Citing Information: Citation Styles

A citation refers to the information of a publication which may be a book, a journal article, a newspaper article, a DVD, or a website etc.

A citation provides the bibliographic information of a publication necessary for identification and retrieval, for example:

• Name of author
• Publication year
• Book title
• Place of publication
• Name of publisher

There are a number of different styles or formats for writing citations. Each citation style includes the same elements of a citation, but may organize them in a different way. A reference list contains citations arranged in alphabetical order by author's family name.

Some commonly used citation styles are:

• APA Style https://apastyle.apa.org/

• Chicago Manual of Style http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html

• Harvard System of Referencing

• MLA Style https://www.mla.org/MLA-Style

Which style you should use depends upon the subject discipline you are working in. Please consult your instructor for details of the citation style you should use.

* As a general rule, students of EdUHK may use the APA style for writing papers or bibliographies.
Please refer to the Citation System at the Student Handbook.*

You may also find the bibliographic management tool RefWorks at the Library web site useful for generating citations and bibliographies in different citation styles.