Citation styles exist so readers can find your sources and so your work gives proper credit. But APA, MLA, Chicago, and Vancouver each have different rules, and mixing them up is a common source of lost marks.
This practical guide explains the essentials of each major citation style.
APA Style
APA (American Psychological Association) is common in psychology, education, business, and the social sciences. It uses author-date in-text citations — for example, (Smith, 2024) — and a reference list organised alphabetically by author. APA has specific rules for headings, bias-free language, numbers, and statistics.
MLA Style
MLA (Modern Language Association) is used mainly in the humanities, especially literature and language studies. It uses author-page in-text citations — for example, (Smith 24) — and a "Works Cited" list. MLA emphasises the author and the page number rather than the date.
Chicago Style
Chicago offers two systems. Notes and bibliography uses footnotes or endnotes plus a bibliography — common in history. Author-date uses parenthetical citations and a reference list — used in some social and natural sciences. Each has detailed formatting rules for different source types.
Vancouver Style
Vancouver is used in medicine and the sciences. It uses numbered citations in the order they appear in the text, with a numerically ordered reference list. It is common in biomedical journals.
Common Pitfalls
- Mixing styles within one document.
- Citing a source in the text but omitting it from the reference list (or vice versa).
- Incorrect capitalisation, italics, or punctuation in titles.
- Inconsistent author names or dates.
Get Help With Citations
Formatting citations by hand is time-consuming and error-prone. Our editors can check that your citations and references follow your required style consistently throughout your document.
