Sources: How to Cite Sources: Source Types

Table of contents

How to cite sources

From sources to citations

Sources types

Fields

Citation formats

Citation styles

AFTER SELECTING a source, your next step is to identify its medium. This will help you determine what information will be required to document the source adequately in your citation. Some types of sources commonly used include:

Book A bound work of significant size on a specific topic.

Conference or symposium proceedings A set of papers delivered at the professional meetings or conferences of scholars. Particularly common in the sciences and social sciences.

Computer program Language written for a computer that performs some function.

Documentary An audio or visual program on a nonfictional subject.

Edited book A collection of articles or other written materials that is edited by one or more persons. This could include a collection of articles written by several different people, or a collection of primary sources drawn from a variety of different places, or a single diary, manuscript, or body of work that is edited. The editor is identified as such on the title page.

Government publication Data or documents published by a national government, including census material, reports, and Acts of Congress.

Graphic illustration An illustration, chart, or graph that could be part of another source or could stand alone.

Journal article An article that is published in a scholarly journal.

Lecture A publicly accessible oral presentation before an audience.

Magazine A periodical publication that contains articles, stories, and other features.

Map A spatial representation of data or regions.

Newspaper A daily or weekly publication of current news, editorials, and feature articles.

Personal communication This could include a letter, an email, a conversation, or some other direct communication not publicly available (including lectures).

Thesis A long scholarly paper written by either an undergraduate or graduate student, including a senior honors thesis or a dissertation submitted for an M.A., M.Sc., or Ph.D.

Web page A screen of information from the Internet or World Wide Web.