How to cite
| Õpikeskkond: | TalTech Moodle |
| Kursus: | Information Searching Skills |
| Raamat: | How to cite |
| Printija: | Külaliskasutaja |
| Kuupäev: | Neljapäev, 9. mai 2024, 01.28 AM |
1. Citation styles
There are hundreds of styles used for citing. Library recommends using an author/date style (e.g. APA) for social and economic sciences and a numeric style (e.g. IEEE) for technical sciences. On the library’s webpage you can find tutorials for
most common citation styles. Remember, that these are for information only and
you should follow TalTech guidelines for writing student papers. Different faculties and departments in TalTech have different requirements for academic papers, including theses.
In School of Business and Governance author/date style is used. As an exception the footnote citing style must be used in papers of law study programme. In School of Science and School of Engineering both numerical and author/date styles are allowed. In School of Information Technologies a numeric style is required.
A number of library databases offer citing tools that will automatically format a citation for you in a number of styles. These tools can be helpful if you have just a few items to cite in your paper. TalTech e-resources portal PRIMO also enables to create citations for items – click on the quotation marks near the record and copy the citation in suitable style. Once you have selected a citing style you must follow the same style consistently. There are five most common styles available, including APA, IEEE and Chicago Manual of Style (full note) – a footnote citing required in TalTech law theses.
NB! Remember to check citations for accuracy before including them in your work.
2. In-text citations
Within the text of your paper, you should include in-text citations when you refer to, summarize or paraphrase another source. For every entry in your reference list, there must be a corresponding in-text citation.
Examples:
- APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005). For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: (Field, 2005, p. 14).
- Chicago Manual of Style (full note) uses superscript numbers placed after a quote or a paraphrase in the text. For example: 1 or 26. Each number corresponds to a citation, to a footnote. Footnotes must appear at the bottom of the page that they are referred to. A complete reference list should appear at the end of your work.
- IEEE citing style uses numbers enclosed in square brackets, eg.[1] or [26], placed in the text, to indicate the relevant reference. Citations are numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and each citation corresponds to a numbered reference in the reference list at the end of your thesis, essay etc.
In-text citations can be placed within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. In case of a single sentence, the in-text citation should be added before the period; in case of several sentences, after the period.
3. Indirect citing
When an author was cited in another author’s text, but you can’t access the original, you can use indirect or so called secondary source citing.
In the case of indirect citing, include both authors in the in-text reference. Examples in APA style:
The study conducted by Harrison in 1999 (as cited in Smith, 2018) confirms that …
Depression can also lead to neglecting personal hygiene (Jones, as cited in Ferguson, 2019).
In the reference list you should add only these items you actually read, in this case Smith (2018) and Ferguson (2019).
The indirect citing should be used only exceptionally, when the original work is not available. Never refer directly to a work you actually did not read.