Political Science 140: Introduction to Comparative Politics

What is a Citation?

A citation is positioned within the body of your paper, right after you finish referencing or quoting another author's work. This is known as an inline or in-text citation. At the end of your paper, you will also provide a complete reference. A reference must provide enough information to both identify and locate the original source of the information.

A reference usually includes:

• Name(s) of author(s)
• Title of source (article or chapter title and journal or book title)
• Publication date (if known)
• Page number(s)
• Volume and edition/issue numbers (for books and articles)
• URL or DOI if accessed online. What's a DOI?
  • If the content is likely to change over time, include the date you originally accessed the content.

Style Guide Resources

Check out the U-M Library's comprehensive Citation Help Research Guide for examples and formatting tips for APA Style, MLA Style, IEEE Style, and well as other Science Styles. You'll also find guidance on citing government documents, data and statistics, and using bibliography tools. Learn how to manage your citations and get help with the Manage Citations with Zotero, Mendeley, Endnote Research Guide. 

Many students also rely on PurdueOWL for their various style guides, but be aware that the website has many ads, whereas our Citation Help Research Guide is ad-free.

Having trouble formatting your citations? Use these tools to automatically generate citations for books, journal articles, newspapers and more in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.

When you're ready to write, check out Sweetland Writing Center's Resources page for undergraduate students. Here you'll find Writing Support, Writing Guides, and more.