An individual subscription is only A$60 per year
Group and student discounts may apply
Australian manual of scientific style Start communicating effectively
What citing is
Who said that?
Citing is telling the reader where a bit of content came from. For the purposes of this module, the citation is the flag in the text, the reference is the resource being referred to.
Some facts concerning these poorly defined issues, which are being discussed purely to create an example of a citation, are in dispute (Wu 2019).
and in the references section ...
Wu D (2019). Topiary for giraffes, Pointless Publishing, Some city.
In this example, ‘(Wu 2019)’ is the citation and ‘Wu D (2019). Topiary for giraffes, Pointless Publishing, Some city.’ is the reference. This form of citation is recommended by the Australian manual of style. For details about how to format many kinds of references, see Formatting references in a reference list.
Content that needs a citation could be:
- a fact
- an opinion
- an equation
- an image (graph, photo, drawing …)
- a dataset (or graph of data)
- a quotation.
A citation connects a specific bit of content to specific source. A URL or even a name may be enough.
Cite by hyperlink
If the website that provided the data, including its URL, is likely to be stable, we can cite by giving the URL. We recommend placing URLs in footonotes.
The population of NSW was 7.95 million as of March 2018.1
and in the footnotes ...
We suggest that you do not include http:// in the visible addresses that begin with www; however, https:// must be retained if the URL does not work without it, and http:// should be retained if there is no www. Of course, the URL that is ‘behind’ the text should be complete.
Traditional bibliographic citation
If our final product is a document that is to be printed, we cite using a citation marker or key in the text (in this case, author and date) and then give the details in a reference section.
… and if \(X\) is a binomial random variable giving the number of successes in \(n\) independent trials, its probability distribution, \(b\), is given by (Walpole & Myers 1990)
\[b(x;n,p)=\binom{n}{x}p^xq^{n-x},~~~~~~~~~x=0,~1,~2,\ldots,n.\]
and in the references section ...
Walpole RE & Myers RH (1990). Probability and statistics for engineers and scientists, 4th edn, Macmillan, New York.
Quotation
If we are quoting from a readily available, easily identifiable text – like a novel or a song – and our writing project is not terribly formal, we can simply indicate the necessary information in brackets.
And your loyalties are divided between digital and vinyl,
But I’m biding time till the cassingle revival
Because you promised, when it happens, you'll return.
(‘The cassingle revival’, the Lucksmiths)
Tip. No matter what our citation looks like, it must give the reader enough information to find the source for themselves.