What are Citation Styles? Which Citation Style to Use?

Citations are fundamental to maintaining the integrity and continuity of academic discussions. They allow researchers to guide readers to literary sources that they may have consulted during their study. Over the years, as the scope of academia and science grew and evolved, so did the need to ensure clarity and consistency in academic communication.

Consequently, different types of citation styles were created to address the needs and conventions of various fields of study. Understanding these different citation styles is crucial for early-career researchers if they are to correctly attribute concepts to original authors and enhance the credibility of their work.  

Types of citation styles

1. Parenthetical Citations, or in-text citations, are typically used within the body of the text. They state the author’s last name and the publication year, allowing readers to locate the full citation easily in the reference list. This style is prevalent in APA and MLA formats.
2. Numerical Citations involve assigning a number to a source, which corresponds to a numbered reference list at the end of the document. Used in engineering and scientific fields, this style helps readers to identify sources without disrupting the flow of the text.
3. Note: Citations use footnotes or endnotes to provide source information. While this citation style usually carries more details, it could interrupt the reading experience, as notes appear at the bottom of the page. This style is associated with Chicago and Turabian formats.
4. Social media citations are typically done using permalinks, timestamps, and archive tools to link back to the social media content. Researchers who quote or paraphrase information from online sources must provide a reference list entry (with the URL mentioned in parenthesis) along with in-text citations. 

Which citation styles are used in academia?

Different academic disciplines favor specific citation styles, each with its unique rules and formats.  Let us take a look at some of the most common citation styles in academia: 

APA Style

Developed by the American Psychological Association, the APA style guide is widely used for citing sources in academia. The recently updated 7th edition provides guidelines for citing various types of sources, including books, journal articles, and online information.   

• Subjects covered: Mostly behavioral sciences and humanities
• Citation format: Using in-text citations, the APA style guide allows readers to quickly locate the full reference in the reference list corresponding to each in-text citation. The general structure for a reference entry includes the author’s name, publication date, title of the work, and source information

MLA Style

The Modern Language Association developed this set of guidelines for writing and documenting research. It focuses on accurately citing sources to give credit to original authors, which helps avoid inadvertent plagiarism. The guide provides instructions on creating in-text citations and a “Works Cited” page, with entries arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name. This ensures that all references are clearly documented for ease of use. 

• Subjects covered: Humanities, particularly literature, language, and liberal arts.
• Format: The MLA format focuses on authorship and page numbers, showcasing the importance of specific textual references for in-text citations. Full citations are listed in alphabetical order based on the author’s last name.

Chicago Style

The updated 17th edition of the Chicago style manual has two main citation systems: the notes and bibliography system and the author-date system. This flexibility to choose the format that best suits specific writing needs makes it a popular choice among early career researchers. 

• Subjects covered: History, some social sciences, and humanities.
• Format: The notes and bibliography system allows researchers to create footnotes or endnotes with information on the source. It also includes a bibliography at the end. The author-date system, on the other hand, features in-text citations that include the author’s last name and year of publication and a reference list at the end of the document.

IEEE Style (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

This style provides researchers with guidance on how to format technical articles. It gives an outline of how to create different sections in a paper, accurately cite figures and tables, and ensure adherence to specific grammar rules. 

• Subjects covered: Technical fields such as engineering and information technology.
• Format: The IEEE style guide uses numerical citations with bracketed references, which correspond to a numbered reference list, which is usually found at the end of the document. The reference list is organized numerically in the order in which sources are cited in the text, allowing for quick access to sources.

How to choose the appropriate citation style?

Early career researchers must gain an understanding of how to choose the right citation style. Start by checking if your department or institution has a preferred citation style. Similarly, when submitting a manuscript to a journal, ensure that you check on and review their specific citation style requirements.  Also, citation styles will differ depending on your subject of study and the style guide you will be using. For example, if your field of research is psychology, you will be using the APA style guide and its citation format. 

How to use AI tools for citation management?

While choosing and managing citation styles can prove daunting, the good news is that there are various online tools available today to simplify the process. With an integrated reference finder and citation generator, Paperpal allows you to get factual insights from 250M+ research articles, save relevant papers to the citation library, and style and cite these correctly in 10,000+ styles in your writing with a click.

Paperpal’s free citation generator allows to search for specific papers by looking up their title or DOI in the search bar. It also has an in-built citation library that lets you to save your citations, and retrieve them and cite later in your work. 

Using Paperpal for citation management is quick and easy. Here’s a step-by-step guide: 

1. Start by creating an account or logging in to Paperpal
2. Paste text on the online document or start writing from scratch in the Paperpal editor
3. When you want to cite a source, click on the “Research | Cite” feature in the toolbar
   
4. Ask a question on Search or Search for a reference by Title or DOI for more targeted results 
5. Paperpal fetches the answers scouring from 250Mn+ articles and shares a summary of each answer with an option to Cite or Save the reference to Citation Library
6. Click on Cite to insert the citation in your document or Add to Library to refer and cite later
   
7. To change the default citation style, click on the quotation icon to choose a citation style
8. Once you have filled in the details, add the citation to your document. Paperpal will automatically format it according to the chosen style

In conclusion, mastering citation styles is a crucial part of academic writing, ensuring that research is appropriately credited and presented professionally. Choosing the appropriate citation style depends on your field of study and institutional guidelines. Still, it’s important to know when and how to apply the right style to add credibility to your work. Here, using reliable citation management tools like Paperpal can simplify the process and save time.  

Paperpal is a comprehensive AI writing toolkit that helps students and researchers achieve 2x the writing in half the time. It leverages 22+ years of STM experience and insights from millions of research articles to provide in-depth academic writing, language editing, and submission readiness support to help you write better, faster. 

Get accurate academic translations, rewriting support, grammar checks, vocabulary suggestions, and generative AI assistance that delivers human precision at machine speed. Try for free or upgrade to Paperpal Prime starting at US$25 a month to access premium features, including consistency, plagiarism, and 30+ submission readiness checks to help you succeed. 

Experience the future of academic writing – Sign up to Paperpal and start writing for free!