A Comprehensive Review About Citation

Citation can be defined as,

"An intellectual reference to a published or unpublished source by quoting of a book, author or an existing publication in support of a fact."

More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression (e.g. [Newell84]) embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears. Generally the combination of both the in-body citation and the bibliographic entry constitutes what is commonly thought of as a citation (whereas bibliographic entries by themselves are not).

Basic Elements & Content of Citation

Citation content can vary depending on the type of source and may include:
Book


book title, publisher, date of publication, page number(s), International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
Journal
author(s), article title, journal title, date of publication, page number(s)
Newspaper
author(s), article title, name of newspaper, section title and page number(s) if desired, date of publication
Web site
author(s), article and publication title, a URL, a date when the site was accessed, Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Play
inline citations offer part, scene, and line numbers, the latter separated by periods
Poem
spaced slashes are normally used to indicate separate lines of a poem, and parenthetical citations usually include the line number(s)
Unique Identifiers

Along with typical information on author(s), date of publication, title and page numbers, citations also include unique identifiers often used for specific kinds of reference works:

International Standard Book Number (ISBN): Used for citations of books
Serial Item and Contribution Identifier (SICI): Used for specific volumes, journal articles or other parts of a periodical
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): Used for electronic documents and sources
PubMed Identifier (PMID): Used for biomedical research articles

Citation Numbers

A citation number, used in some citation systems, is a number or symbol added inline and usually in superscript, to refer readers to a footnote or endnote that cites the source. In other citation systems, an inline parenthetical reference is used rather than a citation number, with limited information such as the author’s last name, year of publication, and page number referenced; a full identification of the source will then appear in an appended bibliography.

Amy Dyslex has written this article. Visit www.writeawriting.com to read more about citation guidelines.