Every university and journal expects you to credit the sources you use in a consistent way. Which style you use matters less than using one style correctly and consistently. Check your university's thesis guidelines or the journal's author instructions first; they often name the style and edition.
APA (7th edition)
Common in psychology, education, management and the social sciences. It uses the author's surname and the year in the text.
- In the text: (Sharma, 2023)
- In the reference list: Sharma, R. (2023). Financial inclusion in rural India. Sage Publications.
MLA (9th edition)
Common in literature, languages and the humanities. It uses the author's surname and the page number in the text.
- In the text: (Sharma 45)
- In the works cited list: Sharma, Ritu. Financial Inclusion in Rural India. Sage Publications, 2023.
Chicago (17th edition)
Used in history and some humanities subjects. It has two versions: footnotes with a bibliography, or author and date in the text. Ask which one your department wants.
- Footnote: Ritu Sharma, Financial Inclusion in Rural India (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2023), 45.
- Bibliography: Sharma, Ritu. Financial Inclusion in Rural India. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2023.
IEEE
Used in engineering, computer science and technology. Sources are numbered in the order they first appear.
- In the text: as shown in [3]
- In the reference list: [3] R. Sharma, Financial Inclusion in Rural India. New Delhi, India: Sage, 2023.
Tips that save time
- Pick one style before you start writing and keep it throughout.
- Use a free reference manager such as Zotero to store sources and format the list for you.
- Record the page number whenever you copy a quotation.
- Every source cited in the text must appear in the list, and every source in the list must be cited.
- Quoting or paraphrasing with a proper citation is honest scholarship. Copying without one is plagiarism, even by accident.
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