Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Citation Style

I would like each of you, in your response to this post, to tell me what citation style you are using and how it compares to other prominent styles (how is it different? Or similar?). What is the practice for "in-text" citation in your style? What are the conventions for "References" or "Works Cited" page style? And why, do you think, does this particular style suit your discipline (as in, why do journal editors in your field like this style, possibly)? Finally, what is the purpose of an in-text citation, in general?

16 comments:

  1. The Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) reference format is most similar to the IEEE style. I chose this format because the ACM is the pre-eminent professional body in computer science and information technology, and my target audience is typically familiar with their format. Like the IEEE style, the ACM format uses only numeric references for "in-text" citations. References usually contain the same information, but may be ordered differently. Some noticeable differences are that the ACM format uses periods to separate the fields of a reference instead of commas, and author names are presented last name first with only the first initial instead of first name followed by last name. Journals and magazines are referenced slightly different:

    ACM
    Authors. Title. Journal or magazine name, Volume (Issue), Pages.

    IEEE
    Author of article. "Title of article," Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, pp. page number/s, Month year.

    Online documents follow the journal format, but also include web site information and date of retrieval. Finally, the purpose for in-text citations is to identify the source in the reference list so a reader can read the original source.

    The ACM SIG Proceedings template can be found at: http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates

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  2. I am using a variation of IEEE, this is the most prominently used citation style in my field.

    The variation consists of how in-text citations are used. My field uses parenthesis instead of brackets to isolate the number of the reference source.

    In IEEE style, all of the references are listed numerically at the end of the paper. The references are listed in the order they appear in the document instead of alphabetically as MLA and APA list their sources.

    This citation style saves space and makes papers easier to read. If the reader wants to know more information about a particular source, he/she can look it up by numerical reference at the end of the article instead of trying to figure out which name was associated with the data of interest.

    The purpose of an in-text citation is to show that the comment/finding/data being reported was not collected by the author of the document, but rather by a third party. in-text citations give credit to the party responsible for discovering the information.

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  3. The Citation style I am using is called the ACS (American Chemical Society) Style. The way the ACS style is different from the MLA style is that in the ACS style the title is not underlined it is italicized and semi-colons are used to separate the different parts instead of period. If you are citing a journal then the year of publication is in bold face print. Nothing is bolded in the MLA style. The way ACS style is similar to MLA style is that they contain the same kind of information: the author, the title of the work, year it was published and so on. There are two conventions for in-text citations in the ACS Style. The first convention is that the in-text citation can be numbered. The second method is that the name of the author and the year of publication are given in parenthesizes. You cannot use both methods at the same time you have to pick one or the other and stick with it. The way the work cited page is laid out depends on the method of in-text citation used. If the numbering method is used then the works on the works cited page have to be numbered as well. If the author and year of publication method is used then the works on the works cited page have to be in alphabetical order. The ACS style suits the chemistry disciplines well because it lists the information that chemists want to know in a format they can understand. The best way to explain the purpose of an in-text citation is by an example. Let’s say I am writing about new methods in chromatography. I cite one of the foremost experts on the subject. If the reader wants to read the expert’s paper, he will know exactly what work to look for on my works cited page by using the in-text citation that I gave.

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  4. The citation style I'll be using is the IEEE style. I'm used to APA style but IEEE is similar. In the bibliography, IEEE style uses a similar to convention to APA where author names are abbreviated to first letter of first name, first letter of middle name (where applicable), and last name. This is generally the first part of any citation.

    Citing of journal articles is also similar, as both use a use a volume, issue, page format. The difference is that these are labeled in IEEE but not in APA. for example, for Volume 3, issue 5, pages 155-167 would be:

    IEEE: Vol 3, no 5, pp 155-167
    APA: 3(5), 155-167

    In text citation uses a bracket number like so: [1]. Interestingly enough, I found that it is encouraged in, some cases, to replace author names with an in-text citation.

    The purpose of an in-text citation is to inform the reader that a particular idea in the paper is not by the author, it is referenced from another source. This is to avoid plagiarism.

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  5. The citation style for Chemical Engineering (from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers) is a hybrid between MLA and AMA, with a few small differences. For example when you are citing from a on-line journal database you must include a URL or a abbreviated URL. One of the main differences is that all of your sources in your bibliography must be in order of author name and given a number so they can be referenced in the paper only by their number (eg. [3]). I think this is a very effective way to refer to your sources because it keeps the text flowing and does not interrupt your reading.

    The purpose of an in-text citation is to inform the reader where you got the information, if your put "this is the best because..." in your text with no citation, the reader would have no idea as to whether or not the information is credible or even real.

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  6. I will be using the Author-Year format. This style is different from IEEE because instead of using a reference number to site, the whole citation is written out. The format for Author-Year is:
    Last, F.M, “Title of Article,” Title of Periodical, #:# (Month
    Year), pp. #-#.
    An in text example in Author-Year format is just (Authors last name,year).
    In-text citations are used to reference quickly from the reference page.

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  7. I will be using the ASME method for my report. ASME and ISEE styles are very similar in format. They both include the same information yet use subtle differences to give the information. The "In-Text" format for the two is almost identical.

    The "In-Text" style for ASME calls for the: authors name [citation #] information being cited

    The references is found at the end of the paper and gives full bibliographic information. It begins with the authors last name followed by his/her middle and first initials. The ASME style gives specific guidelines for abbreviations. Other than that it is very basic in formatting.

    The ASME style suites my discipline because it is the ASME own style. Therefor is designed specifically for mechanical engineers.

    The purpose of "in-text' citation is to point the reader to the full citation in the works cited portion of the paper.

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  8. PubMed, a search engine of biologically relevant journal articles, suggests submissions to follow NISO standards, which can be found at the following link

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=citmed

    It is acceptable to do in text citation either as [number] or (author, year). The list of references can be in sequential order or alphabetical order. Most paper I have read used [number] and a sequential reference list. Example

    1. Authors. Article Title. Journal Title. Date; Volume(issue):pages

    Authors are cited last name followed by initials. Multiple authors are set apart by commas. Neither the example in the link nor several papers linked to PubMed seem to follow the standard of italicizing periodicals.

    Since most research in the biological field is built upon previous studies and techniques, it is not uncommon for a paper in this field to cite 50 sources. The number system lends itself well to numerous citations, both by minimizing the length of in-text citations and by making the long reference list easily navigable.

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Using IEEE style here as well. No variants.

    It is nothing radically different from other citation styles, but as mentioned, there are a few subtle differences like numbering the references in brackets, using only brackets and numbers for in-text citations, as well as strict rules for where the number brackets actually go.

    As for why people in my field use this style, I really don't know. Perhaps the IEEE wanted to expand its sphere of influence in a subtle, but clever way. By encouraging usage of its citation style, it's one step closer to taking over the world.

    ... it's plausible; I would roll with that idea.

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  11. My citation style is IEEE for my report. I choose IEEE because it is most used in my field of information technology. I differs from MLA in that instead of citing authors you use bracketed numbers to not your citations. When you using IEEE format one can refer to the number in the paper and quickly find the reference in the bibliography pages of your report. Using a citation in a report is use to reference sources in your report.

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  12. The citation style I'm using for the report is ACS (American Chemical Society) style. The style is very similar to MLA style in terms of format. There are some differences such as the authors are reported as last names with first name initial and a digital object identifier needs to be reported for those references obtained from electronic sources. Here is a sample citation in ACS style for an article in a scientific journal:

    Author(s). Title. Title of Journal. Year(bold), Pages, DOI.

    In-text citations can be done several ways in ACS style. They can be done with superscript numbers at the end or within the citation, italicized numbers at the end or within the citation, or with the author's name and year published at the end or within the citation. I feel that this style is used in the chemical engineering field because of it's similarity to MLA. In-text citations help the reader identify where the source of the information was retrieved from, which would allow for the reader to read the original source.

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  13. I'm using the American Medical Association Style (AMA) because my topic is medical based. Most of my sources are medical journals. The citations are used so the writing is not plagiarism. You are giving appropriate credit to the sources where it is due- thus in-text citations. The AMA's style is to number the references in order of how they appear in the document. The in-text citations are superscripts of the number corresponding to the source.

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  14. I will be using a MLA/APA style. I chose whatever citation style the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry uses (http://pubs.acs.org/paragonplus/submission/jmcmar/jmcmar_authguide.pdf) and told EndNote to use that style.

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  15. I kind of used APA. There were some inconsistencies but I cited all my sources. Many math journals use variations of APA. I'm used to MLA style because my high school english teachers were MLA "Nazis" so to speak and wouldn't accept any other citation styles. APA in my opinion is much easier to use and does just as well at citing crediting sources.

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  16. I used ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) style. This is similar to MLA in that they both require in text citation. ASME seems to be less strict on overall document formatting. This is a sample of an in text citation:

    "It was shown by Prusa [1] that the width of the plume decreases under these conditions".

    The one in brackets refers to the source applied to this sentence.

    As far as references there are a couple rules:

    "References to original sources for cited material should be listed together at the end of the paper; footnotes should not be used for this purpose. References should be arranged in numerical order according to their order of appearance within the text".

    This applies to my field because most research requires secondary sources. ASME style documentation ensures that these sources are cited appropriately but is not specific as to paper formatting.

    An in text citation is used because an author typically isn't a complete expert on all aspects in the report. They use secondary sources to help explain and expand upon their own findings. It is also important to compare findings and data to other persons work. The in text citation is used to give credit where credit is deserved.

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