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How to Cite a Thesis or Dissertation in APA

In this citation guide, you will learn how to reference and cite an undergraduate thesis, master’s thesis, or doctoral dissertation. This guide will also review the differences between a thesis or dissertation that is published and one that has remained unpublished. The guidelines below come from the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020a), pages 333 and 334. Please note that the association is not affiliated with this guide.

Alternatively, you can visit EasyBib.com for helpful citation tools to cite your thesis or dissertation .

Guide Overview

Citing an unpublished thesis or dissertation, citing a published dissertation or thesis from a database, citing a thesis or dissertation published online but not from a database, citing a thesis or dissertation: reference overview, what you need.

Since unpublished theses can usually only be sourced in print form from a university library, the correct citation structure includes the university name where the publisher element usually goes.

Author’s last name, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case [Unpublished degree type thesis or dissertation]. Name of institution.

Ames, J. H., & Doughty, L. H. (1911). The proposed plans for the Iowa State College athletic field including the design of a reinforced concrete grandstand and wall [Unpublished bachelor’s thesis]. Iowa State University.

In-text citation example:

• Parenthetical :  (Ames & Doughty, 1911)
• Narrative :  Ames & Doughty (1911)

If a thesis or dissertation has been published and is found on a database, then follow the structure below. It’s similar to the format for an unpublished dissertation/thesis, but with a few differences:

• The institution is presented in brackets after the title
• The archive or database name is included

Author’s last name, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case (Publication or Document No.) [Degree type thesis or dissertation, Name of institution]. Database name.

Examples 1:

Knight, K. A. (2011). Media epidemics: Viral structures in literature and new media (Accession No. 2013420395) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Trotman, J.B. (2018). New insights into the biochemistry and cell biology of RNA recapping (Document No. osu1523896565730483) [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses & Dissertations Center.

In the example given above, the dissertation is presented with a Document Number (Document No.). Sometimes called a database number or publication number, this is the identifier that is used by the database’s indexing system. If the database you are using provides you with such a number, then include it directly after the work’s title in parentheses.

If you are interested in learning more about how to handle works that were accessed via academic research databases, see Section 9.3 of the Publication Manual.

In-text citation examples :

• Parenthetical citation : (Trotman, 2018)
• Narrative citation : Trotman (2018)

Author’s last name, F. M. (Year Published). Title in sentence case [Degree type thesis or dissertation, Name of institution]. Name of archive or collection. URL

Kim, O. (2019). Soviet tableau: cinema and history under late socialism [Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh]. Institutional Repository at the University of Pittsburgh. https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/37669/7/Olga%20Kim%20Final%20ETD.pdf

Stiles, T. W. (2001). Doing science: Teachers’ authentic experiences at the Lone Star Dinosaur Field Institute [Master’s thesis, Texas A&M University]. OAKTrust. https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2001-THESIS-S745

It is important to note that not every thesis or dissertation published online will be associated with a specific archive or collection. If the work is published on a private website, provide only the URL as the source element.

In-text citation examples:

• Parenthetical citation : (Kim, 2019)
• Narrative citation : Kim (2019)
• Parenthetical citation : (Stiles, 2001)
• Narrative citation : Stiles (2001)

We hope that the information provided here will serve as an effective guide for your research. If you’re looking for even more citation info, visit EasyBib.com for a comprehensive collection of educational materials covering multiple source types.

If you’re citing a variety of different sources, consider taking the EasyBib citation generator for a spin. It can help you cite easily and offers citation forms for several different kinds of sources.

To start things off, let’s take a look at the different types of literature that are classified under Chapter 10.6 of the Publication Manual :

• Undergraduate thesis
• Master’s thesis
• Doctoral dissertation

You will need to know which type you are citing. You’ll also need to know if it is published or unpublished .

When you decide to cite a dissertation or thesis, you’ll need to look for the following information to use in your citation:

• Author’s last name, and first and middle initials
• Year published
• Title of thesis or dissertation
• If it is unpublished
• Publication or document number (if applicable; for published work)
• Degree type (bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral)
• Thesis or dissertation
• Name of institution awarding degree
• DOI (https://doi.org/xxxxx) or URL (if applicable)

Since theses and dissertations are directly linked to educational degrees, it is necessary to list the name of the associated institution; i.e., the college, university, or school that is awarding the associated degree.

To get an idea of the proper form, take a look at the examples below. There are three outlined scenarios:

• Unpublished thesis or dissertation
• Published thesis or dissertation from a database
• Thesis or dissertation published online but not from a database

American Psychological Association. (2020a). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

American Psychological Association. (2020b). Style-Grammar-Guidelines. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/parenthetical-versus-narrative

Published August 10, 2012. Updated March 24, 2020.

Written and edited by Michele Kirschenbaum and Elise Barbeau. Michele Kirschenbaum is a school library media specialist and the in-house librarian at EasyBib.com. Elise Barbeau is the Citation Specialist at Chegg. She has worked in digital marketing, libraries, and publishing.

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To cite a published thesis in APA style, it is important that you know some basic information such as the author, publication year, title of the thesis, institute name, archive name, and URL (uniform resource locator). The templates for an in-text citation and reference list entry of a thesis, along with examples, are given below:

In-text citation template and example:

Use the author surname and the publication year in the in-text citation.

Author Surname (Publication Year)

Cartmel (2007)

Parenthetical:

(Author Surname, Publication Year)

(Cartmel, 2007)

Reference list entry template and example:

The title of the thesis is set in sentence case and italicized. Enclose the thesis and the institute awarding the degree inside brackets following the publication year. Then add the name of the database followed by the URL.

Author Surname, F. M. (Publication Year). Title of the thesis [Master’s thesis, Institute Name]. Name of the Database. URL

Cartmel, J. (2007). Outside school hours care and schools [Master’s thesis, Queensland University of Technology]. EPrints. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/17810/1/Jennifer_Cartmel_Thesis.pdf

To cite an unpublished dissertation in APA style, it is important that you know some basic information such as the author, year, title of the dissertation, and institute name. The templates for in-text citation and reference list entry of an online thesis, along with examples, are given below:

Author Surname (Year)

Averill (2009)

(Author Surname, Year)

(Averill, 2009)

The title of the dissertation is set in sentence case and italicized. Enclose “Unpublished doctoral dissertation” inside brackets following the year. Then add the name of the institution awarding the degree.

Author Surname, F. M. (Publication Year). Title of the dissertation [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Name of the Institute.

Averill, R. (2009). Teacher–student relationships in diverse New Zealand year 10 mathematics classrooms: Teacher care [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Victoria University of Wellington.

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APA Citation Style, 7th Edition: Dissertations & Thesis

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Citing Dissertations & Theses in APA Format

Dissertations & Theses

Dissertations and theses are formatted the same way in APA 7th edition. Theses are generally the culminating work for a master's or undergraduate degree and dissertations are often original research completed by doctoral students. Here are examples of a dissertation & a thesis, and how they would be formatted: 

Examples: 

Dissertation found in Proquest Dissertations and Theses Global: 

Reference:  

Banks, B. (2020). Addressing institutional racism in healthcare: A case study (Publication No. 28154307) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota]. Proquest Dissertations and Theses Global. 

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):  

(Banks, 2020).

In-Text Citation (Direct Quote):

(Banks, 2020, p. 157).

Master's thesis from a University scholarship database: 

Sears, L. B. (2017). The public voice and sustainable food systems: Community engagement in food action plans [Unpublished master's thesis]. University of Kansas.  https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/26899  

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Sears, 2017). 

(Sears, 2017, p. 24). 

Carrie Forbes, MLS

Pages Referenced

Citation information has been adapted from the APA Manual (7th Edition). Please refer to page 333 of the APA Manual (7th Edition) for more information.

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Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis References

This page contains a reference example for an unpublished dissertation or thesis.

Harris, L. (2014). Instructional leadership perceptions and practices of elementary school leaders [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia.

• Parenthetical citation : (Harris, 2014)
• Narrative citation : Harris (2014)
• When a dissertation or thesis is unpublished, include the description “[Unpublished doctoral dissertation]” or “[Unpublished master’s thesis]” in square brackets after the dissertation or thesis title.
• In the source element of the reference, provide the name of the institution that awarded the degree.
• The same format can be adapted for other unpublished theses, including undergraduate theses, by changing the wording of the bracketed description as appropriate.
• If you find the dissertation or thesis in a database or in a repository or archive, follow the published dissertation or thesis reference examples .

Unpublished dissertation or thesis references are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 10.6 and the Concise Guide Section 10.5

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Dissertation or thesis available from a database service:

Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (year of publication).  Title of dissertation or thesis (Doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis).  Retrieved from Name of database.  (Accession or Order No.)

For an unpublished dissertation or thesis:

Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (year of creation).  Title of dissertation or thesis (Unpublished doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis).  Name of Institution, Location.

See Ch 7 pp. 207-208 APA Manual for more examples and formatting rules

Formatting:

• Italicize the title
• Identify whether source is doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis in parentheses after the title
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• Paraphrasing
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In text citations

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In-text citation requires that the last name of the author and the year of publication be inserted into the text.

Wolton (2018) questions whether... OR ....(Wolton, 2018).

Published Thesis or  Dissertation

Last name, Initial(s). (Year). Title of doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis, Name of Institution]. Name of database. URL

Wolton, J. L. (2018). "We are probably Wales' best kept secret": An exploration of the role of Care & Repair Cymru caseworkers in facilitating independent living for older people in Wales (Publication No. 27792563). [Doctoral dissertation, Swansea University]. Swansea University Repository. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa49017

Unpublished Thesis or  Dissertation

Last name, Initial(s). (Year). Title of Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis [Unpublished Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis). Name of Institution.

Pope, S. (2013). Parental participation in the child protection process [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Swansea University.

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Format for dissertations and theses

Dissertations and theses database.

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Author last name, first initial. (Year).  Title of dissertation/thesis  (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation/Master's thesis, University]. Database. URL

• Author:  List the last name, followed by the first initial (and second initial). See  Authors  for more information.
• Year:  List the year between parentheses, followed by a period.
• Title of dissertation/thesis:  In italics. Capitalize the first word of the title, subtitle, and proper nouns.
• Publication number: Can be found in Dissertations and Theses database, listed in the item record as “Dissertation/thesis number.”
• Doctoral dissertation/Master's thesis:  List whether it is a dissertation or a thesis.
• University:  List the university associated with the dissertation/thesis.
• Database:  List database the dissertation/thesis was found in, if found in a database.
• URL:  List URL if found on the free Web rather than in a database.

See specific examples below.

Dissertations:

Pecore, J. T. (2004). Sounding the spirit of Cambodia: The living tradition of Khmer music and dance-drama in a Washington, DC community  (Publication No. 3114720) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. 

Master's Theses:

Hollander, M. M. (2017). Resitance to authority: Methodological innovations and new lessons from the Milgram experiment   (Publication No. 10289373) [Master's thesis, University of Wisconsin - Madison]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

APA calls for the citation to include a unique identifying number for the dissertation, labeling it “Publication No.” That number can be found in Dissertations and Theses database, listed in the item record as “Dissertation/thesis number.”

Karamanos, X. (2020). The influence of professional development models on student mathematics performance in New Jersey public elementary schools [Doctoral dissertation, Seton Hall University]. Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs). https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/2732

Bordo, V. C. (2011). Making a case for the use of foreign language in the educational activities of nonprofit arts organizations [Master's thesis, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses & Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1311135640

Caprette, C. L. (2005). Conquering the cold shudder: The origin and evolution of snake eyes  [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University].

Angelova, A. N. (2004). Data pruning  [Master's thesis, California Institute of Technology].

See  Publication Manual , 10.6.

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APA 6 Style Guide

Thesis/Dissertation – APA Reference List

Capitalization.

• The document title is in sentence case – Only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized. Always capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon or a dash.
• The title of the thesis or dissertation is in title case – Each word in the name is capitalized, except for articles (a, an, the), prepositions (against, between, in, of, to), conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet), and the infinitive 'to'.

Thesis/Dissertation – Unpublished/Print version

For papers written in United States list City and State. For countries outside United States list City and Country.

Author , A . A . ( Year ). Title of dissertation/thesis  (Unpublished doctoral dissertation [OR] Unpublished master's thesis). Academic Institution , City , State [OR] Country .

• Considine, M. (1986). Australian insurance politics in the 1970s: Two case studies . (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
• Kassover,A. (1987). Treatment of abusive males: Voluntary vs. court-mandated referrals (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Nova University, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 

Thesis/Dissertation – From a commercial database (e.g., ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database)

Author , A ( Year ). Title of dissertation/thesis (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Name of database . ( Accession or Order Number )

Cooley, T. (2009).  Design, development, and implementation of a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN): The Hartford Job Corps Academy case study (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 3344745)

Thesis/Dissertation – Institutional Database (i.e. University website)

For U.S. thesis do not include university or locations. Include the university and location (City and Country) for a non-U.S. online thesis.

Author , A . A . ( Year ). Title of dissertation/thesis (Doctoral dissertation/Master's thesis). Retrieved from http:// url.com

• Adams, R. J. (1973). Building a foundation for evaluation of instruction in higher education and continuing education (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/
• Barua, S. (2010). Drought assessment and forecasting using a nonlinear aggregated drought index  (Doctoral dissertation, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia). Retrieved from http://vuir.vu.edu.au/1598

Thesis/Dissertation – Web

For U.S. thesis do not include locations. Include the location (City and Country) for a non-U.S. online thesis.

Author , A . A . ( Year ). Title of dissertation/thesis (Doctoral dissertation/Master's thesis, Institution issuing degree). Retrieved from http:// www.url.com

• Bruckman, A. (1997). MOOSE Crossing: Construction, community, and learning in a networked virtual world for kids (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Retrieved from http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/thesis

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How to cite a master's thesis in APA

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To cite a master's thesis in a reference entry in APA style 6th edition include the following elements:

• Author(s) of the thesis: Give the last name and initials (e. g. Watson, J. D.) of up to seven authors with the last name preceded by an ampersand (&). For eight or more authors include the first six names followed by an ellipsis (…) and add the last author's name.
• Year of publication: Give the year in brackets followed by a full stop.
• Title of the master's thesis: Only the first letter of the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
• URL: Give the full URL where the document can be retrieved from.

Here is the basic format for a reference list entry of a master's thesis in APA style 6th edition:

Author(s) of the thesis . ( Year of publication ). Title of the master's thesis (Master's thesis). Retrieved from URL

If the thesis is available from a database, archive or any online platform use the following template:

• Author(s) of the thesis: Give the last name and initials (e. g. Watson, J. D.) of up to 20 authors with the last name preceded by an ampersand (&). For 21 or more authors include the first 19 names followed by an ellipsis (…) and add the last author's name.
• Title of the Master's thesis: Only the first letter of the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
• Publication number: Give the identification number of the thesis, if available.
• Name of the degree awarding institution: Give the name of the institution.
• Name of Platform: Give the name of the database, archive or any platform that holds the thesis.
• URL: If the thesis was found on a database, omit this element.

Here is the basic format for a reference list entry of a master's thesis in APA style 7th edition:

Author(s) of the thesis . ( Year of publication ). Title of the Master's thesis ( Publication number ) [Master's thesis, Name of the degree awarding institution ]. Name of Platform . URL

If the thesis has not been published or is available from a database use the following template:

• Location: Give the location of the institution. If outside the United States also include the country name.

Author(s) of the thesis . ( Year of publication ). Title of the master's thesis (Unpublished master's thesis). Name of the degree awarding institution , Location .

If the thesis is not published, use the following template:

Author(s) of the thesis . ( Year of publication ). Title of the master's thesis [Unpublished master's thesis]. Name of the degree awarding institution .

APA reference list examples

Take a look at our reference list examples that demonstrate the APA style guidelines for a master's thesis citation in action:

A master's thesis found in an online platform

Bauger, L . ( 2011 ). Personality, passion, self-esteem and psychological well-being among junior elite athletes in Norway ( Master's Thesis ). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/29a9/ef96c34e577211246b83b11813a2585033c5.pdf

Bauger, L . ( 2011 ). Personality, passion, self-esteem and psychological well-being among junior elite athletes in Norway [ Master's Thesis , University of Tromsø ]. Semantic Scholar . https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/29a9/ef96c34e577211246b83b11813a2585033c5.pdf

An unpublished master's thesis

Aube, K. E . ( 2019 ). A comparison of water main failure prediction models in San Luis Obispo, CA ( Unpublished master's thesis ). Cal Poly , San Luis Obispo, CA .

Aube, K. E . ( 2019 ). A comparison of water main failure prediction models in San Luis Obispo, CA [ Unpublished master's thesis ]. Cal Poly .

This citation style guide is based on the official Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ( 6 th edition).

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How to Cite a Dissertation in Harvard Style

Published by Alaxendra Bets at August 27th, 2021 , Revised On September 25, 2023

What is a Dissertation?

In the UK, countries of Western Europe, as well as New Zealand and Australia, the term ‘ dissertation ’ is used instead of a ‘thesis.’ The majority of the remaining countries in the world prefer to use ‘thesis’ instead of ‘dissertation.’

Both represent the same thing, though: a full-length, academic piece of writing that students must submit after their undergraduate, post-graduate (Master), or PhD studies.

More specifically, a dissertation can refer to:

• Large-scale research as part of a degree.
• An article based on a small-scale study as part of a degree.
• A review of another study, research or an accumulation of both.
• Other full-length body texts are a requirement of the student’s degree program, no matter which level it is.

1.    Basic Format

In Harvard, the following in-text citation format is used for the dissertation:

(Author Surname, Year Published)

For example, ‘Occasionally the talent for drawing passes beyond mere picture-copying and shows the presence of a real artistic capacity of no mean order. (Darius, 2014)’

In Harvard, the following reference list entry format is used for the dissertation:

Author Surname, Author Initials. (Year Published). Title of the dissertation in italics. Level. Institution Name.

For example, reference list entry for the above source would be:

Darius, H. (2014). Running head: SAVANT SYNDROME – THEORIES AND EMPIRICAL FINDINGS . University of Skövde, University of Turku.

However, a slightly different format is also used in some institutions. According to that, in-text citations are done in the following way:

Author surname Year, p.#

For instance, Exelby (1997, p. 3) described the process … OR … processing gold (Exelby 1997, p. 3).

But in the case of reference list entries, these ‘other’ institutions recommend naming the dissertation title not in italics but in single quotation marks. The format would then be:

Author Surname, Initials Year of Publication, ‘Title of thesis in single quotation marks’, Award, Institution issuing degree, Location of the institution.

So, according to this format, the above example’s reference list entry would be:

Exelby, HRA 1997, ‘Aspects of Gold and Mineral Liberation’, PhD thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld.

Whichever format is followed largely depends on one’s institutional guidelines. The format specified by the university is the one that should be followed. Furthermore, it should be followed consistently throughout a manuscript.

2.    Citing a Dissertation Published Online

The format for both in-text and reference list entries is the same for online and print dissertations. For example:

• In-text citation: (Ram 2012) OR (Ram 2011, p. 130)
• Reference list entry: Ram, R 2012, ‘Development of the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-sized Entities’, PhD thesis, The University of Sydney, viewed 23 May 2014, <http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8208>.

An important point to note: While referencing dissertations published online, the URL may or may not be enclosed within < > symbols. Whichever format is chosen, it should be used consistently throughout the text.

3.    Citing an Unpublished Dissertation

This type of dissertation also uses the same formatting for in-text and reference list entries in Harvard style. For example:

• In-text citation: (Sakunasingha 2006) OR (Sakunasingha 2006, p. 36)
• Reference list entry: Sakunasingha, B 2006, ‘An empirical study into factors influencing the use of value-based management tools’, DBA thesis, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do i cite my dissertation.

To cite your dissertation, follow your chosen citation style (e.g., APA, MLA). Generally, include author name, year, title, and source details. For APA: Author. (Year). Title. Source. For MLA: Author. “Title.” Degree, University, Year.

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Newspaper articles should be cited in Harvard style following this rule: AUTHOR(S) (Year) Article title. Newspaper title, Day and Month (abbreviated). Pages, use p. or pp.

Surname, (or Newspaper/Magazine Title,) Year. Title of article. Newspaper/Magazine Title [online], Day Month Year or Volume (Issue), URL [Accessed date].

How to compile references in Harvard referencing style? Well, all items should be listed alphabetically by author or authorship, whether you are using books, websites or journal articles, etc.

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What is a thesis?

What is a dissertation, getting started, staying on track.

A thesis is a long-term project that you work on over the course of a semester or a year. Theses have a very wide variety of styles and content, so we encourage you to look at prior examples and work closely with faculty to develop yours. 

Before you begin, make sure that you are familiar with the dissertation genre—what it is for and what it looks like.

Generally speaking, a dissertation’s purpose is to prove that you have the expertise necessary to fulfill your doctoral-degree requirements by showing depth of knowledge and independent thinking.

The form of a dissertation may vary by discipline. Be sure to follow the specific guidelines of your department.

• PhD This site directs candidates to the GSAS website about dissertations , with links to checklists,  planning, formatting, acknowledgments, submission, and publishing options. There is also a link to guidelines for the prospectus . Consult with your committee chair about specific requirements and standards for your dissertation.
• DDES This document covers planning, patent filing, submission guidelines, publishing options, formatting guidelines, sample pages, citation guidelines, and a list of common errors to avoid. There is also a link to guidelines for the prospectus .
• Scholarly Pursuits (GSAS) This searchable booklet from Harvard GSAS is a comprehensive guide to writing dissertations, dissertation-fellowship applications, academic journal articles, and academic job documents.

Finding an original topic can be a daunting and overwhelming task. These key concepts can help you focus and save time.

Finding a topic for your thesis or dissertation should start with a research question that excites or at least interests you. A rigorous, engaging, and original project will require continuous curiosity about your topic, about your own thoughts on the topic, and about what other scholars have said on your topic. Avoid getting boxed in by thinking you know what you want to say from the beginning; let your research and your writing evolve as you explore and fine-tune your focus through constant questioning and exploration.

Get a sense of the broader picture before you narrow your focus and attempt to frame an argument. Read, skim, and otherwise familiarize yourself with what other scholars have done in areas related to your proposed topic. Briefly explore topics tangentially related to yours to broaden your perspective and increase your chance of finding a unique angle to pursue.

Critical Reading

Critical reading is the opposite of passive reading. Instead of merely reading for information to absorb, critical reading also involves careful, sustained thinking about what you are reading. This process may include analyzing the author’s motives and assumptions, asking what might be left out of the discussion, considering what you agree with or disagree with in the author’s statements and why you agree or disagree, and exploring connections or contradictions between scholarly arguments. Here is a resource to help hone your critical-reading skills:

http://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/criticalread.pdf

Conversation

Your thesis or dissertation will incorporate some ideas from other scholars whose work you researched. By reading critically and following your curiosity, you will develop your own ideas and claims, and these contributions are the core of your project. You will also acknowledge the work of scholars who came before you, and you must accurately and fairly attribute this work and define your place within the larger discussion. Make sure that you know how to quote, summarize, paraphrase ,  integrate , and cite secondary sources to avoid plagiarism and to show the depth and breadth of your knowledge.

A thesis is a long-term, large project that involves both research and writing; it is easy to lose focus, motivation, and momentum. Here are suggestions for achieving the result you want in the time you have.

The dissertation is probably the largest project you have undertaken, and a lot of the work is self-directed. The project can feel daunting or even overwhelming unless you break it down into manageable pieces and create a timeline for completing each smaller task. Be realistic but also challenge yourself, and be forgiving of yourself if you miss a self-imposed deadline here and there.

Your program will also have specific deadlines for different requirements, including establishing a committee, submitting a prospectus, completing the dissertation, defending the dissertation, and submitting your work. Consult your department’s website for these dates and incorporate them into the timeline for your work.

Accountability

Sometimes self-imposed deadlines do not feel urgent unless there is accountability to someone beyond yourself. To increase your motivation to complete tasks on schedule, set dates with your committee chair to submit pre-determined pieces of a chapter. You can also arrange with a fellow doctoral student to check on each other’s progress. Research and writing can be lonely, so it is also nice to share that journey with someone and support each other through the process.

Common Pitfalls

The most common challenges for students writing a dissertation are writer’s block, information-overload, and the compulsion to keep researching forever.

There are many strategies for avoiding writer’s block, such as freewriting, outlining, taking a walk, starting in the middle, and creating an ideal work environment for your particular learning style. Pay attention to what helps you and try different things until you find what works.

Efficient researching techniques are essential to avoiding information-overload. Here are a couple of resources about strategies for finding sources and quickly obtaining essential information from them.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/writing_in_literature_detailed_discussion/reading_criticism.html

https://students.dartmouth.edu/academic-skills/learning-resources/learning-strategies/reading-techniques

Finally, remember that there is always more to learn and your dissertation cannot incorporate everything. Follow your curiosity but also set limits on the scope of your work. It helps to create a folder entitled “future projects” for topics and sources that interest you but that do not fit neatly into the dissertation. Also remember that future scholars will build off of your work, so leave something for them to do.

Browsing through theses and dissertations of the past can help to get a sense of your options and gain inspiration but be careful to use current guidelines and refer to your committee instead of relying on these examples for form or formatting.

DASH Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard.

HOLLIS Harvard Library’s catalog provides access to ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global .

MIT Architecture has a list of their graduates’ dissertations and theses.

Rhode Island School of Design has a list of their graduates’ dissertations and theses.

University of South Florida has a list of their graduates’ dissertations and theses.

Harvard GSD has a list of projects, including theses and professors’ research.

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Smith, E. R. C. (2019). Conduits of invasive species into the UK: the angling route? Ph. D. Thesis. University College London. Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10072700 (Accessed: 20 May 2021).

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How to correctly reference a dissertation

(Last updated: 12 May 2021)

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In academic writing at all levels, referencing is crucial. Knowing how to reference your dissertation correctly will not only give your work the academic finish it needs to pass, but will also support your ideas and arguments so that the person marking it has a clear understanding of your level of knowledge and research on the topic.

In this article, we’ll occasionally use the term ‘scholarly referencing’ – which quite simply means the style of referencing used in the world of academia (as opposed to the references you may include at the end of your CV, for example).

What is scholarly referencing?

Scholarly referencing refers to a series of conventions used to point readers towards sources that you have cited, quoted, or otherwise borrowed from in your work.

There are many different referencing styles (and the three main categories are discussed below), but they all provide the same fundamental pieces of information to enable a reader to go and find a source you've cited in your work and look at it for themselves:

• The author of the work
• The title of the work
• The type of publication (e.g. whole book, book chapter, journal article, webpage)
• The date of publication of the specific edition of the work you're using (if you're using a specific edition of a classic text, it's of more practical use for a reader to know that the edition you're referring to was published in, say, 2000, than that the original was published in 1818, though this information is sometimes provided in square brackets in the bibliography in addition to the year of the current edition)
• The publisher and place of publication
• If applicable, additional details (volume and issue number, page range) to enable your reader to find the specific source

Why and when do I reference?

Avoiding plagiarism.

The first reason most universities will give for why accurate citation is crucial is that it protects you from accusations of plagiarism . You need to provide a reference to any work done by others that you've incorporated into your own work. This does not just refer to direct quotations but also to paraphrases, data, and even broad "schools of thought", or ways of thinking about a topic.

Plagiarism is not always dishonest – you may not be intentionally passing off someone else's work as your own – but if you don't cite any source that may have influenced your thinking you're open to plagiarism accusations.

If you're in any doubt about whether a source has influenced an assertion you're making, cite it!

Other reasons

Beyond covering yourself, though, there are a couple of other reasons why you should practise good citation habits. Specifically, these have to do with your development as a scholar and your participation in the collective creation of knowledge:

• Readers of your work may want to engage with it directly, or it may simply stimulate their own thinking. Either way, it's common scholarly courtesy to make sure anyone who reads your work can trace the influences on your thinking, data, and methodology in a clear and transparent way.
• Citing other scholars extensively helps you to make the implicit rhetorical argument that you're well-read and informed on your subject, and readers are more likely to be convinced by your argument if you identify and cite reputable scholarly work that supports your interpretations.

What referencing system do I use?

In short, you may not have much of a choice. If you're lucky your university will let you choose between their preferred styles of parenthetical referencing and footnote referencing (for Arts or Humanities subjects) or their preferred parenthetical and numerical styles (for Sciences or Social Sciences).

If you do get a choice, read the “usage” sections for each referencing type below, and ask yourself the following questions:

• How many sources am I going to cite?
• Will I engage closely with a lot of my sources, or am I likely to cite briefly and in volume to note general trends in my field or in the literature?
• Will I use direct quotation or paraphrase?

If you're fortunate enough to have a choice in your referencing system, these questions should help you decide between the alternatives before you.

How do I reference my sources effectively and consistently?

Be systematic.

If you're referencing a dissertation, you're likely to have many tens if not hundreds of sources. If you think of your bibliography as something separate from the process of researching and writing and plan to leave it till the end, remembering every single source you cited and finding all its bibliographic details is going to be a daunting task, to say the least. You need to develop a systematic way of tracking and organising works you've read and cited, both for your own retrieval later and for use in in-text citations and your bibliography.

Use software to help you

There are various ways to do this: you might prefer to set up a spreadsheet or just keep thorough notes as you research. But by far the most efficient way to store, retrieve, and cite the sources you find – especially if you're working with lots of recent, online sources – is to use reference management software . Universities often have subscriptions to commercial packages like RefWorks and EndNote, but you can still save a lot of time with a freeware package like Zotero (though it has far less sophisticated bibliography-generating tools, and with far fewer citation formats, than the commercial tools).

Reference management software packages typically contain some or all of the following features:

• A database that you can organise into multiple folders (for example, one folder per chapter) to rationalise large numbers of sources
• A comprehensive set of fields corresponding to the information typically required by citation systems
• One or more mechanisms for automatically generating records (for example, web plugins that can grab citation details direct from certain pages; DOI searches that download citation data from the web; the ability to import text or XML files of entire bibliographic database searches)
• Word processor plugins (for Word or LibreOffice/OpenOffice) that allow you to insert in-text citations – both in footnote and parenthetical form
• One or more means of generating bibliographies and reference lists – usually both as a text list directly from the programme or as a set of fields based on the sources cited using the word processor plugin

These software packages can be hugely efficient time savers, allowing you to easily catalogue, retrieve and annotate sources as you research, and generating citations and even a complete bibliography for your project.

Do be aware, though, that auto-generated bibliographies won't always be 100% accurate. You might, for example, have to fill in missing pieces of information like place of publication for certain records, or reformat bibliographies to match your department's requirements.

Parenthetical referencing styles

Parenthetical referencing styles are the most common scholarly styles in use, and are employed across a wide range of academic disciplines, with different formats dominant in different fields.

MLA and Chicago tend to dominate in Arts and Humanities disciplines (especially in North America); APA is very common in the Social Sciences, while one of the many variants of the Harvard system can turn up in any discipline anywhere in the world!

Parenthetical styles generally work on the basis of economy. They allow the reader to quickly and easily locate a source in the reference list at the end of a work (in most parenthetical referencing formats this is labelled "References" or "Works Cited" and includes only sources directly cited in the written work), with a minimal disruption of the flow of the writing in which they appear. Because of their emphasis on economy, parenthetical styles generally mandate that you include the author's name in the parenthetical reference only if it's not clear from the context. So, if you introduce a quote with "Smith says that…" you wouldn't normally repeat Smith's name a few words later in parentheses.

Format and features (author-date systems)

Most parenthetical referencing systems use an "author-date" format. The parenthetical reference includes the author's surname and the year of publication (or just the year of publication if the author's name is clear from the context). So you might see, for example;

Scholars often complain that there are "far too many referencing styles for the young scholar to keep track of" (Smith 2012, p. 6)

Smith argues that "There are far too many referencing styles for the young scholar to keep track of" (2012, p. 6).

The year is always the first piece of information after the author's name in the reference list to allow you to quickly and easily match up a parenthetical reference with a bibliographic entry. Author-date entries must always form a unique identifier for a particular source – if a scholar has been exceptionally busy in a given year and produced multiple papers that are being cited in the present written work, the convention is to refer to them, both in-text and in the reference list, using the convention 2012a, 2012b, etc.

Page referencing conventions can vary considerably from format to format, depending on the discipline in which a referencing style is generally used. APA, for example, is designed for use in Social Sciences contexts and doesn't have a straightforward built-in mechanism for specifying page numbers, since it is expected that the vast majority of the time it will be used to reference paraphrases and summaries rather than direct quotations. When using APA to provide direct page number references it is recommended that the author and date be included when introducing the citation and the page reference be provided in a separate parenthetical note at the end of the citation;

Smith (2012) argues that "There are far too many referencing styles for the young scholar to keep track of" (p. 6).

The Harvard "system"

Harvard deserves a special mention among author-date systems: while it's very likely that your university uses Harvard for referencing in at least some disciplines, it's also equally likely that your university's idea of what Harvard referencing looks like is slightly different from any of its neighbouring universities. Whereas referencing styles like Chicago and MLA form part of detailed style guides that provide explicit rules on many aspects of scholarly writing (not just referencing), Harvard simply defines the types of information that should be included in a reference and some broad principles about formatting.

There are almost as many variations of the Harvard system as there are institutions and publications that use it, and though the variations are generally pretty minor they include things like the following:

• Whether authors' names are capitalised in the references list
• Whether "p." or just a number is used when referring to page numbers
• Whether a comma separates the author and date in the parenthetical reference (Smith 2012 or Smith, 2012)
• The organisation and formatting of various bibliographic elements

Confusingly, you very often won't find universities acknowledging these differences; go to almost any university library's guide to referencing and it will claim to be offering an authoritative guide to the Harvard System, not one variation among many – it's up to you to identify where other referencing guides or software don't agree.

You need to pay particularly close attention to this if you're using reference management software to keep track of your sources and generate your bibliography. If you set it to output a reference list in "Harvard" you can be almost certain that your list won't quite match the format your university expects and you'll have to do some manual formatting to get it right. Some reference managers include several variants of Harvard; you should experiment with these and pick the one that gets as close as possible to your format, but again you'll be lucky to find a 100% match.

Format and features (MLA)

MLA is something of a special case among parenthetical referencing systems as it doesn't use dates to identify works. It aims to be even more economical than author-date systems by identifying sources by author's name only and using minimal punctuation in the parenthetical reference, for example Scholars often complain that there are "far too many referencing styles for the young scholar to keep track of" (Smith 6). In the event that a written work contains more than one work by a single author, that work is identified by the shortest possible reference to its title, for example;

Scholars often complain that there are "far too many referencing styles for the young scholar to keep track of" (Smith, Scholar's 6).

Example of use

Note: the examples of sources used here and throughout this post are fictitious.

Scholars often complain that there are "far too many referencing styles for the young scholar to keep track of" (Smith 2012, 6).

In the References list:

Smith, Arnold. 2012. The Scholar's Complete Guide to Referencing. London: Scholar's Press.

Examples of parenthetical styles

• Chicago (author-date)
• MLA (Modern Language Association)
• APA (American Psychological Association)

Footnote / endnote referencing styles

Footnote referencing styles are most common in Arts and Humanities subjects (especially in the UK and Commonwealth countries), where direct quotation of sources – often at length – is commonplace and footnoting is also frequently used as a means of adding additional quotations, context, or clarifying comments. Footnote referencing styles almost always include page numbers when available (the exception being "classic" literary texts that exist in a multitude of editions and are more usually referenced by chapter, line, scene, or stanza number as appropriate). This referencing style works on the assumption that readers may want to go and find the source of specific quotations as they read, possibly to establish the context or to better understand the theory or argument behind the quotation. It's not uncommon in a heavily referenced book or journal article to see footnotes containing bibliographic references and other material take up half a page or more!

Format and features

A number in superscript font (or, more rarely, parentheses, especially for work published online) at the end of a quotation or assertion indicates that the text is supplemented by a note. In most footnoting styles the note will be at the bottom of the page on which its corresponding number appears, or on an adjacent page if the word processing software's text formatting rules dictate that the page footer has become too large. The footer section is usually separated by a horizontal rule to separate it from the body of the page, and the note is found next to its corresponding number. Less common endnote referencing styles – and variations of footnote styles used by certain university departments or publications – collect all notes at the end of the chapter or work.

The level of detail given in the footnote may depend on whether or not the referencing style also uses a bibliography. If a bibliography is used, the footnote may contain only sufficient detail to find the source in the bibliography – for example the work's author and title – and a page reference for the citation. Unlike other referencing formats, footnote referencing styles generally don't restrict bibliographies to containing only sources directly cited in the work; you are free to include all sources you consulted in writing your work, irrespective of whether you cited them or not.

Some footnote referencing styles don't use a separate bibliography at the end of the written work, which means that the entire bibliographic details for the article must be contained in the footnote. However, two of the most common footnote referencing styles, Oxford and MHRA, generally require that the full bibliographic details be given in the footnote and in an alphabetised bibliography (although publications using MHRA in particular may choose to omit the bibliography, universities tend to require it). Generally a shortened note form (author, title, page reference) is permissible for subsequent footnotes after the one in which the source is first introduced.

Smith argues that "There are far too many referencing styles for the young scholar to keep track of".1

In the footer:

1 Arnold Smith, The Scholar's Complete Guide to Referencing (London: Scholar's Press, 2012), p. 6.

In the bibliography:

Smith, Arnold, The Scholar's Complete Guide to Referencing (London: Scholar's Press, 2012).

Examples of footnote styles

• MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association)
• Chicago (footnote style)

Numbered referencing styles

Numbered referencing styles are usually restricted to the sciences. They cater for contexts in which very large numbers of sources are likely to be referenced in brief or in paraphrase, with as many as 5-10 sources used to support a single assertion or argument, but where direct quotation is rarely if even used. The use of numbers as shorthand to refer to bibliographic records is an ideal solution for situations in which sources are referenced in such high volumes that even the briefest parenthetical citation style would still lead to unacceptably long interruptions in the flow of the text.

Each source is assigned a unique number, depending on when it first appears in the text. The number is inserted in parentheses in the text (not normally in superscript format, unlike with footnotes) and the same number is used for every subsequent reference to that source. References are listed at the end of the document in numerical (not alphabetical) format for easy retrieval. Numerical references are very well-suited to publications whose sole or primary medium is electronic, as the numerical references to sources can be hyperlinked very unobtrusively to their corresponding entries in the reference list.

Scholars often complain about the high number of different referencing systems a university student might have to learn during the course of his or her studies (1-4).

In the references list: 1. Smith A. The Scholar's Complete Guide to Referencing. London: Scholar's Press; 2012.

Examples of numerical styles

By far the most common standardised numerical referencing style is Vancouver. However, many universities just refer in generic terms to "the numeric style" without specifically identifying it as Vancouver style. As with Harvard referencing, the detailed implementation of these styles varies somewhat from university to university and publication to publication, but they are typically close variants of the Vancouver system, and setting your referencing software to output a Vancouver-style bibliography should get you fairly close to the style your department is looking for.

How referencing is changing – electronic sources and the Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

A Digital Object Identifier , or DOI, is an ISO standardised and increasingly commonplace way of referencing online sources. It works like a cross between an ISBN and a URL. Like an ISBN, it's a unique, stable identifier for a particular digital source that allows you to look it up in a database; like a URL it also functions as a type of “address”, helping you identify not only what the object is but where it is.

The overwhelming majority of new articles published in online journals are now assigned a DOI, and the information about that DOI (including the article’s author, title, and publication date, and the name, volume and issue of the journal in which it was published) is stored in a centralised database as metadata.

This is great news if you're using reference management software: simply input an article’s DOI and the software will download the associated metadata and create a full bibliographic record from it!

But best of all, one of the metadata properties that is stored and regularly updated for the DOI is the URL of the article. Enter any object’s DOI into a web browser preceded by http://dx.doi.org/ and it should resolve to the best current place to access the text of the article. If the article is open-access this will generally be a page on which the article’s full text is published; otherwise it's likely to be a login page from which you can gain access via either an institutional or personal account.

To an extent, referencing systems are still playing catchup with DOIs, although the most recent editions of APA and MLA both contain full guidance on citing online sources using DOIs (which are now explicitly preferred to URLs where they're available) and even allow you to omit some other key details about the source if you do provide a DOI.

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Cite A Dissertation in Harvard style

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Use the following template or our Harvard Referencing Generator to cite a dissertation. For help with other source types, like books, PDFs, or websites, check out our other guides. To have your reference list or bibliography automatically made for you, try our free citation generator .

Reference list

Place this part in your bibliography or reference list at the end of your assignment.

In-text citation

Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.

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• Knowledge Base
• Citing sources

How to Cite Sources | Citation Generator & Quick Guide

Citing your sources is essential in  academic writing . Whenever you quote or paraphrase a source (such as a book, article, or webpage), you have to include a  citation crediting the original author.

Failing to properly cite your sources counts as plagiarism , since you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

The most commonly used citation styles are APA and MLA. The free Scribbr Citation Generator is the quickest way to cite sources in these styles. Simply enter the URL, DOI, or title, and we’ll generate an accurate, correctly formatted citation.

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Table of contents

When do you need to cite sources, which citation style should you use, in-text citations, reference lists and bibliographies.

Scribbr Citation Generator

Other useful citation tools

Citation examples and full guides, frequently asked questions about citing sources.

Citations are required in all types of academic texts. They are needed for several reasons:

• To avoid plagiarism by indicating when you’re taking information from another source
• To give proper credit to the author of that source
• To allow the reader to consult your sources for themselves

A citation is needed whenever you integrate a source into your writing. This usually means quoting or paraphrasing:

• To quote a source , copy a short piece of text word for word and put it inside quotation marks .
• To paraphrase a source , put the text into your own words. It’s important that the paraphrase is not too close to the original wording. You can use the paraphrasing tool if you don’t want to do this manually.

Citations are needed whether you quote or paraphrase, and whatever type of source you use. As well as citing scholarly sources like books and journal articles, don’t forget to include citations for any other sources you use for ideas, examples, or evidence. That includes websites, YouTube videos , and lectures .

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Usually, your institution (or the journal you’re submitting to) will require you to follow a specific citation style, so check your guidelines or ask your instructor.

In some cases, you may have to choose a citation style for yourself. Make sure to pick one style and use it consistently:

• APA Style is widely used in the social sciences and beyond.
• MLA style is common in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography , common in the humanities
• Chicago author-date , used in the (social) sciences
• There are many other citation styles for different disciplines.

If in doubt, check with your instructor or read other papers from your field of study to see what style they follow.

In most styles, your citations consist of:

• Brief in-text citations at the relevant points in the text
• A reference list or bibliography containing full information on all the sources you’ve cited

In-text citations most commonly take the form of parenthetical citations featuring the last name of the source’s author and its year of publication (aka author-date citations).

An alternative to this type of in-text citation is the system used in numerical citation styles , where a number is inserted into the text, corresponding to an entry in a numbered reference list.

There are also note citation styles , where you place your citations in either footnotes or endnotes . Since they’re not embedded in the text itself, these citations can provide more detail and sometimes aren’t accompanied by a full reference list or bibliography.

A reference list (aka “Bibliography” or “Works Cited,” depending on the style) is where you provide full information on each of the sources you’ve cited in the text. It appears at the end of your paper, usually with a hanging indent applied to each entry.

The information included in reference entries is broadly similar, whatever citation style you’re using. For each source, you’ll typically include the:

• Author name
• Publication date
• Container (e.g., the book an essay was published in, the journal an article appeared in)
• Location (e.g., a URL or DOI , or sometimes a physical location)

The exact information included varies depending on the source type and the citation style. The order in which the information appears, and how you format it (e.g., capitalization, use of italics) also varies.

Most commonly, the entries in your reference list are alphabetized by author name. This allows the reader to easily find the relevant entry based on the author name in your in-text citation.

In numerical citation styles, the entries in your reference list are numbered, usually based on the order in which you cite them. The reader finds the right entry based on the number that appears in the text.

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Because each style has many small differences regarding things like italicization, capitalization , and punctuation , it can be difficult to get every detail right. Using a citation generator can save you a lot of time and effort.

Scribbr offers citation generators for both APA and MLA style. Both are quick, easy to use, and 100% free, with no ads and no registration required.

Just input a URL or DOI or add the source details manually, and the generator will automatically produce an in-text citation and reference entry in the correct format. You can save your reference list as you go and download it when you’re done, and even add annotations for an annotated bibliography .

Once you’ve prepared your citations, you might still be unsure if they’re correct and if you’ve used them appropriately in your text. This is where Scribbr’s other citation tools and services may come in handy:

Plagiarism Checker

Citation Checker

Citation Editing

Plagiarism means passing off someone else’s words or ideas as your own. It’s a serious offense in academia. Universities use plagiarism checking software to scan your paper and identify any similarities to other texts.

When you’re dealing with a lot of sources, it’s easy to make mistakes that could constitute accidental plagiarism. For example, you might forget to add a citation after a quote, or paraphrase a source in a way that’s too close to the original text.

Using a plagiarism checker yourself before you submit your work can help you spot these mistakes before they get you in trouble. Based on the results, you can add any missing citations and rephrase your text where necessary.

Try out the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker for free, or check out our detailed comparison of the best plagiarism checkers available online.

Scribbr Plagiarism Checker

Scribbr’s Citation Checker is a unique AI-powered tool that automatically detects stylistic errors and inconsistencies in your in-text citations. It also suggests a correction for every mistake.

Currently available for APA Style, this is the fastest and easiest way to make sure you’ve formatted your citations correctly. You can try out the tool for free below.

If you need extra help with your reference list, we also offer a more in-depth Citation Editing Service.

Our experts cross-check your in-text citations and reference entries, make sure you’ve included the correct information for each source, and improve the formatting of your reference page.

If you want to handle your citations yourself, Scribbr’s free Knowledge Base provides clear, accurate guidance on every aspect of citation. You can see citation examples for a variety of common source types below:

And you can check out our comprehensive guides to the most popular citation styles:

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (Latin for “and others”) is used to shorten citations of sources with multiple authors.

“Et al.” is used in APA in-text citations of sources with 3+ authors, e.g. (Smith et al., 2019). It is not used in APA reference entries .

Use “et al.” for 3+ authors in MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries.

Use “et al.” for 4+ authors in a Chicago in-text citation , and for 10+ authors in a Chicago bibliography entry.

The Scribbr Citation Generator is developed using the open-source Citation Style Language (CSL) project and Frank Bennett’s citeproc-js . It’s the same technology used by dozens of other popular citation tools, including Mendeley and Zotero.

You can find all the citation styles and locales used in the Scribbr Citation Generator in our publicly accessible repository on Github .

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

MLA Style  is the second most used citation style (after APA ). It is mainly used by students and researchers in humanities fields such as literature, languages, and philosophy.

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