If you want your paper to be professionally written, you must cite every source you use. This includes scholarly journals, books, articles, websites, and any other sources that aren’t your own original research.
You must provide an in-text citation and a full citation at the end of your paper. The format of these citations can vary depending on the style you’re using (e.g., MLA, APA, or Chicago).
Articles in scholarly journals are usually published on a regular basis, so you will need to include the volume and issue numbers of your sources when citing them. For example, if you find an article in Medieval Studies, you will need to add the “Volume X” and the “Issue Y” number of that journal’s publication.
Similarly, when you find an article in a non-scholarly journal, such as a newspaper or magazine, you’ll need to include the title of that publication and the name of the author. You’ll also need to cite the article’s publisher, e.g., “Century Magazine” or “The Atlantic.”
When you cite an article in a scholarly journal that’s more than one issue per year, you will need to include the “Volume” number of the first issue and the “Issue” number of the second issue. You can also cite the “Issue” numbers of individual issues, but it’s not necessary to do so.
The name of the author of an article is cited at the end of your paper when you’re writing a reference list or a bibliography. Likewise, the names of the other authors should be cited at the end of your paper when quoting or paraphrasing that article.
If there are more than two authors of an article, cite the surname and the initials of each author. In addition, if there are more than 20 authors of an article, you’ll need to cite the first 19 authors’ names and then a comma before the last author’s name.
In-text citations are required when you quote or paraphrase an article in your paper, or when you want to link to the original publication on another website. These citations should be included before or after the quote, and they must be placed in quotation marks. If you’re referring to an article on a website, you can leave the citation out of your in-text references and just cite the website at the end of your paper.
Citing individual author’s names is a common mistake, and it can lead to plagiarism. It’s not necessary to cite every author who has contributed to an article, but it’s always good practice to include at least the main author’s name and their initials in your in-text citation.
Unless your paper is extremely long, you should place an in-text citation for a quote before the quotation itself. For longer quotes, a block quote without quotation marks is acceptable. The citation should be left indented about half an inch.
When you cite an entire work, such as a book or edited collection, you should italicize the title of the work. You can also place it in quotation marks if you want to highlight the title of that work. For shorter works like books, research papers, or a series of short stories, you can cite the title of the work without italicizing it.
