Ethical and Legal Aspects of Information

Elements of a Citation

Regardless of the citation style you use (see next section on Citation Styles and Style Manuals), there are certain elements common to all citations. Therefore, keep track of the following as you locate and gather research materials:

• Books: Author (or editor); Title; and Publishing information (City, Publisher, Year of publication)
• Articles: Author(s); Title of article; Title of journal or magazine; Volume and Date of periodical; and Page number(s) of article
• If you access information via the Web, also record the address of the Web site (or online database you used) and the date you accessed the site or database.

For the online Kennedy Library's online guide to citing sources visit: http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/research/guides/citing.html