What is a Citation?

A citation is the information needed to locate the article (or book) you are interested in reading.

For articles, a complete citation generally includes:

• The author's name
• The title of the article
• The name of the magazine or journal in which it is located
• The volume number of the magazine or journal (and sometimes the issue number)
• The page numbers on which the article is located
• The date when the article was published

For books, a complete citation generally includes:

• The author's name
• The title of the book
• The publication date
• The city in which the book was published
• The book's publisher

Citations are also used to help readers of your papers go to the information you used.

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