Referencing: 20 Styles
Citing sources is one of the most important aspects of writing and publishing a paper. It allows those reading to either fact-check or learn more about the topic you've included in your work. It also shows your credibility and prevents instances of plagiarism.
There are dozens of referencing styles for presenting in-text references, footnotes, and endnotes, with the most common being APA, MLA, and Chicago.
This article guides you through 20 of these styles, including a brief introduction to their formatting guidelines.
If you want more detailed instructions on using any of these styles you may want to check out the comprehensive referencing guide Cite Them Right . I have a copy on my Kindle and Kindle App so I can check the citation order for different types of sources when I need to.
What Referencing Style to Use
The referencing style you choose largely depends on the subject or the academic discipline you're involved in.
Some instructors require students to use a specific referencing style for their work, so it's always best to check with the professor or instructor before submitting your paper. You can also check your course handbook to see what the discipline's preferred referencing style is.
For manuscripts, refer to the publisher to see if they need the citations in a certain style.
If you're allowed to choose your own style, do so with discretion as some styles suit certain subjects better than others.
For example, the Journals of Marketing and Management use the APA style, whereas the EU Journal of Criminology uses the Harvard citation style. Humanities use the MLA style, while Business, History, and the Fine Arts use the Chicago/Turabian style, and so on.
The list below should help you choose the right referencing style for the topic you’re writing on. When in doubt, consult with your professor to determine the referencing style required in your course.
20 Different Styles of Referencing
Here are some of the most used referencing styles in alphabetical order:
1. AAA (American Anthropological Association)
The AAA style, short for American Anthropological Association style, follows the Chicago Manual of referencing. It's generally used in Business, History, and Fine Arts, as well as Humanities, Social Studies, and Sciences.
The general format for AAA citations is as follows: Author's Surname, Author's First Name. Year of Publication. Title. City or Location of Publisher: Publisher's Name.
For example:
● Smith, Linda. 2021. A Guide to Business and Management. Tucson, AZ: Kellin's College Publications.
If the work is written by multiple authors, invert the name of the first author only.
For example:
● Smith, Linda, Collin Johnson, and Cherish Williams. 2021. A Guide to Business and Management. Tucson, AZ: Kellin's College Publications.
2. ACS (American Chemical Society)
Developed by the American Chemical Society, the American Chemical Society style, also known as the ACS style, is used for academic writing in chemistry.
The ASC style is used in one of three ways:
By superscript numbers:
● The methods used by Williamson3 indicate that benzaldehyde reactions of anhydrous sodium acetate and acetic anhydride yield cinnamic acid.
By numbers in parenthesis:
● The methods used by Williamson (3) indicate that benzaldehyde reactions of anhydrous sodium acetate and acetic anhydride yield cinnamic acid.
By author-date:
● The methods used indicate that benzaldehyde reactions of anhydrous sodium acetate and acetic anhydride yield cinnamic acid (Williamson, 2012).
For two authors, simply provide the surnames of both authors and separate them with the word "and."
● The methods used by Williamson and Smith (3) indicate that...
For more than two authors, provide the surname of the first author listed and follow it with the word "et al," meaning "and others."
● The methods used by Williamson et al. (3) indicate that...
3. AGLC (Australian Guide to Legal Citation)
The AGLC (Australian Guide to Legal Citation) cites legal sources in Australia. It uses a bibliography system instead of a reference list, meaning you should include every source you've consulted throughout the work, not only those cited in the document.
This style is sorted by type through categories: Articles, Books, and Reports; Cases; Legislation; Treaties; and Other. Each category is labeled from A to E respectively.
The "Other" section includes sources such as newspaper transcripts, magazine articles, press releases, government documents, and any other reliable source that doesn't fit into the previous categories.
When referencing, the AGLC follows certain rules:
● Sources under each heading must be listed alphabetically.
● Publication details must be provided in full for all sources.
● Name of the first author should be inverted.
● For sources with four or more authors, list the name of the first author followed by the word "et al."
● Inverted commas must be used for articles and book chapter titles.
● Italics must be used for titles of cases, journals, legislation, and books.
Here's an example of the AGLC style:
A. Articles, Books, and Reports
● Rodriguez, Olivia, Noah Nelson, and Benjamin Brown, Australian Laws of Discrimination and Harassment (Oxford University Press, 2011)
B. Cases
● Garcia v Mahmoud (1989) CLR 430
● Miller v Taylor (1983) CLR 503
C. Legislation
● Legal Profession Act 2006 No 112
D. Treaties
● N/A
E. Other
● Smith, Will, 'A quick guide to Australian discrimination laws', The Australian (online, 30 April 2012) <http:www.theaustralian.com.au/quick-guide-to-aus-discrimination>
4. AMJ (Academy of Management Journal)
The AMJ (Academy of Management Journal) style is specifically designed for articles published in the Academy of Management Journal.
It uses the traditional author-date style used in most referencing styles, followed by the article or journal title, the place of publication in parenthesis, and the page of the reference.
For example:
● Smith, L. 2016. Odd animal behaviors. Nature, 365(5825): 102–108.
For articles with three authors:
● Smith, L., Love, A.D., Doug T.J. 2016. Odd animal behaviors. Nature, 365(5825): 102–108.
For more than six authors, use "et al" after the fifth mentioned author.
5. AMS (American Meteorological Society)
The AMS (American Meteorological Society) is used in publications relating to meteorological studies.
It uses the following format: Author's last name and initials, Year of publication, Journal title, Journal volume, Issue or citation number (if necessary), Page range, and DOI (if available).
For example:
● Harris, W.D, 2021: Exoplanets Covered in Lava Oceans, Meteors and Co., 12, 2133–2161, https:/doi.org/10.5675/JCLI6250.2.
For nine or more authors, write the name of the first author and follow it with "and Coauthors."
6. APA (American Psychological Association)
The APA (American Psychological Association) style is mostly used to cite sources within the Social Sciences category.
It consists of two main elements: in-text citations and a list of references at the end.
In-text citations list the name of the author(s), the publication year, and the page number. You can use either parenthetical or narrative format, wherein the former enclose the author's name and publication date between parentheses while the latter inserts the information in the sentence.
Reference notes list the Author(s), Publication Year, Title, Edition, and Publisher.
For example:
● Smith, A. (1992). Nature vs. Nurture: The Twin Experiment. 23. The Guardian.
7. APSA (American Political Science Review)
The APSA (American Political Science Review) style uses the Chicago citation style. It's used in subjects related to Political Science and gives special attention to documents published by the US government.
The APSA format looks like this: Author's Surname, Author's First Name. Year of Publication. Title. City or Location of Publisher: Publisher's Name.
8. Chicago Referencing Style
The Chicago Referencing Style, also known as the Chicago Manual of Style, is a referencing guide published by the University of Chicago Press in 1906. It's one of the most common and widely used style guides in the United States and most of the world.
This style comes in two varieties: author-date and notes and bibliography.
The author-date system is often used by those working in the sciences and social sciences. Sources are cited in parentheses in the text itself.
The notes and bibliography system is used by those working in humanities; i.e., Literature, History, and Fine Arts. In this format, sources are cited in numbered endnotes or footnotes.
If you're asked to use Chicago-style citations, consult your professor/publisher as to what format you should use, whether author-date or notes and bibliography.
9. CSE (Council of Science Editors)
The CSE (Council of Science Editors) style is used in physical and life sciences, such as Ecology, Biology, Medicine, and Zoology. It comes in three variations: name-year, citation-name, and citation-sequence.
In-text name-year citations appear in brackets. It consists of the author's last name, followed by the work's publication year.
For example:
● The discovery was later refuted (Jameson, 2012).
The citation-name system organizes the reference list in alphabetical order by the author's last name, followed by the number assigned to the name.
As for the citation-sequence system, the references appear in the numerical order in which they first appear in the text.
10. Harvard Style Referencing
Harvard Style Referencing, also known as Parenthetical Referencing, is a citation style wherein citations are added inside parentheses within the text or after a sentence. Individual citations are accompanied by a full alphabetized list of citations at the end of the document.
This style of referencing is believed to have originated in an 1881 paper written by Edward Laurens Mark, a Professor of Anatomy at Harvard University.
The end-note format structure is as follows:
● Author's surname, initials. (Publication year) 'Article title', Newspaper/Magazine Name, Day Month Published, Page(s). Available at: URL or DOI (Accessed: date).
Harvard Referencing uses two main styles: author-date and author-title or author-page.
The author-date referencing style is used in Social and Natural Sciences, and is often recommended by the ACS (American Chemical Society) and the APA (American Psychological Association).
The author-date/title is used in humanities and arts, and is recommended by the MLA (Modern Language Association).
11. IEEE (Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
The IEEE (Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is a referencing style that uses citation numbers within the paper's text in square brackets.
It starts at [1] and continues in ascending order throughout the paper.
Full references are listed at the end of the paper, with the corresponding citation number.
For example:
● As shown in the theorems by Thevenin and Norton [1]...
● Smith and his colleagues [4]...
● For more details, see [7], [9], [23].
● In contrast to [6, p. 12], it's apparent that...
The endnotes follow the standard footnote formula
Author's initials. Author's surname. Book title, edition. Publication location: Publisher, year.
For book chapters, list the title of the chapter in quotation marks, followed by the book title and edition (if relevant) as well as the page number.
For example:
● K.A. Fitzgerald. Engineering Simplified, third edition. Cambridge: Woodhead, 2012.
● K.A. Fitzgerald. "Chapter 34: Robotics, automation, and machine learning," in Engineering Simplified, 3rd edn. Cambridge: Woodhead, 2012. pp. 192-217.
12. MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association)
The MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) style is mostly used in subjects relating to Arts and Humanities. Like most of the styles on this list, it uses footnotes that reference a citation added within the text.
Here are some formatting guidelines to keep in mind:
● Footnotes of all kinds must end with a full stop unless the sentence ends in a square bracket.
● When citing multiple sources by the same author, or multiple authors with the same last name, the footnotes should include the author's surname, a shortened version of the source title, the volume number (if relevant; can be omitted if the work only has one volume), and page number/s.
● Use italics when listing titles of individually published works, websites, and collections.
● Author's names shouldn't be inverted and must be written in full.
● Publication details must be enclosed in brackets.
The basic format is as follows: Author name, Book Title, ed./trans. by Editor/Translator name, edition (Place of publication: Publisher, Year), page number(s).
For example:
● Shane Williamson, The Study of Ancient Languages, ed./trans. by Fritta Love Hewitt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 23-68.
13. MLA System (Modern Language Associations)
The MLA System (Modern Language Associations) is the referencing style used within the Liberal Arts and Humanities department.
It features citations in parentheses and footnotes in alphabetical order at the end of the work.
For a source not named in the text, place the author's name alongside the page number in parenthesis after the text.
For example:
● It's still unknown whether it's due to mass hysteria or moral panic. (Smith, 34).
Otherwise, it can simply be written as follows:
● According to Smith, it's still unknown whether it's due to mass hysteria or moral panic (34).
For the works cited, follow this format:
● Author. Title of source. Title of Container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location.
14. ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)
Written by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the NLM (National Library of Medicine) style is a referencing style that's often used in kinesiology and medicine.
The format used in the NLM style is as follows: Author(s) name. Article title. Abbreviated journal-title. Date [cited date]; volume(issue):page numbers.
When using the NLM style, follow these guidelines:
● If taken online, place the word "Internet" in square brackets after the title of the journal, and the date of publication after that.
● After the date of publication, the date of citation must be placed in square brackets.
● If you're referencing work without page numbers, calculate the approximate length of the article using paragraphs, print pages, or screens; i.e., [about 17p.] or [37 paragraphs] or [about 8 screens].
● Write "available from" before using the URL; i.e., Available from: https:///www.example.com/medicine/.
● Abbreviate the journal-title as per the NLM Catalog of Journals..
15. Numerical Style
The Numerical Style of Reference uses numbers instead of the author's last name to identify a text source. The numbers are listed between brackets or as a superscript. The number is often followed by the original work's page number.
The footnotes are arranged in numerical order, starting with 1.
Formatting appears as follows: Author's initials, author's family name. Title of book, Edition (other than 1st). Place of publication: Publisher, year, page number of the quotation.
If referencing an ebook, reference it as an ebook by including the host info, URL address, and date of access. Use [Online] Available from ebook link.
Here are some examples:
● T.H. Lemmings. Insect Anatomy, 3rd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001, pp.250-279.
● T.H. Lemmings. Insect Anatomy, 3rd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001, pp.250-279. [Online] Available from Book Depository: http://www.bookdipository/insect-anatomy-lemmings.com. [Accessed 1 January 2022].
16. OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities)
The OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities) referencing style was developed at Oxford University in the year 2000. It's widely used by publishers and law schools to acknowledge and cite source information.
In-text, this referencing style uses superscripts at the end of a sentence and after the punctuation.
● There were three people involved in the jury.1
The reference is then given in the footnote listed at the bottom of the page in the following format: Author's first name and surname, Book title (Edition number, publisher Year Published). The list is organized by the type of source, then alphabetically.
● George Linder, Snape vs. Young: The Middleton Case (3rd edn, RK Press 2012).
For ebooks, add "<http://Website URL> accessed Date Accessed" after the Publication Title.
● George Linder, Snape vs. Young: The Middleton Case (3rd edn). <http://middleton.case.com> accessed 23 October 2012.
17. Oxford Referencing
Oxford is a reference style that uses footnotes at the bottom of the page instead of in-text citations like Harvard and A.P.A. It uses superscript numbers in between text to cute an author's work.
● This results in the inevitable division of labor.1
The reference list at the bottom of the page follows this format: Author's surname and first name, Title and date of publication, Name of the publisher, and Place of publication.
● 1 Young, Dezmond, Working Labor Laws (Holmes: Palgrave Sonos, 2013)
When referencing a website, use this pattern: Author's surname, author's initials, 'Title of article/web section/document', Title of website [medium], day month year, <URL>, date of access.
● Young, D, 'Working Labor Laws', LawsInfo [website], 31 January 2012, <https.//www.lawsinfo.com/working-labor-laws>, accessed 4 May 2015.
When using the Oxford citation style, follow these guidelines:
● The citation should appear in the text with a superscripted number. The superscripted number should be added at the end of the sentence and after punctuation.
● The footnotes are added not only at the end of the page, but also all through the chapters.
● The bibliography should be added at the end of the work. This should include a list of references that are used as quotes or a part of a reading list.
18. RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry)
The RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) style is a referencing style that uses superscript numbers when citing work and referencing said superscript at the end of the document.
The superscripts appear at the end of the sentence, after the punctuation, but can also be written after the relevant work or compound. If you have two or more references, use commas in between the superscript numbers; i.e., for example, 12,13 or 12,14,15.
● Walter and Jones used this method for the first time in 1923.4
The end reference lists the publications in the order they're mentioned rather than alphabetically. The names of the authors must all be mentioned and not replaced by et al.
For journal publications, the RSC style uses this format: A. Surname, B. Surname, and C. Surname, Journal Title, year, volume, page.
● T.J. Kafka, R.A. Smith, O.K. Willson, and A.B. Mason, Of Life and Love, 2017, 23, 124-153.
If the page isn't available, use a DOI.
● T.J. Kafka, R.A. Smith, O.K. Willson, and A.B. Mason, Of Life and Love, 2017, 23, DOI: 13.1939/C2CG17634C.
For books, use this format: A. Surname, B. Surname, and C. Surname, Book Title, Publisher, Publisher Location, year.
● T.J. Kafka, R.A. Smith, O.K. Willson, and A.B. Mason, Of Life and Love, Cambridge, 2017.
For specific book chapters, list the Edition, Year, Chapter, and Pages after the Publisher Location.
● T.J. Kafka, R.A. Smith, O.K. Willson, and A.B. Mason, Of Life and Love, Cambridge, 3rd edn, 2017, ch. 34, pp. 235-278.
Finally, for online resources, use this format: Name of resource, URL, (accessed date).
● The Index of Everything, https://www.indexofloveandhate.org/love-and-life, (accessed 23 December 2012).
19. Turabian Style
The Turabian style citation format is a version of the Chicago style format that's specifically designed for researchers and students. It's essentially a simplified version of the Chicago style, except it adds several guidelines for formatting theses, dissertations, and research papers.
The Turabian style comes in two varieties: author-date and notes and bibliography.
Author-date is used in social, natural, and physical sciences, whereas notes and bibliography are popular in Lit, Fine Arts, History, and other subjects that encompass humanities.
The biggest difference between Chicago and Turabian is the numbering system. Chicago uses cites work with a number in parentheses followed by a period, space, and the source of information.
On the other hand, Turabian uses superscript¹ both in text and in the footnotes, followed by the source information.
For the footnotes and endnotes, the Turabian style uses this format: Author's first and last name, Book title, Translator or editor (if relevant), Book edition, Name of the series, (Place of publication, publisher and date of publication); Page numbers of citation.
For example:
● Mark Rudd, The Moon's Secrets, trans. Philippa Snow, 3rd edn, (London: Eren Publishing House, 1944), pp. 23-67.
20. Vancouver Referencing
The Vancouver Referencing style is commonly used in the field of science and medicine.
It consists of in-text numbered citations in parenthesis and a sequentially numbered reference list at the end of the work with full references. It follows the pre-established rules of the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors).
For example:
● The health sciences community will likely take advantage of the technologies provided by the new venues (4).
● Roberts (51) reported that...
● ...in the event a collision occurs (2-6), it's reported that...
● Multiple studies report that sodium bicarbonate was ineffective (2, 9, 34).
The reference page at the end of the work follows this format: Author's surname then initials without any periods. Title of the book or article. Publication information. Pages.
For example:
● Smith A, Love PV, William AG, Robb K, and Orwell JS. Chimpanzees Form Numerous Vocal Sequences to Call Their Mates. J Publishing House. pp. 26-35.
For more than six authors, the word "et al" is used.
● Smith A, Love PV, William AG, Robb K, Orwell JS, Edwards KG, et al. Chimpanzees Form Numerous Vocal Sequences to Call Their Mates. J Publishing House. pp. 26-35.
Online reports have a slightly different format: Organization name, Title site, [Internet]. Place of Publication: Publisher; [updated year month date; cited year month date]. Available from: URL.
For example:
● Biological-persuits.org [Internet]. Vancouver: Association of Biology, inc.; c24546-01 [updated 2021 May 12; cited 2020 Jul 2]. Available from: https://www.biological-persuits.org/genetics.
Summary
There you have it, folks; our in-depth guide to 20 of the most common referencing styles used in publications, thesis, and the like. The most common styles are APA, MLA, AMA, and Chicago, with the APA being the most popular.
To summarize, the APA style is mostly used in social sciences like education or psychology, Chicago in history and sciences, MLA in humanities like literature or languages, and AMA in the fields of medicine and science.
For more information on how referencing can add value to your work at university check out Referencing: What, Why, and How.
University Librarian provides a blog, notebooks, and tools for students who want to improve their study skills.
