- What discipline you are writing in?
- Ask your professor what style they want, e.g, APA, MLA, CSE, ACS.
- It will vary whether you are in the humanities, social sciences, or sciences, and it varies within each discipline, each department, even each professor will have their favorite style.
- There is no one format unfortunately.
On our research and course guides we often have links to the recommended citation format.
If you use RefWorks, Endnote, Mendeley, or one of the other citation managers:
- you can collect your references while you do your research.
- When you come to write your paper,
- the software allows you to choose which citation format (or style) you require.
- It formats your references into that style for you.
It's great!