Research Tutorial

What Every Citation Needs

No matter what type of source you are using, you need to keep track of the following things for a citation:

• Who Wrote It (the author might be one or more people, or it could be an organization)
• What It's Called (the title of the article or chapter itself AND the book or journal you found it in)
• Who Published It and When (the publisher name and publication date)
• Exactly Where You Found the Information (the page number(s))

For traditional printed materials like books and journal articles, this information is pretty easy to find (even if you're accessing them electronically, like through a database). For websites, finding this information can be a little trickier but that list above should look pretty familiar. It's nearly the same list of things that you need to look for when you are evaluating that website.