How to Cite in Every Style

Citation guides are step-by-step instructions that show you exactly how to format in-text citations, footnotes, and reference lists for a given academic style. Every discipline has its own preferred format: APA dominates psychology and education, MLA is standard in the humanities, Chicago is favored in history and publishing, and styles like IEEE, Vancouver, and ABNT serve engineering, medicine, and Brazilian academia respectively. Using the correct guide ensures your paper meets the expectations of your instructor, journal, or institution.

Choosing the right citation style can feel overwhelming when dozens of formats exist. Start by checking your assignment brief or target journal's author guidelines, which almost always specify a style by name. If no style is required, consider your field's convention: author-date systems like APA work well for sciences because they foreground recency, while note-bibliography systems like Chicago Turabian suit disciplines where discursive footnotes add value.

The guides below cover formatting rules for each major style, broken down by source type, so you can find the exact pattern for citing a website, book, journal article, or any other reference. Each guide includes real examples, common pitfalls to avoid, and quick-copy templates that save you time and reduce errors.