Citation Resources
Why Cite?
While most of your paper should consist of your own thoughts and ideas, it is important to include the research and ideas of others and give them credit for their work. When you do this, you are citing sources. Citing sources helps you because it:
- Demonstrates you have done the necessary research to learn as much as possible about your topic,
- Provides evidence for your arguments,
- Makes your work more credible because you have considered a variety of resources,
- Helps you avoid plagiarism, and
- Allows you (and your audience) to locate the source when conducting further research.
Popular Citation Websites and Youtube How to videos
- Citation video tutorialsFrom Newfoundland’s Memorial University: Chicago, APA and MLA styles.
- The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)Writing tips, Citation Style Guides and more.
- Reading CitationsFrom UVic
Medical Sciences Styles
In the field of medical research, scholars can choose between either the American Medical Association's Manual of Style or the National Library of Medicine's Style Manuel, 2nd Edition.
The reference style followed by JAMA and its related journals was developed from recommendations contained in the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (formerly known as the Vancouver style) and the National Library of Medicine's recommendations found in Citing Medicine:The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers.
Citing Medicine, 2nd edition provides assistance to authors in compiling lists of references for their publications, to editors in revising such lists, to publishers in setting reference standards for their authors and editors, and to librarians and others in formatting bibliographic citations.
- American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of StyleFor in-text citations, the AMA style uses a superscript Arabic numeral that follows after the resource material being referenced. When the same resource material is referenced in a paper, the same numeral will be used.
For the Reference list will follow this general format: Author Last name, First Initial. Title in sentence case. Journal Title in Title Case. Year; Issue#: PP-PP.
General formatting guidelines: Spacing: Double space. Margins: 1" . Font: Size 12, any font type. AMA suggests two typefaces (a serif for body text and a sans serif for titles and subheads) with appropriate use of styles, such as bold and italics for a scholarly publication. Indents: 1/2". Page numbering: Each page, beginning with the title page, should be numbered consecutively. Page numbers are usually placed in the upper right corner. References: Reference entries should be listed and numbered in the order they were cited in your paper. If the citation extends to a second line, do NOT indent (as in APA). - National Library of Medicine Style ManualThe NLM Style manual provides detailed information for the formatting of references used in a paper. It does not have a specific format for in-text citations.
Citation Format Styles
APA Style Blog
The official word on APA style from the APA style experts. Got a question? Check the blog.