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Standard Citation Styles
Standard Citation Styles: A citation or bibliographic citation is a reference to a book, article, web
page, or other published item, with sufficient detail to allow a reader to locate it. The citation style
refers to the rules and conventions established by the authoritative body for documenting sources of
information used in write-up of any kind. The citation identifies and credits the sources that are used in
writing a paper and allow the reader of the article to further verify and access the cited work. The
citation is a list of sources used in writing a work (article) that are alphabetically arranged by author
surname, works without authors are arranged alphabetically by title [omitting the article (a, an, the)]
within the same list giving essential general information to trace the sources. Citations Styles are also
known as Citation Formats or Style Guide.

            To maintain the honesty in academic pursuit it is important to cite the works of others,
otherwise knowingly representing the work of others as one’s own is treated as demanding the work
as his/her own. Failure to give credit for quotes or unique ideas will result in a null in a research as
well as other disciplinary actions. So, to avoid such disciplinary action always credit should be given to
the original author of information that is not generally known, unique, or research data.

1. Types of Citation: All citation styles require two types of citation elements for citing consulted
work. They are - citing sources in the text and citing sources in bibliography or references.

a) Citing Sources in the Text: In citing sources in the text, citations to sources are placed in the text
of the work i.e within sentences and paragraphs in order to briefly identify sources by the readers so
that they can enable them to locate it in the Reference or Bibliography portion. In general, citing
sources in the text, citations are placed within parentheses. This type of citation helps to know whose
sentences or words are quoted.

b) Citing Sources in References or Bibliography: References are the cited work in the text, and
the Bibliography is the list of sources not cited in the text but which are relevant to the subject with
which the article or work deals with. References cited in the text of a research paper also appear at
the end of the paper that are arranged in alphabetical order by authors’ surname, works without
authors are arranged alphabetically by title (omitting the articles) within the same list. This list provides
the information necessary to identify and retrieve the particular document.

Citation to consulted online works generally demands detailed information than that of print
sources of information. Again, in case of online sources, currently few standards are there, governing
the organization and presentation of it. In addition to the above points, in citing online sources the
following are considered important

i) Whenever possible attempt should be made to identify the author(s) of the document.

ii) The citation should direct the readers to the information sources immediately. So if possible citation
to the specific webpage [Uniform Resource Locator (URL)] should be made rather than home or menu
pages.

iii) One should try to mention the “date” (i.e the dates of publication, update, or date of retrieval).

2. Types of Author: In studying the citation behavior, authors can be divided into three groups based
upon their expertise and qualification in citing sources.

i) Academician: It includes Lecturer, Reader and Professor of different academic and research
departments. They are generally treated as well qualified in citing sources and sometimes also
teaches the student about it. So, any kind of deviation in citing sources on their part is treated as
gross negligence towards their work.

b) Researcher: It includes those persons who acquire the Doctorate degree but do not come within
the perview of the first category or those who are doing Ph.D. under different universities and
research institutions. The researchers are generally aware of citing sources within their papers, so
any kind of deviation in citing sources are also not acceptable on their part.
c) Others: It includes those persons who are neither Ph. D. holders nor teaching staff and generally
lack the knowledge of citing sources. Deviations in citing sources in their papers are the result of their
lack of knowledge. So, if any kind of deviation is there in their papers, it is the duty of the editors,
compilers, etc. to decide whether the articles are considered for publication and to correct the
deviation in citing sources in consultation with the authors. In due course, the editors can also take the
responsibility to educate the authors in citing sources and the authors should also come forward to
learn this.

3. Deviation in Citing Sources: Deviation is a term used to describe the incorrectness. It is often

used interchangeably with error. It means the amount of error or variation in comparison to the
standard or expectation.

The expertise of the author(s) are wrongly justified by the number of publications in many
cases and so the authors give more emphasis in producing a mass volume of work by ignoring its
quality. The origin and development of Internet helps them in this regard. Some times, some authors
even produce an article within a day itself. If it is so, one can imagine what its quality will be? It will be
nothing but cut and paste. Not to speak about general writing, even many seminar and conference
proceedings are nowadays full of such type of works (deviation in quality as well as citing sources).

a) Common Deviation Types: The common types of deviation in citing sources fall into the following
types-

i) Deviation in Alphabetical Arrangement: The cited works are generally not arranged alphabetically.
ii) Deviation in Maintaining Consistency: If in one reference ‘and’ is used in the other ‘&’ is used; If in
one abbreviation ‘p.’ is used in the other ‘pp.’ is used to designate page numbers of articles; deviation
in maintaining italics and underlining for titles of books and journals is also common in many articles.
In case of online sources, if in one source the date of access is there in the other source it is absent; if
in one source the home page is cited in another the complete URL is cited.

iii) Citing Irrelevant Sources of Information: Some authors cite the search engine URL but not the
actual information sources, which they have consulted.

iv) Duplication in Citing Sources: Some authors cite even a single work in two places, in one case
starts with “http://” and in the other case it starts with “www” (in place of http://www.).
v) Exclusion of Sources Used: Some authors do not cite the original sources that they consulted as
they cut and paste major portion from the work.

b) Why Deviation: The deviation in citing sources mainly occurs due to the following-
i) Lack of Any Standard Format: In most cases the editorial body of any journal, seminar or
conference proceedings does not ask the author to cite his /her consulted work according to any
standard format, and so in the absence of it, the authors are forced to follow their own format. Even
many Ph.D and M.Phil offering Indian universities do bother to follow any such standard practices.

ii) Wrong Point of Justification: Generally, people think the bigger the volume of seminar or
conference preceding, the more it will be treated as a successful one. Such type of wrong thinking
pushes the editorial body to accept articles that are otherwise not appropriate for inclusion in the
proceeding.

iii) Lack of Time: Lack of time from the author and editorial body is another point to be considered.
Authors are justified by volume of information they produce, so they give more emphasis in volume
rather than its quality. Many authors are also very busy with their routine work so they cannot devote
much time towards their papers. Lack of time to recheck the work is another reason on their part to be
considered. Deviation in maintaining consistency arises due to this factor.

iv) Lack of Knowledge about Citation Style: Many authors and editors are not aware about
different types of citation styles and how these need to be followed.
v) Lack of Knowledge about Different Types of Sources: There are different types of online
sources over internet like website, blog, wiki, etc. and many authors and editors are not aware about it
and cannot differentiate one from another. Even some authors thought that if they found any sources
of information relevant to their query by consulting some search engine then the search engine itself
should be cited.

vi) Gross Negligence towards the Work: Those authors who are well qualified in citing sources as
well as about different types of online sources, deviation in maintaining consistency and alphabetical
arrangement on their part arises due to the gross negligence towards their work.

vii) Wrong Personal Psychology: Many authors think that they are more intelligent and computer
savvy than the others and so if they cut and paste some portion of the online sources or other work
without citing them then the editorial body or reader will not be able to trace them out. So, they are
quite unaware of the fact that tracing the plagiarized text in any article is just a matter of single
minutes job and even less so for an internet savvy person, as many online tools are available that
perform such activities. Such type of personal psychology results in the omission of the consulted
sources from the reference and bibliography page of the work and also degrades the quality of the
paper as well.

c) How Deviation in Citing Sources can be Avoided: Some of the ways by which deviation in citing
sources can be avoided are-

i) Chapter on Citation Should be included in the Course Curriculum: The Knowledge about citing
sources should be treated as essential for all types of students and attempts should be made by the
concerning body for its inclusion in the course curriculum itself. If we can achieve it in the grass root
level itself, we can think of achieving a truly knowledge culture society, thereof.

ii) Universities and Colleges Should Adopt one Standard Format: The Universities and Colleges
can think of adopting one specific type of citation style and attempt should be made accordingly to
follow this format in the journals, magazines published from that institution. The students and faculties
should be encouraged to follow the adopted format in their writing that may be a thesis and
dissertations work or even in case of assignment, report, etc.

iii) Library and Information Science (LIS) Professional Should Transfer Their Knowledge to
Others: In the field of Library and Information Science, citing consulted sources has been taught
rigorously, and so the professionals are generally treated as academically or professionally well
qualified in this regard. As an expert in the subject, it is their duty to take initiative in making their
expertise accessible to others students and authors from different field.

iv) Editorial and Publishing Body Should Adopt One Specific Standard Citation Format: Every
Seminar, Conference organized by different institutions should ask the authors to prepare their article
by following a specific citation style. The articles, whose citation are not in the specified format must
be rejected or if no preference is specified, it is the duty of the editorial body to use one specific
citation style and rearrangement and preparation of the cited works in all papers accordingly
(consistently and accurately).

v) Knowledge About Citation Should be Made Mandatory for Research Scholar: Knowledge

about major type of citation styles should be made mandatory for all types of Research Scholars, after
all they are the pillar for the subsequent development of the society.
vi) Research Guide Should Recommend the Researcher: It is the duty of the research guides to
recommend the preferred citation format for the thesis and dissertation and communication of the
same with the researchers.

vii) Authors Should be Very Careful in Citing Sources: In the absence of any of the above, the
research scholar or the authors can ask reference staff of the library or the faculties and students of
the Library and Information Science Schools for the assistance or he/she can think of logging on to
the internet for the major type of citation styles.
viii) Organizing Seminars, Conferences and Workshops in Citing Sources: The Library and
Information Science Schools of different universities can think of organizing workshops and seminars
in citing sources to educate all types of authors and peoples in general. Other bodies in consultation
with Library and Information Science Professional can also think in this regard.

4. Different Citation Styles: Different organizations or institutions develop their own citation styles to
fit their individual needs. Though, there is a considerable overlap in different citation styles, individual
publishers have their own in-house variations. In general, all citation styles can be divided into two
broad categories, i.e. the Humanities and the Sciences. Some important citation styles from both the
categories are listed below.
i) The American Chemical Society (ACS) style: The ACS style is developed by the American
Chemical Society (ACS). It is often used in chemical literature.

ii) The American Institute of Physics (AIP) style: American Institute of Physics, references is most
commonly used in physics journals. It is devised by the American Institute of Physics.
iii) The American Mathematical Society (AMS) styles: The American Mathematical Society AMS
styles (e.g., AMS-LaTeX) are styles developed for the American Mathematical Society (AMS). It is
typically implemented by using the BibTeX tool in the LaTeX typesetting environment. Brackets with
author’s initials and year are inserted in the text and at the beginning of the reference. Typical
citations are listed in-line with alphabetic-label format, e.g., [AB79].

iv) American Psychological Association (APA) Citation Style: APA citation style is established by
the American Psychological Association. It is mainly used for psychology, education, and social
science bibliographies. APA style specifies the names and order of headings, formatting, and
organization of citations and references, and the arrangement of tables, figures, footnotes, and
appendices, as well as other manuscript and documentation features. It uses parenthetical citation
within the text, listing the author’s surname and the year of publication of the work, which is more or
less same as that of MLA style’s parenthetical citations. It lists sources at the end of the paper, on a
References Page. Listing electronic sources of information is more detailed in APA style than in MLA
style. APA style uses Harvard referencing, also known as the author-date system of citations and
parenthetical referencing, keyed to a subsequent list of References.

v) American Sociological Association (ASA) style: The American Sociological Association Citation

Style is mainly used in sociological publications.

vi) The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook: The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media
Law, is a style and usage guide for the newspapers and in journalism classes in the United States.

vii) Bluebook: The Bluebook (or similar systems derived from it) is a citation system traditionally used
in American academic legal writing.

viii) Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide: The Chicago Manual of Style (abbreviated as CMS or
CMOS, or verbally as Chicago) is a style guide for American English published by the University of
Chicago Press. The CMS deals with all aspects of editorial practice, from American English grammar
and usage to document preparation. It is used for all subjects. Some social sciences and humanities
scholars prefer to use the nearly identical Turabian style instead of it.

ix) Columbia Guide to Online Style: The Columbia Style was made by Janice R. Walker and Todd
Taylor to give detailed guidelines for citing internet sources. It offers models for both the humanities
and the sciences.

x) Hart’s Rules for the 21st Century: Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University
Press, Oxford is a reference book and style guide first published in England by Oxford University
Press in 1893. It is renamed as ‘The Oxford Guide to Style (OGS)’, in 2002, then from 2005 it came to
be known as ‘New Hart’s Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors’ and has been
promoted as ‘Hart's Rules for the 21st Century’.
xi) Harvard Citation Style: The Harvard Style (or author-date system) is recommended by the British
Standards Institution and involves a short reference [e.g (Barman, 2007)] being inserted after the cited
text in parenthesis and the full reference being listed at the end of the article. It is mainly used for
social science bibliographies.

xii) ISO 690: ISO 690 is an ISO standard for bibliographic referencing in documents of all sorts. It
includes electronic documents as well as other published documents, and specifies the elements to
be included in references, and the order in which the elements of the reference should be stated.

xiii) Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) Style Guide: The MHRA Style Guide
(formerly the MHRA Style Book) is the Modern Humanities Research Association style format and is
most often used in the arts and humanities, particularly in the United Kingdom where the MHRA is
based. It is fairly similar to the MLA style, but with some differences. The style guide uses footnotes
that fully reference a citation and has a bibliography at the end. Its major advantage is that a reader
does not need to consult the bibliography to find a reference as the footnote provides all the details.

xiv) Modern Language Association (MLA) Citation Style: MLA style was developed by The
Modern Language Association and is most often used in English studies, comparative literature,
foreign-language literary criticism, media studies, cultural studies, and some other fields in the
humanities. It uses a Works Cited Page to list works at the end of the paper, brief parenthetical
citations, which include an author and page (if applicable), are used within the text. These direct
readers to the work of the author on the list of works cited, and the page of the work where the
information is located [e.g. (Barman 98) refers the reader to page 98 of the work made by someone
with surname “Barman”).

xv) The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage: The New York Times Manual of Style and
Usage is a style guide by Allan M. Siegal and William G. Connolly. Although it was written for The
New York Times journalists, it has also been published for use by others and much of the information
is specific to neither ‘The Times’ nor ‘New York’.

xvi) Style Manual for Political Science: ‘Style Manual for Political Science’ is the publication on
citing by The American Political Science Association (APSA). It is often used by political science
scholars and historians and is largely based on that of the Chicago Manual of Style.

xvii) Turabian Citation Style: Turabian Citation Style is based on the Chicago Manual of Style. It
offers the authors and writers of all subjects the option of using an author-date system with notes and
parenthetical references.

xviii) Vancouver System: The Vancouver system, recommended by the Council of Science Editors,
is used in medical and scientific papers and research. In one of its major variant, citation numbers are
included in the text in square brackets rather than as superscripts. All bibliographical information is
exclusively included in the list of references at the end of the document, next to the respective citation
number.

5. Achieving Proper Citation: Two methods are available for citing consulted works. They are

a) Manual Citation: It is the process in which the researcher or academician or authors prepare their
citation by manual means in consultation with the standard format or handbook.

b) Automatic Citation: Nowadays there are many bibliographic citation management program

available that automatically generate citations in appropriate citation style. They allow one to create a
bibliography, or list of references, by importing references from text files or online databases and
automatically formatting it in a preferred style. Such types of packages are also known as “Reference
Management Software”. Example includes: Refworks, EndNote Web, etc.

6. Conclusion: In the event of different citation style, it will be better not to think of designing and
developing any new standard format, rather if deviations are there in already established format
attempt should be made to correct it, since in many cases scope is there.
 The human being is in the present position only due to the fact that it is able to learn from the
knowledge base of past generation and during his/her life time he/she shifts it to another new
dimension that form the base for the next generation. Unlike other animals every time, every
generation doesn’t start from the knowledge base with zero. But, during our progress in stream line
we should not forget the contribution of the people that some times devote their entire life to build our
own knowledge base. Whenever we take help from the knowledge base of others we must
acknowledge them in the form of citing their work in our own work (papers). After all why should not
we, since it costs nothing, rather it gives an authoritative look to our own work.

http://www.netugc.com/standard-bibliographic-format
Standard Bibliographic Format
Standard Bibliographic Format: Standardization is the process of formulating and applying rules for
an orderly approach to a specific activity for the benefit of all taking due account of the functional
conditions and safety requirements.

The needs for standardization of bibliographic description are as follows

i) To bring uniformity and order in the description of library materials of different kinds;

ii) For handling of data in an automated computer aided machine;

iii) To produce a centralized database;

iv) To exchange bibliographic information between and among different countries;

v) To overcome the problem of language barrier;

vi) To economise on time, space, effort, material, manpower and money.

Let Us Sum Up: The different bibliographic standards are helpful in maintaining uniformity in the data
so that exchange and compilation can be done easily. The ISBD (G) serves as a single framework for
the description of all types of publications in all types of media. Later on, IFLA brought out different
ISBDs on the basis of ISBD (G). The ISBD (G) is incorporated into AACR II as a general framework
for bibliographic description.

MARC format has become a generic term to all MARC formats including UKMARC,
CANMARC, InterMARC and is used for the identification, arrangement of bibliographical data for
handling by computer. The USMARC format became the U. S. National Standard in 1971 (ANSI
Z39.2) and an International Standard in 1973 (ISO 2709). To solve the problem of incompatible nature
among different countries, IFLA launched a programme known as UNIMARC. UNIMARC followed the
ISO communication format ISO-2709 (1981), but it failed. The UNESCO also came up with CCF,
which is the implementation of ISO-2709 to solve the problem of incompatibility. Several countries
have adopted this standard for exchange and creation of bibliographic record at national level. The
MARC 21 is a new name of harmonization of CANMARC and USMARC in a single edition. It uses the
standard AACR II, LCSH, DDC, ISO 2709 and ANSI/NISO Z39.2. Till now, MARC 21 remains the
standard one which is widely accepted in different library softwares and also in different countries