Guide to Library Research in Science

Lesson 8: Understanding Citations

In order to know where to look for books, articles or other materials, it is important to be able to interpret bibliographic citations retrieved from print indexes, electronic bibliographic databases, or bibliographies found in books, articles, or other sources. While citations for particular types of documents may differ in order of elements, punctuation and other stylistic characteristics depending upon source and academic discipline, they should always provide all of the information required to locate the item described by the citation.

Citations for Books

The following citations for books were located in the bibliographies of several different journal articles. Notice that, although the citation formats differ, each citation provides:

• Author name
• Book title
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Publication date

To locate copies of these books, search by author or editor name or book title in the CONSORT or OhioLINK catalogs.

Evans, HE, 1966. The comparative ethology and evolution of the sand wasps. Cambridge, Massachusetts:    Harvard University Press. Citation from Behavioral Ecology View citation with elements labeled

Spector, D.L., Goldman, R.D., and Leinwand, L.A. (1998). Cells: A Laboratory Manual (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press). Citation from Cell

L. Sartori, Understanding Relativity: a simplified approach to Einstein’s theories (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1996). Citation from American Journal of Physics

Books are also indexed in many bibliographic databases. The following book citation was retrieved from the BIOSIS Previews database. Note that the record lists the document type as a book. Search for this book by title or author/editor name in the CONSORT or OhioLINK library catalogs. If the book is not held in OhioLINK, request it using the ILLaid Interlibrary Loan request form.

Shortcut — Click on in the record to connect to the catalog through OLinks.

Citations to Chapters or Articles in Books

Citations describing articles that appear in books contain the following elements:

• Author(s) of article or chapter
• Title of article*
• Editor(s) of book
• Title of book in which article appears
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Publication date
• Pages on which article appears

To locate the articles or chapters cited, search the CONSORT or OhioLINK catalogs by the book title, or by editor name. Although article authors and titles are sometimes listed in table of contents notes and are searchable in the catalog, this is not always the case.

Yamane S, 1996. Ecological factors influencing the colony cycle of Polistes wasps. In: Natural history and evolution of    paper-wasps (Turillazzi S, West-Eberhard MJ, eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press; 75-97. Citation from Behavioral Ecology

*Citations in chemistry and physics often do not include article titles, as seen in this example.

M.E. Raikh and I.M. Ruzin, in Mesoscopic Phenomena in Solids, edited by B.L. Altshuler, P.A. Lee, and R.A. Webb (North Holland, Amsterdam, 1991), p.15. Citation from Physical Review B View citation with elements labeled

Karig, D.E., and J. Morgan, 1994, Tectonic deformation: Stress paths and strain history, in A. Maltman, ed., The geological deformation of sediments: London, Chapman & Hall, p. 167-204. Citation from AAPG Bulletin View citation with elements labeled

Book chapters are also indexed in many bibliographic databases. The following book citation was retrieved from the BIOSIS Previews database. To locate a copy, search the CONSORT and OhioLINK catalogs by book title: Sensory Processing in Aquatic Environments.

Shortcut — Click on in the record to connect to the catalog through OLinks.

Citations to Journal Articles

The following citations to journal articles demonstrate the differences in citation format used by different publishers and disciplines. Although the formats differ the citations contain the elements required to locate the document:

• Author(s) of article
• Publication date
• Article title*
• Journal title (often abbreviated)†
• Volume number
• Page numbers (or article number)‡

To retrieve journal articles, search the Wooster eJournals and Journals database by journal title (not author or article title) to determine whether or not we have access to the journal in any format. For more information, see Lesson 9: Finding the Full Text of Journal Articles.

VARGAS, P., C.M. MORTON, AND S.L. JURY. 1999. Biogeographic patterns in Mediterranean and Macronesian species    of Saxifraga (Saxifragaceae) inferred from phylogenetic analysis of ITS sequences. American Journal of Botany    86:724-734. Citation from American Journal of Botany

†Journal titles are often abbreviated. See Finding Journal Titles and Abbreviations for more information.

Eickwort GC, Eickwort JM, Gordon J, Eickwort MA, 1996. Solitary behavior in a high-altitude population of the social sweat    bee Halictus rubicundus (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 38:227-233. Citation from Behavioral Ecology View citation with elements labeled

*Citations in chemistry and physics often do not include article titles, as seen in this example.

Iyengar, R.; Eckstein, F.; Frey, P.A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1984, 106, 8309-8310. Citation from Journal of Organic Chemistry

‡Some publishers are assigning article numbers instead of page numbers.

S.S. Shapiro, J.L. Davis, D.E. Lebach, and J.S. Gregory, “Measurement of the solar gravitational deflection of radio waves using very-long-baseline interferometry data, 1979-1999,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 121101-1-4 (2004). Citation from American Journal of Physics View citation with elements labeled

Citations to articles found online contain all of the elements found in citations to articles in print. They may also include some indication that they were accessed online such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or an address for the database from which the article was accessed.

Athanasiadis, A., Rich, A., and Maas, S. (2004). Widespread A-to-I RNA editing of Alu-containing mRNAs in the human transcriptome. PLoS Biol. 2, e391. 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020391. Citation from Cell

Extramiana, F., and Antzelevitch, C. (2004). Amplified transmural dispersion of repolarization as the basis for arrhythmogenesis in a canine ventricular-wedge model of sort-QT syndrome. Circulation 110. 3661-3666. Published online November 29, 2004. 10.1161/01.CIR.0000143078.48699.0C. Citation from Cell View citation with elements labeled

Boschat, C. et al. Pheromone detection mediated by a V1r vomeronasal receptor. Nature Neurosci. 5, 1261-1262 (2002). Retrieved on November 18, 2005 from EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier. Citation from Nature with note on source of full text

Records for journal articles appearing in periodical databases also provide all of the information required to locate the full text of articles in addition to other descriptive and indexing information. Databases often provide direct links to the full text. The following journal article is indexed in three databases as illustrated below. Notice that although the article record looks different in each database, each provides the bibliographic information required to locate a copy of the article.

This record appears in Academic Search Complete, an EBSCOhost database. To determine how to access the article, you might search the Wooster eJournals and Journals database by journal title, which appears in the source field. EBSCOhost also provides a direct link to the full text of many of the articles it indexes.

Click on for quick access to the article or to library holdings for the journal through OLinks.

The same article is also indexed in GeoRef, which provides access to the geoscience literature of the world. Because the primary users of GeoRef are geologists, the indexing and other features of this database are designed to meet their needs. Nevertheless, the bibliographic information needed to retrieve the article is included as it is in Academic Search Complete. College of Wooster researchers access GeoRef using the OSearch system, which looks different than EBSCOhost but provides a similar search interface.

Again, search by journal title in the Wooster eJournals and Journals database to determine the holdings or click on to connect to the catalogs through OLinks.

CAplus, the bibliographic database produced by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), also indexes this article. Notice that the indexing in the record focuses on the interests of chemists, but the bibliographic information needed to access the article is provided. Locate Wooster’s holdings for the journal Nature by searching the Wooster eJournals and Journals database.

This database is part of a group of reference sources presented in the seamless, web-based search system SciFinder, which also provides direct access to many full-text articles or to OLinks using the CAS ChemPort gateway.

Note The new Web version of SciFinder requires each individual user to register. See Introduction to the Web Version of SciFinder for more information.

Citations for Articles in Series

In addition to the information listed in citations for chapters in books, citations for these resources also include a series title. If each volume of a series has a separate title, it is sometimes possible to find the item in the CONSORT or OhioLINK catalogs by searching the book title. Otherwise, search by series title.

Buvoli, M.; Leinwand, L.A. Direct gene transfer into mouse heart. In Gene Therapy Methods; Phillips, M.I., Ed.; Methods in Enzymology 346; Academic Press: San Diego, 2002; p 134. Citation format in American Chemical Society style

Hawthorne, F.C. and Huminicki, D.M.C. (2002) The crystal chemistry of beryllium. In E.S. Grew, Ed., Beryllium:    Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 50, 333-403. Mineralogical Society    of America and the Geochemical Society, Washington, D.C. Citation from American Mineralogist View citation with elements labeled

In the following record from GeoRef, the special issue is the title of the volume within the series Reviews of Mineralogy and Geochemistry.

Citations for Dissertations and Theses

Citations for dissertations and theses include:

• Author
• Date
• Title
• Degree
• University name and location

See a librarian for assistance in obtaining dissertations.

Tufton, T, 1993. The cost of reproduction in Callosobruchus maculates (PhD dissertation). Sheffield; University of Sheffield. Citation from Behavioral Ecology

Citations for Conference Papers

Citations for papers presented at a conference and collected in a proceedings volume include the following elements:

• Author of paper
• Title of paper
• Title of publication and/or name of the meeting
• Location and date of the meeting
• Editor(s) of the proceedings
• Publisher
• Place of publication
• Date of publication
• Pages on which the article appears

To locate conference papers, try searching by publication title or editors, or by title of the meeting.

Schmidt, R.A., 1977, Fracture mechanics of oil shale-unconfined fracture toughness, stress corrosion cracking, and    tension test results, in F.-D. Wang and G.B. Clark, eds, Energy resources and excavation technology: Proceedings,    18th U.S. Symposium on Rock Mechanics: Golden, Colorado, Colorado School of Mines, p. 2A2-1-2A2-6. Citation from AAPG Bulletin View citation with elements labeled

Conference papers are also indexed in bibliographic databases. The following is an example from the INSPEC database.

Citations for U.S. Government Publications

Agencies and departments of the United States government publish many documents related to the sciences. Many of these documents are searchable by author, title or series title in the CONSORT and OhioLINK catalogs. For more information, see Government Information Collection and Organization of Library Materials: Superintendent of Documents Classification System.

Pitman, J.K., L.C. Price, and J.A. LeFever, 2001, Diagenesis and fracture development in the Bakken Formation,    Williston basin: Implications for reservoir quality in the middle member: U.S. Geological Survey Professional    Paper 1653, 19p. Citation from AAPG Bulletin View citation with elements labeled

Government documents are also indexed in many bibliographic databases. The following document citation was retrieved from the AGRICOLA database. Note the Superintendent of Documents classification system number, which is the GovDoc item in the Class Descriptors field of this citation.