an earlier stage. It is also helpful for institutions, government agencies, and funding bodies to evaluate published papers, researchers, and project proposals, among others.

For large and diverse collections encompassing papers from various research areas, a one-size-fits-all approach to citation impact prediction may be inadequate. Even within a broad field like Computing, sub-fields such as Theoretical Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Systems, and Applications can exhibit distinct citation patterns. Previous study has demonstrated that citation dynamics can vary significantly across research areas, journals, researchers in different age groups, among other factors (Kelly, 2015 ; Levitt & Thelwall, 2008 ; Mendoza, 2021 ; Milz & Seifert, 2018 ). To illustrate this point, let us consider an example from the DBLP dataset used in our study. Figure  1 a depicts the average citation distributions of papers in three research areas: Cryptography, Computer Networks, and Software Engineering. We can observe striking differences in their citation patterns:

Software Engineering papers consistently attract relatively few citations over time, without a pronounced peak in their citation curve.

Artificial Intelligence papers garner the highest citation counts among the three areas. Their citation curve rises rapidly, peaking around year 4, followed by a gradual decline until year 7, after which the decrease becomes more precipitous.

Cryptography papers exhibit a steadily increasing citation trend over the first 10 years, reaching a peak around year 11, followed by a slow decline in citations thereafter.

Citation patterns in different research areas or different classes of the same research area

These divergent citation patterns across research areas highlight the limitations of employing a single, universal model for citation impact prediction. In light of these observations, a more effective strategy would be to segment papers into distinct groups based on their research areas and develop tailored prediction models for each group. By accounting for the unique citation characteristics of different domains, such a group-specific modelling approach has the potential to significantly enhance the accuracy and reliability of citation impact predictions, particularly for large and heterogeneous collections of academic papers.

Citation patterns are not solely determined by research areas but also influenced by the quality and intrinsic characteristics of individual papers. Even within the same research area, the citation dynamics of papers can vary considerably (Garfield, 2006 ; Wang et al., 2021 ; Yan & Ding, 2010 ). High-impact papers may exhibit significantly different citation trajectories compared to average or low-impact works. Accounting for these differences by employing multiple models tailored to papers with varying citation potential could further improve prediction performance. Figure  1 b illustrates this phenomenon using an example from the Embedded & Real-Time Systems research area. All papers in this domain can be categorized into four classes based on their cumulative citation counts ( cc ) over 15 years: cc  < 10, 10 ≤  cc  < 50, 50 ≤  cc  < 100, and cc  ≥ 100. The general pattern observed for all the curves is that they initially increase for a few years and then decrease afterwards. However, the peak point varies depending on the total number of citations. Papers with higher citation counts take more years to reach their peak point. This finding suggests that class-based prediction can be a viable approach for our prediction task, as it account for the varying peak times based on the citation count classes.

If all of the papers are not classified, then it is necessary to have a classification system that encompasses multiple categories and an automated method for allocating each paper into one or more suitable categories. For a large collection of papers to be classified, both the effectiveness and efficiency of the allocating method are crucial factors to consider.

Taking into account all the observations mentioned earlier, we propose MM, a prediction method based on Multiple Models tailored for different research areas and citation counts, to predict the future citation counts of a paper. This work makes the following contributions:

A new instance-based learning method is introduced to classify papers into a given number of research areas. Both paper contents (titles and abstracts) and citations are considered separately. An ensemble-based method is then employed to make the final decision. Experiments with the DBLP dataset demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve excellent classification performance.

A prediction method for paper citation counts is proposed. For any paper to be predicted, a suitable prediction model is chosen based on its research area and early citation history. This customized approach enables each document to use a fitting model.

Experiments with two datasets show that the proposed prediction method outperforms four baseline methods in this study, demonstrating its superiority.

The remainder of this article is structured as follows: “ Related work ” section reviews related work on citation count prediction and classification of academic papers. “ Methodology ” section describes the proposed method in detail. “ Experimental settings and results ” section presents the experimental settings, procedures, and results, along with an analysis of the findings. Finally, “ Conclusion ” section concludes the paper.

Related work

In this work, the primary task is citation count prediction of papers, while classification of scientific papers serves as an additional task that may be required for the prediction task. Accordingly, we review some related work on citation count prediction and classification of academic papers separately in the following sections.

• Citation count prediction

In the literature, there are numerous papers on predicting the citation counts of scientific papers. These methods can be categorized into three groups based on the information used for prediction.

The first group relies solely on the paper’s citation history as input. Wang et al. ( 2013 ) developed a model called WSB to predict the total number of citations a paper will receive, assuming its earlier citation data is known. Cao et al. ( 2016 ) proposed a data analytic approach to predict the long-term citation count of a paper using its short-term (three years after publication) citation data. Given a large collection of papers C with long citation histories, for a paper p with a short citation history, they matched it with a group of papers in C with similar early citation data and then used those papers in C to predict p’s later citation counts. Abrishami and Aliakbary ( 2019 ) proposed a long-term citation prediction method called NNCP based on Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and the sequence-to-sequence model. Their dataset comprised papers published in five authoritative journals: Nature, Science, NEJM (The New England Journal of Medicine), Cell, and PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Wang et al. ( 2021 ) introduced a nonlinear predictive combination model, NCFCM, that utilized multilayer perceptron (MLP) to combine WSB and an improved version of AVR for predicting citation counts.

The second group uses not only the citation data but also some other extracted features from the paper or the wider academic network for the prediction task. Yu et al. ( 2014 ) adopted a stepwise multiple regression model using four groups of 24 features, including paper, author, publication, and citation-related features. Bornmann et al. ( 2014 ) took the percentile approach of Hazen ( 1914 ), considering the journal’s impact and other variables such as the number of authors, cited references, and pages. Castillo et al. ( 2007 ) used information about past papers written by the same author(s). Chen and Zhang ( 2015 ) applied Gradient Boosting Regression Trees (GBRT) with six paper content features and 10 author features. Bai et al. ( 2019 ) made long-term predictions using the Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) model with five features, including the citation count within 5 years after publication, authors’ impact factor, h-index, Q value, and the journal's impact factor. Akella et al. ( 2021 ) exploited 21 features derived from social media shares, mentions, and reads of scientific papers to predict future citations with various machine learning models, such as Random Forest, Decision Tree, Gradient Boosting, and others. Xu et al. ( 2019 ) extracted 22 features from heterogeneous academic networks and employed a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to capture the complex nonlinear relationship between early network features and the final cumulative citation count. Ruan et al. ( 2020 ) employed a four-layer BP neural network to predict the 5th year citation counts of papers, using a total of 30 features, including paper, author, publication, reference, and early citation-related features. By extracting high-level semantic features from metadata text, Ma et al. ( 2021 ) adopted a neural network to consider both semantic information and the early citation counts to predict long-term citation counts. Wang et al. ( 2023 ) applied neural network technology to a heterogeneous network including author and paper information. Huang et al. ( 2022 ) argued that citations should not be treated equally, as the citing text and the section in which the citation occurs significantly impact its importance. Thus, they applied deep learning models to perform fine-grained citation prediction—not just citation count for the whole paper but citation count occurring in each section.

The third group uses other types of information beyond those mentioned above. To investigate the impact of peer-reviewing data on prediction performance, Li et al. ( 2019 ) adopted a neural network prediction model, incorporating an abstract-review match method and a cross-review match mechanism to learn deep features from peer-reviewing texts. Combining these learned features with breadth features (topic distribution, topic diversity, publication year, number of authors, and average author h-index), they employed a multilayer perceptron (MLP) to predict citation counts. Li et al. ( 2022 ) also utilized peer-reviewing text for prediction, using an aspect-aware capsule network. Zhao and Feng ( 2022 ) proposed an end-to-end deep learning framework called DeepCCP, which takes an early citation network as input and predicts the citation count using both GRU and CNN, instead of extracting features.

Citation counts of a paper can be affected by many factors such as research areas, paper types, age, sex, and other aspects of the authors (Andersen & Nielsen, 2018 ; Mendoza, 2021 ; Thelwall, 2020 ). Levitt and Thelwall ( 2008 ) compared patterns of annual citations of highly cited papers across six research areas. To our knowledge, Abramo et al. ( 2019 ) is the only work that uses multiple regression models for prediction, with one model for each subject category. Abramo et al. ( 2019 ) is the most relevant to our work in this article. However, there are two major differences. First, we propose a paper classification method in this paper, while no paper classification is required in Abramo et al. ( 2019 ). Second, we apply multiple models for papers in each category, whereas only one model is used for each category in Abramo et al. ( 2019 ).

Classification of scientific papers

Classification of scientific papers becomes a critical issue when organizing and managing an increasing number of publications through computerized solutions. In previous research, typically, meta-data such as title, abstract, keywords, and citations of papers were used for this task, while full text was not considered due to its unavailability in most situations.

Various machine learning methods, such as K-Nearest Neighbors (Lukasik et al., 2013 ; Waltman & Van Eck, 2012 ), K-means (Kim & Gil, 2019 ), and Naïve Bayes (Eykens et al., 2021 ), have been applied. Recently, deep neural network models, such as Convolutional Neural Networks (Daradkeh et al., 2022 ; Rivest et al., 2021 ), Recurrent Neural Networks (Hoppe et al., 2021 ; Semberecki & Maciejewski, 2017 ), and pre-trained language models (Hande et al., 2021 ; Kandimalla et al., 2020 ), have also been utilized.

One key issue is the classification system to be used. There are many different classification systems. Both Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science database (WoS) and Elsevier’s Scopus database have their own general classification systems, covering many subjects/research areas. Some systems focus on one particular subject, such as the medical subject headings (MeSH), the physics and astronomy classification scheme (PACS), the Chemical Abstracts Sections, the journal of economic literature (JEL), and the ACM Computing Classification System.

Based on the WoS classification system, Kandimalla et al. ( 2020 ) applied a deep attentive neural network (DANN) to a collection of papers from the WoS database for the classification task. It was assumed that each paper belonged to only one category, and only abstracts were used.

Zhang et al. ( 2022 ) compared three classification systems: Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science, Fields of Research provided by Dimensions, and the Subjects Classification provided by Springer Nature. Among these, the second one was generated by machine learning methods automatically, while the other two were generated manually by human experts. It is found there are significant inconsistency between machine and human-generated systems.

Rather than using an existing classification system, some researchers build their own classification system using the collection to be classified or other resources such as Wikipedia.

Shen et al. ( 2018 ) organized scientific publications into a hierarchical concept structure of up to six levels. The first two levels (similar to areas and sub-areas) were manually selected, while the others were automatically generated. Wikipedia pages were used to represent the concepts. Each publication or concept was represented as an embedding vector, thus the similarity between a publication and a concept could be calculated by the cosine similarity of their vector representations. It is a core component for the construction of the Microsoft Academic Graph.

In the same vein as Shen et al. ( 2018 ), Toney-Wails and Dunham ( 2022 ) also used Wikipedia pages to represent concepts and build the classification system. Both publications and concepts were represented as embedding vectors. Their database contains more than 184 million documents in English and more than 44 million documents in Chinese.

Mendoza et al. ( 2022 ) presented a benchmark corpus and a classification system as well, which could be used for the academic paper classification task. The classification system used is the 36 subjects defined in the UK Research Excellent Framework. Footnote 1 According to Cressey and Gibney ( 2014 ), this practice is the largest overall assessment of university research outputs ever undertaken globally. The 191,000 submissions to REF 2014 comprise a very good data set because every paper was manually categorized by experts when submitted.

Liu et al. ( 2022 ) described the NLPCC 2022 Task 5 Track 1, a multi-label classification task for scientific literature, where one paper may belong to multiple categories simultaneously. The data set, crawled from the American Chemistry Society’s publication website, comprises 95,000 papers’ meta-data including titles and abstracts. A hierarchical classification system, with a maximum of three levels, was also defined.

As we can see, the classification problem of academic papers is quite complicated. Many classification systems and classification methods are available. However, classification systems and classification methods are related to each other. The major goal of this work is to perform citation count prediction of published papers, in which classification of papers is a basic requirement. For example, considering the DBLP dataset which includes over four million papers, special consideration is required to perform the classification task effectively and efficiently. We used the classification system from CSRankings, Footnote 2 which included a set of four categories (research areas) and 26 sub-categories in total. A group of top venues were identified for each sub-category. However, many more venues in DBLP are not assigned to any category. We used all those recommended venue papers in the CSRankings system as representative papers of a given research area. An instance-based learning approach was used to measure the semantic similarity of the target paper and all the papers in a particular area. A decision could be made based on the similarity scores that the target paper obtained for all research areas. Besides, citation data between the target paper and all the papers in those recommended venues is also considered. Quite different from those proposed classification methods before, this instance-based learning approach suits our purpose well. See “ Methodology ” section for more details.

Methodology

This research aims to predict the number of citations of academic papers in the next couple of years based on their metadata including title, abstract and citation data since publication. The main idea of our approach is: for a paper, depends on its research area and early citation count, we use a specific model to make the prediction. There are two key issues. Academic paper classification and citation count prediction methods. Let us detail them one by one in the following subsections.

Computing classification system

To carry out the classification task of academic papers, a suitable classification system is required. There are many classification systems available for natural science, social science, humanities, or specific branches of science or technology. Since one of the datasets used in this study is DBLP, which includes over four million papers on computer science so far, we will focus our discussion on classification systems and methods for computer science.

In computer science, there are quite a few classification systems available. For example, both the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the China Computer Federation (CCF) define their own classification systems. However, both are not very suitable for our purpose. The ACM’s classification system is quite complicated, but it does not provide any representative venues for any of the research areas. The CCF defines 10 categories and recommends dozens of venues in each category. However, some journals and conferences publish papers in more than one category, but they are only recommended in one category. For instance, both the journals IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering and Data and Knowledge Engineering publish papers on Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence, but they are only recommended in the Database/Data Mining/Content Retrieval category.

In this research, we used the classification system from CSRankings. This system divides computer science into four areas: AI, System, Theory, and Interdisciplinary Areas. Then, each area is further divided into several sub-areas, totalling 26 sub-areas. We flatten these 26 sub-areas for classification, while ignoring the four general areas at level one. One benefit of using this system is that it lists several key venues for every sub-area. For example, three venues are identified for Computer Vision: CVPR (IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition), ECCV (European Conference on Computer Vision), and ICCV (IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision). This is very useful for the paper classification task, as we will discuss now.

Paper classification

For this research, we need a classification algorithm that can perform the classification task for all the papers in the DBLP dataset effectively and efficiently.

Although many classification methods have been proposed, we could not find a method that suits our case well. Therefore, we developed our own approach. Using the classification system of CSRankings, we assume that all the papers published in those identified venues belong to that given research area, referred to as seed papers. For all the non-seed papers, we need to decide the areas to which they belong. This is done by considering three aspects together: content, references, and citations. Let us look at the first aspect first.

The collection of all the seed papers, denoted as C , was indexed using the Search engine Lucene Footnote 3 with the BM25 model. Both titles and abstracts were used in the indexing process. Each research area \({a}_{k}\) is presented by all its seed papers C ( \({a}_{k}\) ). For a given non-seed paper p , we use its title and abstract as a query to search for similar papers in C . Then each seed paper s will obtain a score (similarity between p and s )

in which b 1 and b 2 are two parameters (set to 0.75 and 1.2, respectively, as default setting values of Lucene in the experiments), T s is the set of all the terms in s , \(AL(C)\) is the average length of all the documents in C , \(f\left({t}_{j},s\right)\) is the term frequency of \({t}_{j}\) in s , \(idf\left({t}_{j}\right)\) is the inverse document frequency of \({t}_{j}\) in collection C with all the seed papers. \(idf\left({t}_{j}\right)\) is defined as

in which \(\left|C\right|\) is the number of papers in \(C\) , and \(\left|C({t}_{j})\right|\) is the number of papers in C satisfying the condition that \({t}_{j}\) appears in them. For a paper p and a research area \({a}_{k}\) , we can calculate the average similarity score between p and all the seed papers in C ( \({a}_{k}\) ) as

where C ( \({a}_{k}\) ) is the collection of seed papers in area \({a}_{k}\) .

We also consider citations between \(p\) and any of the papers in C . Citations in two different directions are considered separately: \(citingNum\left( p,{a}_{k}\right)\) denotes the number of papers in C ( \({a}_{k}\) ) that p cites, and \(citedNum\left(p,{a}_{k}\right)\) denotes the number of papers in C ( \({a}_{k}\) ) that cites p . Now we want to combine the three features. Normalization is required. For example, \(sim\left({p,a}_{k}\right)\) can be normalized by

in which \(RA\) is the set of 26 research areas. \(citingNum\left(p,{a}_{k}\right)\) and \(citedNum\left(p,{a}_{k}\right)\) can be normalized similarly. Then we let

for any \({a}_{k}\in RArea\) , in which \({\beta }_{1}\) , \({\beta }_{2}\) , and \({\beta }_{3}\) are three parameters. When applying Eq.  5 to \(p\) and all 26 research areas, we may obtain corresponding scores for each area. p can be put to research area \({a}_{k}\) if \(score\left(p,{a}_{k}\right)\) is the biggest among all 26 scores for all research areas. The values of \({\beta }_{1}\) , \({\beta }_{2}\) , and \({\beta }_{3}\) are decided by Euclidean Distance with multiple linear regression with a training data set (Wu et al., 2023 ). Compared with other similar methods such as Stacking with MLS and StackingC, this method can achieve comparable performance but much more efficient than the others. It should be very suitable for large-scale datasets.

In this study, we assume that each paper just belongs to one of the research areas. If required, this method can be modified to support multi-label classification, then a paper may belong to more than one research area at the same time. We may set a reasonable threshold \(\tau\) , and for any testing paper \(p\) and research area \({a}_{k}\) , if \(score\left(p,{a}_{k}\right)>\tau\) , then paper \(p\) belongs to research area \({a}_{k}\) . However, this is beyond the scope of this research, and we leave it for further study.

In summary, the proposed classification algorithm instance-based learning (IBL) is sketched as follows:

As we observed that papers in the same research area may have different citation patterns, it is better to treat them using multiple prediction models rather than one unified model. Therefore, for all the papers in a research area, we divide them into up to 10 groups according to the number of citations already obtained in the first m years. In a specific research area, for a group of papers considered, we count the number of citations they obtained during a certain period. We use cc ( i ) to represent the number of papers cited i times, where i ranges from 0 to n .

A threshold of 100 is set. We consider the values of cc (0), cc (1),…, cc ( n ) in order. If cc (0) is greater than or equal to the threshold, we create a group with those papers that received zero citations. Otherwise, we combine cc (0) with cc (1), and if the sum is still less than the threshold, we continue adding the next value cc (2), and so on, until the cumulative sum reaches or exceeds the threshold. At this point, we create a group with all the papers contributing to that cumulative sum. We then move on to the next unassigned value of cc ( i ) and repeat the process, creating new groups until all papers are assigned to a group. The last group may contain fewer than 100 papers, but it is still considered a valid group.

A regression model is set for each of these groups for prediction. For the training data set, all the papers are classified by research area with known citation history of up to t years. For all the papers belonging to a group \({g}_{i}\) inside a research area \({a}_{k}\) , we put their information together. Consider

\({c}_{0}\) , \({c}_{1}\) , …, \({c}_{m}\) , and \({\text{c}}_{t}\) are citation counts of all the papers involved up to year 0, 1,…, m , and in year t ( t  ≥  m ). We can train the weights \({\text{w}}_{0}\) , \({\text{w}}_{1}\) ,…, \({\text{w}}_{m}\) , and b for this group by multiple linear regression using \({c}_{0}\) , \({c}_{1}\) , …, \({c}_{m}\) as independent variables and \(c^{\prime}_{t}\) as the target variable. The same applies to all other groups and research areas.

To predict the future citation counts of a paper, we need to decide which research area and group that paper should be in. Then the corresponding model can be chosen for the prediction. Algorithm MM is sketched as follows:

Note that classification and citation count prediction are two separate tasks. When performing the citation count prediction task, it is required that all the papers involved should have a research area label. Such a requirement can be satisfied in different ways. For example, in the WoS system, it has a list of journals, and each journal is assigned to one or two research areas. All the papers published in those journals are classified by the journals publishing them. In arXiv, an open-access repository of scientific papers, all the papers are assigned a research area label by the authors when uploading them. When performing the citation count prediction task on such datasets, we do not need to do anything else. However, for papers in DBLP, all the papers are not classified. It is necessary to classify them in some way before we can perform citation count prediction for all the papers involved. In this study, we proposed an instance-based learning approach, which provides an efficient and effective solution to this problem.

Experimental settings and results

Two datasets were used for this study. One is a DBLP dataset, and other is an arXiv dataset.

We downloaded a DBLP dataset (Tang et al., 2008 ). Footnote 4 It contains 4,107,340 papers in computer science and 36,624,464 citations from 1961 to 2019. For every paper, the dataset provides its metadata, such as title, abstract, references, authors and their affiliations, publication year, the venue in which the paper was published, and citations since publication. Some subsets of it were used in this study.

For the classification part, we used two subsets of the dataset. The first one ( C 1 ) is all the papers published in those 72 recommended venues in CSRankings between 1965 and 2019. There are 191,727 papers. C 1 is used as seed papers for all 26 research areas. The second subset ( C 2 ) includes 1300 papers, 50 for each research area. Those papers were randomly selected from a group of 54 conferences and journals and judged manually. C 2 is used for the testing of the proposed classification method.

For the prediction part, we also used two subsets. One subset for training and the other for testing. The training dataset ( C 3 ) includes selected papers published between 1990 and 1994, and the testing dataset ( C 4 ) includes selected papers published in 1995. For all those papers between 1990 and 1994 or in 1995, we removed those that did not get any citation and those with incomplete information. After such processing, we obtain 38,247 papers for dataset C 3 , and 9967 papers for dataset C 4 .

We also downloaded an arXiv dataset (Saier and Farber, 2020 ). Footnote 5 It contains 1,043,126 papers in many research areas including Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, and others, with 15,954,664 citations from 1991 to 2022. For every paper, its metadata such as title, abstract, references, authors and affiliations, publication year, and citations since publication was provided. Importantly, each paper is given a research area label by the authors. Therefore, it is no need to classify papers when we use this dataset for citation count prediction. Two subsets were generated in this study. One subset for training and the other for testing. The training dataset ( C 5 ) includes all the papers published between 2008 and 2013, and the testing dataset ( C 6 ) includes all the papers published in 2014. There are 5876 papers in dataset C 5 and 1471papers in dataset C 6 .

Classification results

In the CSRankings classification system, there are a total of 26 special research areas. A few top venues are recommended for each of them. We assume that all the papers published in those recommended conferences belong to the corresponding research area solely. For example, three conferences CVPR, ECCV, and ICCV are recommended for Computer Vision. We assume that all the papers published in these three conferences belong to the Computer Vision research area but no others.

To evaluate the proposed method, we used a set of 1300 non-seed papers ( C 2 ). It included 50 papers for each research area. All of them were labelled manually. In Eq.  5 , three parameters need to be trained. Therefore, we divided those 1300 papers into two equal partitions of 650, and each included the same number of papers in every research area. Then the two-fold cross-validation was performed. Table 1 shows the average performance.

We can see that the proposed method with all three features, content similarity (Sim), citation to other papers (To evaluate the proposed method, we used a set of 1300 non-seed papers ( C 2 ). It included 50 papers for each research area. All of them were labelled manually. In Eq.  5 , three parameters need to be trained. Therefore, we divided those 1300 papers into two equal partitions of 650, and each included the same number of papers in every research area. Then the two-fold cross-validation was performed. Table 1 shows the average performance.

We can see that the proposed method with all three features, content similarity ( \(sim\) ), citation to other papers ( \(citingNum\) ), and citation by others ( \(citedNum\) ), are useful for the classification task. Roughly citation in both directions ( \(citingNum+citedNum\) ) and content similarity ( \(sim\) ) have the same ability. Considering three features together, we can obtain an accuracy, or an F-measure, of approaching 0.8. We are satisfied with this solution. On the one hand, its classification performance is good compared with other methods in the same category, e.g., (Ambalavanan & Devarakonda, 2020 ; Kandimalla et al., 2020 ). In Kandimalla et al. ( 2020 ), F-scores across 81 subject categories are between 0.5 and 0.8 (See Fig.  1 in that paper). In Ambalavanan and Devarakonda ( 2020 ), the four models ITL, Cascade Learner, Ensemble-Boolean, and Ensemble-FFN obtain an F-score of 0.553, 0.753, 0.628, and 0.477, respectively, on the Marshall dataset they experimented with (see Table  4 in their paper). Although those results may not be comparable since the datasets used are different, it is an indicator that our method is very good. Besides, our method can be implemented very efficiently. When the seed papers are indexed, we can deal with a large collection of papers very quickly with very little resource. The method is very scalable.

Setting for the prediction task

For the proposed method MM, we set 10 as the number of groups in each research area for the DBLP dataset, and 5 for the arXiv dataset. This is mainly because the arXiv dataset is smaller and has fewer papers in each research area.

Apart from MM, five baseline prediction methods were used for comparison:

Mean of early years (MEY). It is a simple prediction function which returns the average of early citations of the paper as its predicted citations in the future (Abrishami & Aliakbary, 2019 ).

AVR. Assume that there is a collection of papers with known citation history as the training data set. For a given paper for prediction, this method finds a group of most similar papers in the training set relating to their early citations (with the minimal sum of the squared citation count difference over the years), and then utilizes the average citations of those similar papers in the subsequent years as the predicted citation counts of the paper (Cao et al., 2016 ).

RNN adopts a Recurrent Neural Network to predict papers’ future citation counts based on their early citation data (Abrishami & Aliakbary, 2019 ).

OLS. Linear regression is used for the prediction model (Abramo et al., 2019 ). There are four variants. Both OLS_res and OLS_log only use early citations as independent variables in their prediction models, while OLS2_res and OLS2_log use early citations and impact factors of journals in their prediction models. OLS_res and OLS2_res apply a linear regularization to their early citations, while OLS_log and OLS2_log apply a logarithmic regularization to their early citations.

NCFCM adopts a neural network to predict papers’ future citation counts based on early citation data and two simple prediction model data (Wang et al., 2021 ).

Evaluation metrics

Two popular metrics are used to evaluate the proposed method and compare it with the baselines: mean square error (MSE) and the coefficient of determination (R 2 ). For a given set of actual values Y \(=\{{y}_{1},{y}_{2},\dots ,{y}_{n}\}\) and set of predicted values \(\widehat{Y\boldsymbol{ }}=\{{\widehat{y}}_{1},{\widehat{y}}_{2},\dots ,{\widehat{y}}_{n}\}\) , MSE and R 2 are defined as follows:

where \({\overline{y} }_{i}\) is the average of all n values in y . MSE measures the variation of the predicted values from the actual values, thus smaller values of MSE are desirable. R 2 measures the corelation between the predicted values and actual values, and its value is between 0 and 1, where R 2  = 0 means no correlation, R 2  = 1 means a perfect positive correlation between the predicted values and the actual values, thus larger values of R 2 are desirable.

Evaluation results

Evaluation has been carried out on two different aspects: overall performance for all the papers and for 100 highly citated papers.

Overall prediction performance

For papers with 0–5 years of citation history, we predict their citation counts in three continuous years in the future. The results are shown in Tables 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 . “Zero years of early citation data” means that the prediction was made in the same year as the paper was published. “One year of early citation data” means that the prediction was made in the next year as the paper was published. The number in bold indicates the best performance.

One can see that MM performs the best in most cases. In a few cases, OLS2_res performs the best. This is because OLS2_res considers both the paper’s early citation history and the journal’s impact factor, and the latter is not considered in any other method. In this way, it gives OLS2_res some advantages, especially when the citation history is very short. In a few cases, RNN performs the best on the arXiv dataset. In one case, AVE and NCFCM tied for first place in R 2 . Because linear regression is used in both OLS_res and MM, a comparison between them is able to show that dividing papers into multiple research areas is a very useful strategy for us to obtain better prediction performance. See “ Ablation Study of MM ” section for further experiments and analysis.

Prediction performance of highly cited papers

An important application of citation prediction is the early detection of highly cited papers (Abrishami & Aliakbary, 2019 ). Therefore, we evaluate the performance of the proposed method and its competitors in predicting highly cited papers. Based on the total citation counts in 2000 (DBLP) and in 2019 (arXiv), 100 most cited papers were selected for prediction. For all the papers involved, we compute the MSE values between the predicted citation counts and the actual citation counts of them. The results are shown in Table  8 .

From Table  8 , one can see that MM performs better than all the others, except when k  = 0 (which means zero years of early citation data) OLS2_res performs slightly better than MM in the DBLP dataset. In all other cases, MM outperforms the competing methods.

Ablation study of MM

MM mainly incorporates two factors including research area and early citation counts into consideration. It is desirable to find how these two factors impact prediction performance. Another angle is the number of groups divided in each research area. To find out the impact of these features on prediction performance, we define some variants that implement none or one of the features of MM.

MM-RA (RA). A variant of the MM algorithm that only considers research area but not early citation counts.

MM-CC (CC). A variant of the MM algorithm that only considers early citation counts.

MM-5. A variant of the MM algorithm that divides all the papers in the area into 5 instead of 10 groups.

MEY. It is a simplest variant of MM. It considers neither research area nor early citation counts.

Now let us have a look at how these variants perform compared with the original algorithm. See Tables 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 for the results. It is not surprising that MM performs better than three variants of MM including RA, CC and MEY, while MEY, the variant with none of the two components, performs the worst in predicting the citation counts of papers. Such a phenomenon demonstrates that both components including research area and early citation counts are useful for prediction performance, either used separately or in combination. However, the usefulness of these two components is not the same. The performance of CC is not as good as RA when k  = 0 and k  = 1, but better than RA when k  > 1. Understandably, this indicates that RA is a more useful resource than citation history when the citation history is short, but the latter becomes more and more useful when the citation history becomes longer.

When applying the standard MM algorithm, we divide all the papers in one research area into 10 groups based on the number of citations they obtain in the early years. MM-5 reduces the number of groups from 10 to 5 simply by combining two neighbouring groups to one. MM is better than MM-5 in most cases and on average. The difference between them is small in most cases. However, it is noticeable that MM-5 performs better than MM in two cases, mainly because the size of some of the groups is very small, and the prediction based on such small groups is not very accurate.

Impact of classification on MM

For the DBLP dataset, some papers were classified automatically through the venues in which they were published, while many others were classified through the classification method IBL. It would be interesting to make a comparison of these two groups when performing the prediction task. The results are shown in Table  16 We can see that the group of non-seed papers gets better perdition results than the group of seed papers by a clear margin in all the cases. This demonstrates that the two methods IBL and MM can work together well for achieving good prediction results. On the other hand, such a result is a little surprising. Why can the non-seed group perform better than the seed group? One major reason is for the citation count prediction task, MSE values and citation counts have a strong positive correlation. In this case, there are 2346 seed papers ( C 7 ), whose average citation count is 6.339, while there are 7621 non-seed papers ( C 8 ), whose average citation count is 3.085. These two groups are not directly comparable because of the difference in average citation counts. Note that C 4  =  C 7  +  C 8 (see “ Datasets ” section for C 4 ’s definition).

To make the comparison fair to both parties, we select a subgroup from each of them by adding a restriction: those papers obtain a citation count in the range of [10,20] by the year 2000. We obtain 318 papers ( C 9 ) from the seed paper group and 418 papers ( C 10 ) from the non-seed paper group. Coincidentally, the average citation counts for both sub-groups are the same: 13.443. This time, the two groups are in a perfect condition for a comparison. Table 17 shows the results. Not surprisingly, those MSE value pairs are very close. It demonstrates that for papers either classified by our classification algorithm IBL, or categorized by recommended top venues, the prediction is equally good. It also implies that IBL can perform the classification work properly.

Different from previous studies, this paper applies multiple models to predict the citation counts of papers in the next couple of years, and each model fits a special research area and early citation history of the paper in question. The rationale behind this is: in general, papers in different research areas and with different early citation counts have their own citation patterns. To verify the prediction performance of the proposed method, we have tested it with two datasets taken from DBLP and arXiv. The experimental results show that the proposed MM method outperforms all the baseline methods involved in most cases in two tasks: the overall prediction performance of a large collection of paper and prediction performance of a group of highly cited papers.

As an important component of prediction for research papers, we have also presented a novel instance-based learning model for classification of research papers. By predefining a small group of papers in each category, the proposed method can classify new papers very efficiently with good accuracy.

As our future work, we would incorporating other types of information such as publication venues and author information. Then, prediction performance can be further improved. Secondly, we plan to explore using some deep learning methods for research paper classification. For example, such methods can be used to compare the content similarity of two research papers.

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How to Cite a Website | MLA, APA & Chicago Examples

Published on March 5, 2021 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on January 17, 2024.

To cite a page from a website, you need a short in-text citation and a corresponding reference stating the author’s name, the date of publication, the title of the page, the website name, and the URL.

This information is presented differently in different citation styles. APA , MLA , and Chicago are the most commonly used styles.

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Citing a website in mla style, citing a website in apa style, citing a website in chicago style, frequently asked questions about citations.

An MLA Works Cited entry for a webpage lists the author’s name , the title of the page (in quotation marks), the name of the site (in italics), the date of publication, and the URL.

The in-text citation usually just lists the author’s name. For a long page, you may specify a (shortened) section heading to locate the specific passage. Don’t use paragraph numbers unless they’re specifically numbered on the page.

The same format is used for blog posts and online articles from newspapers and magazines.

You can also use our free MLA Citation Generator to generate your website citations.

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Citing a whole website.

When you cite an entire website rather than a specific page, include the author if one can be identified for the whole site (e.g. for a single-authored blog). Otherwise, just start with the site name.

List the copyright date displayed on the site; if there isn’t one, provide an access date after the URL.

Webpages with no author or date

When no author is listed, cite the organization as author only if it differs from the website name.

If the organization name is also the website name, start the Works Cited entry with the title instead, and use a shortened version of the title in the in-text citation.

When no publication date is listed, leave it out and include an access date at the end instead.

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An APA reference for a webpage lists the author’s last name and initials, the full date of publication, the title of the page (in italics), the website name (in plain text), and the URL.

The in-text citation lists the author’s last name and the year. If it’s a long page, you may include a locator to identify the quote or paraphrase (e.g. a paragraph number and/or section title).

Note that a general reference to an entire website doesn’t require a citation in APA Style; just include the URL in parentheses after you mention the site.

You can also use our free APA Citation Generator to create your webpage citations. Search for a URL to retrieve the details.

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Blog posts and online articles.

Blog posts follow a slightly different format: the title of the post is not italicized, and the name of the blog is.

The same format is used for online newspaper and magazine articles—but not for articles from news sites like Reuters and BBC News (see the previous example).

When a page has no author specified, list the name of the organization that created it instead (and omit it later if it’s the same as the website name).

When it doesn’t list a date of publication, use “n.d.” in place of the date. You can also include an access date if the page seems likely to change over time.

In Chicago notes and bibliography style, footnotes are used to cite sources. They refer to a bibliography at the end that lists all your sources in full.

A Chicago bibliography entry for a website lists the author’s name, the page title (in quotation marks), the website name, the publication date, and the URL.

Chicago also has an alternative author-date citation style . Examples of website citations in this style can be found here .

For blog posts and online articles from newspapers, the name of the publication is italicized. For a blog post, you should also add the word “blog” in parentheses, unless it’s already part of the blog’s name.

When a web source doesn’t list an author , you can usually begin your bibliography entry and short note with the name of the organization responsible. Don’t repeat it later if it’s also the name of the website. A full note should begin with the title instead.

When no publication or revision date is shown, include an access date instead in your bibliography entry.

The main elements included in website citations across APA , MLA , and Chicago style are the author, the date of publication, the page title, the website name, and the URL. The information is presented differently in each style.

In APA , MLA , and Chicago style citations for sources that don’t list a specific author (e.g. many websites ), you can usually list the organization responsible for the source as the author.

If the organization is the same as the website or publisher, you shouldn’t repeat it twice in your reference:

• In APA and Chicago, omit the website or publisher name later in the reference.
• In MLA, omit the author element at the start of the reference, and cite the source title instead.

If there’s no appropriate organization to list as author, you will usually have to begin the citation and reference entry with the title of the source instead.

When you want to cite a specific passage in a source without page numbers (e.g. an e-book or website ), all the main citation styles recommend using an alternate locator in your in-text citation . You might use a heading or chapter number, e.g. (Smith, 2016, ch. 1)

In APA Style , you can count the paragraph numbers in a text to identify a location by paragraph number. MLA and Chicago recommend that you only use paragraph numbers if they’re explicitly marked in the text.

For audiovisual sources (e.g. videos ), all styles recommend using a timestamp to show a specific point in the video when relevant.

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
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• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

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Scientific fraud: The case of the Spanish university rector should prompt change to ranking system

The founders of retraction watch, an organization specialized in research misconduct, call for eliminating the incentives to manipulate metrics.

From afar, the inauguration of Juan Manuel Corchado as the rector of the University of Salamanca earlier this year probably seemed a natural and well-deserved career capstone for the prominent academic. After all, Corchado, a highly prolific computer scientist, is among the most-cited researchers in Spain — a mark of the high regard in which his peers hold his work.

But as EL PAÍS has been reporting for months , Corchado’s impressive reputation as a scholar may be undeserved. Many of his citations are to his own work, and flimsy work at that: brief conference presentations Corchado uploaded to his website and then referenced, as we were first to note in 2022 . The case has now attracted the attention of the Spanish Research Ethics Committee, which “has urged the University of Salamanca to exercise ‘its powers of inspection and sanction’ in the face of ‘the alleged bad practices’ by Corchado.”

Why would such bad practices help Corchado and the university? Because so much of the various ranking systems’ rubrics — factors that help determine funding from government agencies as well as competition for student enrollment — are based on citations , which are particularly easy to manipulate. In other words, the better individual scientists look on paper, the better their institutions appear.

The Corchado case is just a high-profile example of what the obsession with metrics has wrought. In Vietnam, researchers are abuzz about a recently released ranking system, but media reports find the scheme “chaotic” and full of errors. Last week, The Economist published a fawning piece about science in China. “China has become a scientific superpower,” the magazine declared, and “tops the Nature Index, created by the publisher of the same name, which counts the contributions to articles that appear in a set of prestigious journals.”

What The Economist left out — but has noted before , however — is that China is responsible for well over half of the world’s more than 50,000 retractions, a dubious distinction that can be traced directly to the country’s laser focus on metrics. Until the practice was officially banned in 2020, researchers in China were paid rich cash bonuses for publishing in journals that count in the Nature Index, and clinical faculty at medical schools — whose jobs do not involve research, and who do not train for such work — were required to publish papers to earn their jobs and be promoted.

Those incentives were essentially direct invitations to commit fraud, as a recent survey of researchers in China demonstrated . How else were academics supposed to maintain their careers except increase their output, create citation rings , or even turn to a thriving paper mill industry?

While it is easy to blame the Chinese government for the citations arms race, universities have done nothing to push back, and in many cases have even encouraged the system to work exactly the way it does. In India, for example, a dental college came up with what one critic called a “ nasty scheme ” involving self-citation to boost itself to the top of the rankings in its field. In Saudi Arabia, some universities apparently hired prominent mathematicians as honorary faculty just so their citations would count toward their institutions’ rankings.

Which brings us back to Corchado. Why he cited himself so heavily is not clear, because he never responded to our requests for comment two years ago except to say he’d broken his arm and would be slow to reply. But at the time Alberto Martín-Martín, an information scientist and bibliometrician at the University of Granada, noted Spain still focuses heavily on the Journal Impact Factor to evaluate the production of its researchers, even more so than in some other countries.

In a way, the public should thank Corchado for raising alarm bells at EL PAÍS and the Spanish Research Ethics Committee. Whether he remains as rector of the University of Salamanca is less important than whether the episode prompts real change in Spain — and elsewhere. Movements afoot, including the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Leiden Manifesto, to encourage a move away from citations and other metrics and toward strategies that reward the kind of research culture we want and need.

Universities and governments have a chance to reform their evaluation strategies before things get even worse. They can replace them with the good old-fashioned way of assessing researchers’ work: Reading it.

Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky are the founders of Retraction Watch, an American organization specialized in scientific fraud.

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