What Do You Need for a Citation?

This is a general list of the information you might need to create a complete citation. Depending on the citation style you are using, different information may be required for each of these sources (see the section on MLA/APA/CMS for more information on citation styles).

For Books

  • Author(s)
  • Editors/translators
  • Edition (if not first)
  • Name, date, and city of publication/publisher

For Articles

  • Author(s)
  • Title and Subtitle
  • Name of source (magazine, journal, newspaper, etc.)
  • Date of publication
  • Volume, issue, and page numbers

If retrieved from a database, also…

  • Name of database
  • Name of subscription service
  • URL of database
  • DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
  • Date source retrieved

For the Web

  • Author(s)
  • Editors/Creators
  • Title of source
  • Title of site
  • Publication information
  • Date of publication or latest update
  • Site sponsor
  • Date source accessed
  • Source URL

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

About Writing: A Guide Copyright © 2015 by Robin Jeffrey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.