Read a Citation

A citation is a short, multi-part description of a specific information source. It provides the information that is needed to find a particular source. Journal citations contain such basic information as:

• Author
• Article title
• Journal title
• Volume number and issue number
• Publication date
• Page numbers

Example of a Journal Article Citation

Citations are also used to give credit to the sources you use when you write a research paper. As you research, you must retain some important information about each source you retrieve so that you can correctly cite the sources that influence your writing.

• More information on citing research and using style guides...