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Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

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  • Bibliography

If you are using Chicago style footnotes or endnotes, you should include a bibliography at the end of your paper that provides complete citation information for all of the sources you cite in your paper. Bibliography entries are formatted differently from notes. For bibliography entries, you list the sources alphabetically by last name, so you will list the last name of the author or creator first in each entry. You should single-space within a bibliography entry and double-space between them. When an entry goes longer than one line, use a hanging indent of .5 inches for subsequent lines. Here’s a link to a sample bibliography that shows layout and spacing . You can find a sample of note format here .

Complete note vs. shortened note

Here’s an example of a complete note and a shortened version of a note for a book:

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 27-35.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated , 27-35.

Note vs. Bibliography entry

The bibliography entry that corresponds with each note is very similar to the longer version of the note, except that the author’s last and first name are reversed in the bibliography entry. To see differences between note and bibliography entries for different types of sources, check this section of the Chicago Manual of Style .

For Liquidated , the bibliography entry would look like this:

Ho, Karen, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.

Citing a source with two or three authors

If you are citing a source with two or three authors, list their names in your note in the order they appear in the original source. In the bibliography, invert only the name of the first author and use “and” before the last named author.

1. Melissa Borja and Jacob Gibson, “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics: The Case of Evangelical Responses to Southeast Asian Refugees,” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 17, no. 3 (2019): 80-81, https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2019.1643983 .

Shortened note:

1. Borja and Gibson, “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics,” 80-81.

Bibliography:

Borja, Melissa, and Jacob Gibson. “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics: The Case of Evangelical Responses to Southeast Asian Refugees.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 17. no. 3 (2019): 80–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2019.1643983 .

Citing a source with more than three authors

If you are citing a source with more than three authors, include all of them in the bibliography, but only include the first one in the note, followed by et al. ( et al. is the shortened form of the Latin et alia , which means “and others”).

1. Justine M. Nagurney, et al., “Risk Factors for Disability After Emergency Department Discharge in Older Adults,” Academic Emergency Medicine 27, no. 12 (2020): 1271.

Short version of note:

1. Justine M. Nagurney, et al., “Risk Factors for Disability,” 1271.

Nagurney, Justine M., Ling Han, Linda Leo‐Summers, Heather G. Allore, Thomas M. Gill, and Ula Hwang. “Risk Factors for Disability After Emergency Department Discharge in Older Adults.” Academic Emergency Medicine 27, no. 12 (2020): 1270–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/acem.14088 .

Citing a book consulted online

If you are citing a book you consulted online, you should include a URL, DOI, or the name of the database where you found the book.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 27-35, https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1215/9780822391371 .

Bibliography entry:

Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1215/9780822391371 .

Citing an e-book consulted outside of a database

If you are citing an e-book that you accessed outside of a database, you should indicate the format. If you read the book in a format without fixed page numbers (like Kindle, for example), you should not include the page numbers that you saw as you read. Instead, include chapter or section numbers, if possible.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), chap. 2, Kindle.

Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. Kindle.

  • Citation Management Tools
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How To Write a Bibliography (Three Styles, Plus Examples)

Give credit where credit is due.

Text that says Bibliography Writing Guide with WeAreTeachers logo on dark gray background as a tool to help students understand how to write a bibliography

Writing a research paper involves a lot of work. Students need to consult a variety of sources to gather reliable information and ensure their points are well supported. Research papers include a bibliography, which can be a little tricky for students. Learn how to write a bibliography in multiple styles and find basic examples below.

IMPORTANT: Each style guide has its own very specific rules, and they often conflict with one another. Additionally, each type of reference material has many possible formats, depending on a variety of factors. The overviews shown here are meant to guide students in writing basic bibliographies, but this information is by no means complete. Students should always refer directly to the preferred style guide to ensure they’re using the most up-to-date formats and styles.

What is a bibliography?

When you’re researching a paper, you’ll likely consult a wide variety of sources. You may quote some of these directly in your work, summarize some of the points they make, or simply use them to further the knowledge you need to write your paper. Since these ideas are not your own, it’s vital to give credit to the authors who originally wrote them. This list of sources, organized alphabetically, is called a bibliography.

A bibliography should include all the materials you consulted in your research, even if you don’t quote directly from them in your paper. These resources could include (but aren’t limited to):

  • Books and e-books
  • Periodicals like magazines or newspapers
  • Online articles or websites
  • Primary source documents like letters or official records

Bibliography vs. References

These two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but they actually have different meanings. As noted above, a bibliography includes all the materials you used while researching your paper, whether or not you quote from them or refer to them directly in your writing.

A list of references only includes the materials you cite throughout your work. You might use direct quotes or summarize the information for the reader. Either way, you must ensure you give credit to the original author or document. This section can be titled “List of Works Cited” or simply “References.”

Your teacher may specify whether you should include a bibliography or a reference list. If they don’t, consider choosing a bibliography, to show all the works you used in researching your paper. This can help the reader see that your points are well supported, and allow them to do further reading on their own if they’re interested.

Bibliography vs. Citations

Citations refer to direct quotations from a text, woven into your own writing. There are a variety of ways to write citations, including footnotes and endnotes. These are generally shorter than the entries in a reference list or bibliography. Learn more about writing citations here.

What does a bibliography entry include?

Depending on the reference material, bibliography entries include a variety of information intended to help a reader locate the material if they want to refer to it themselves. These entries are listed in alphabetical order, and may include:

  • Author/s or creator/s
  • Publication date
  • Volume and issue numbers
  • Publisher and publication city
  • Website URL

These entries don’t generally need to include specific page numbers or locations within the work (except for print magazine or journal articles). That type of information is usually only needed in a footnote or endnote citation.

What are the different bibliography styles?

In most cases, writers use one of three major style guides: APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), or The Chicago Manual of Style . There are many others as well, but these three are the most common choices for K–12 students.

Many teachers will state their preference for one style guide over another. If they don’t, you can choose your own preferred style. However, you should also use that guide for your entire paper, following their recommendations for punctuation, grammar, and more. This will ensure you are consistent throughout.

Below, you’ll learn how to write a simple bibliography using each of the three major style guides. We’ve included details for books and e-books, periodicals, and electronic sources like websites and videos. If the reference material type you need to include isn’t shown here, refer directly to the style guide you’re using.

APA Style Bibliography and Examples

APA style example of a References bibliography page

Source: Verywell Mind

Technically, APA style calls for a list of references instead of a bibliography. If your teacher requires you to use the APA style guide , you can limit your reference list only to items you cite throughout your work.

How To Write a Bibliography (References) Using APA Style

Here are some general notes on writing an APA reference list:

  • Title your bibliography section “References” and center the title on the top line of the page.
  • Do not center your references; they should be left-aligned. For longer items, subsequent lines should use a hanging indent of 1/2 inch.
  • Include all types of resources in the same list.
  • Alphabetize your list by author or creator, last name first.
  • Do not spell out the author/creator’s first or middle name; only use their initials.
  • If there are multiple authors/creators, use an ampersand (&) before the final author/creator.
  • Place the date in parentheses.
  • Capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle, unless the word would otherwise be capitalized (proper names, etc.).
  • Italicize the titles of books, periodicals, or videos.
  • For websites, include the full site information, including the http:// or https:// at the beginning.

Books and E-Books APA Bibliography Examples

For books, APA reference list entries use this format (only include the publisher’s website for e-books).

Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Publication date). Title with only first word capitalized . Publisher. Publisher’s website

  • Wynn, S. (2020). City of London at war 1939–45 . Pen & Sword Military. https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/City-of-London-at-War-193945-Paperback/p/17299

Periodical APA Bibliography Examples

For journal or magazine articles, use this format. If you viewed the article online, include the URL at the end of the citation.

Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Publication date). Title of article. Magazine or Journal Title (Volume number) Issue number, page numbers. URL

  • Bell, A. (2009). Landscapes of fear: Wartime London, 1939–1945. Journal of British Studies (48) 1, 153–175. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25482966

Here’s the format for newspapers. For print editions, include the page number/s. For online articles, include the full URL.

Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Year, Month Date) Title of article. Newspaper title. Page number/s. URL

  • Blakemore, E. (2022, November 12) Researchers track down two copies of fossil destroyed by the Nazis.  The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/11/12/ichthyosaur-fossil-images-discovered/

Electronic APA Bibliography Examples

For articles with a specific author on a website, use this format.

Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Year, Month Date). Title . Site name. URL

  • Wukovits, J. (2023, January 30). A World War II survivor recalls the London Blitz . British Heritage . https://britishheritage.com/history/world-war-ii-survivor-london-blitz

When an online article doesn’t include a specific author or date, list it like this:

Title . (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

  • Growing up in the Second World War . (n.d.). Imperial War Museums. Retrieved May 12, 2023, from https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/growing-up-in-the-second-world-war

When you need to list a YouTube video, use the name of the account that uploaded the video, and format it like this:

Name of Account. (Upload year, month day). Title [Video]. YouTube. URL

  • War Stories. (2023, January 15). How did London survive the Blitz during WW2? | Cities at war: London | War stories [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/uwY6JlCvbxc

For more information on writing APA bibliographies, see the APA Style Guide website.

APA Bibliography (Reference List) Example Pages

An APA-style Reference List bibliography example page

Source: Simply Psychology

More APA example pages:

  • Western Australia Library Services APA References Example Page
  • Ancilla College APA References Page Example
  • Scribbr APA References Page Example

MLA Style Bibliography Examples

Diagram of MLA style bibliography entries

Source: PressBooks

MLA style calls for a Works Cited section, which includes all materials quoted or referred to in your paper. You may also include a Works Consulted section, including other reference sources you reviewed but didn’t directly cite. Together, these constitute a bibliography. If your teacher requests an MLA Style Guide bibliography, ask if you should include Works Consulted as well as Works Cited.

How To Write a Bibliography (Works Cited and Works Consulted) in MLA Style

For both MLA Works Cited and Works Consulted sections, use these general guidelines:

  • Start your Works Cited list on a new page. If you include a Works Consulted list, start that on its own new page after the Works Cited section.
  • Center the title (Works Cited or Works Consulted) in the middle of the line at the top of the page.
  • Align the start of each source to the left margin, and use a hanging indent (1/2 inch) for the following lines of each source.
  • Alphabetize your sources using the first word of the citation, usually the author’s last name.
  • Include the author’s full name as listed, last name first.
  • Capitalize titles using the standard MLA format.
  • Leave off the http:// or https:// at the beginning of a URL.

Books and E-Books MLA Bibliography Examples

For books, MLA reference list entries use this format. Add the URL at the end for e-books.

Last Name, First Name Middle Name. Title . Publisher, Date. URL

  • Wynn, Stephen. City of London at War 1939–45 . Pen & Sword Military, 2020. www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/City-of-London-at-War-193945-Paperback/p/17299

Periodical MLA Bibliography Examples

Here’s the style format for magazines, journals, and newspapers. For online articles, add the URL at the end of the listing.

For magazines and journals:

Last Name, First Name. “Title: Subtitle.” Name of Journal , volume number, issue number, Date of Publication, First Page Number–Last Page Number.

  • Bell, Amy. “Landscapes of Fear: Wartime London, 1939–1945.” Journal of British Studies , vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 153–175. www.jstor.org/stable/25482966

When citing newspapers, include the page number/s for print editions or the URL for online articles.

Last Name, First Name. “Title of article.” Newspaper title. Page number/s. Year, month day. Page number or URL

  • Blakemore, Erin. “Researchers Track Down Two Copies of Fossil Destroyed by the Nazis.” The Washington Post. 2022, Nov. 12. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/11/12/ichthyosaur-fossil-images-discovered/

Electronic MLA Bibliography Examples

Last Name, First Name. Year. “Title.” Month Day, Year published. URL

  • Wukovits, John. 2023. “A World War II Survivor Recalls the London Blitz.” January 30,   2023. https://britishheritage.com/history/world-war-ii-survivor-london-blitz

Website. n.d. “Title.” Accessed Day Month Year. URL.

  • Imperial War Museum. n.d. “Growing Up in the Second World War.” Accessed May 9, 2023. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/growing-up-in-the-second-world-war.

Here’s how to list YouTube and other online videos.

Creator, if available. “Title of Video.” Website. Uploaded by Username, Day Month Year. URL.

  • “How did London survive the Blitz during WW2? | Cities at war: London | War stories.” YouTube . Uploaded by War Stories, 15 Jan. 2023. youtu.be/uwY6JlCvbxc.

For more information on writing MLA style bibliographies, see the MLA Style website.

MLA Bibliography (Works Cited) Example Pages

A bibliography example page with notes, written in MLA style

Source: The Visual Communication Guy

More MLA example pages:

  • Writing Commons Sample Works Cited Page
  • Scribbr MLA Works Cited Sample Page
  • Montana State University MLA Works Cited Page

Chicago Manual of Style Bibliography Examples

The Chicago Manual of Style (sometimes called “Turabian”) actually has two options for citing reference material : Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date. Regardless of which you use, you’ll need a complete detailed list of reference items at the end of your paper. The examples below demonstrate how to write that list.

How To Write a Bibliography Using The Chicago Manual of Style

A diagram of a book bibliography entry for the Chicago Manual of Style

Source: South Texas College

Here are some general notes on writing a Chicago -style bibliography:

  • You may title it “Bibliography” or “References.” Center this title at the top of the page and add two blank lines before the first entry.
  • Left-align each entry, with a hanging half-inch indent for subsequent lines of each entry.
  • Single-space each entry, with a blank line between entries.
  • Include the “http://” or “https://” at the beginning of URLs.

Books and E-Books Chicago Manual of Style Bibliography Examples

For books, Chicago -style reference list entries use this format. (For print books, leave off the information about how the book was accessed.)

Last Name, First Name Middle Name. Title . City of Publication: Publisher, Date. How e-book was accessed.

  • Wynn, Stephen. City of London at War 1939–45 . Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military, 2020. Kindle edition.

Periodical Chicago Manual of Style Bibliography Examples

For journal and magazine articles, use this format.

Last Name, First Name. Year of Publication. “Title: Subtitle.” Name of Journal , Volume Number, issue number, First Page Number–Last Page Number. URL.

  • Bell, Amy. 2009. “Landscapes of Fear: Wartime London, 1939–1945.” Journal of British Studies, 48 no. 1, 153–175. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25482966.

When citing newspapers, include the URL for online articles.

Last Name, First Name. Year of Publication. “Title: Subtitle.” Name of Newspaper , Month day, year. URL.

  • Blakemore, Erin. 2022. “Researchers Track Down Two Copies of Fossil Destroyed by the Nazis.” The Washington Post , November 12, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/11/12/ichthyosaur-fossil-images-discovered/.

Electronic Chicago Manual of Style Bibliography Examples

Last Name, First Name Middle Name. “Title.” Site Name . Year, Month Day. URL.

  • Wukovits, John. “A World War II Survivor Recalls the London Blitz.” British Heritage. 2023, Jan. 30. britishheritage.com/history/world-war-ii-survivor-london-blitz.

“Title.” Site Name . URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

  • “Growing Up in the Second World War.” Imperial War Museums . www.iwm.org.uk/history/growing-up-in-the-second-world-war. Accessed May 9, 2023.

Creator or Username. “Title of Video.” Website video, length. Month Day, Year. URL.

  • War Stories. “How Did London Survive the Blitz During WW2? | Cities at War: London | War Stories.” YouTube video, 51:25. January 15, 2023. https://youtu.be/uwY6JlCvbxc.

For more information on writing Chicago -style bibliographies, see the Chicago Manual of Style website.

Chicago Manual of Style Bibliography Example Pages

A page showing an example of a bibliography using the Chicago Manual of Style

Source: Chicago Manual of Style

More Chicago example pages:

  • Scribbr Chicago Style Bibliography Example
  • Purdue Online Writing Lab CMOS Bibliography Page
  • Bibcitation Sample Chicago Bibliography

Now that you know how to write a bibliography, take a look at the Best Websites for Teaching & Learning Writing .

Plus, get all the latest teaching tips and ideas when you sign up for our free newsletters .

Learn how to write a bibliography using MLA, ALA, and Chicago Manual of Style, plus see examples for each style and more.

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How to Write a Bibliography

Last Updated: September 14, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Diane Stubbs . Diane Stubbs is a Secondary English Teacher with over 22 years of experience teaching all high school grade levels and AP courses. She specializes in secondary education, classroom management, and educational technology. Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Delaware and a Master of Education from Wesley College. There are 15 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 646,093 times.

When you write a paper or a book, it's important to include a bibliography. A bibliography tells your reader what sources you've used. It lists all the books, articles, and other references you cited in or used to inform your work. Bibliographies are typically formatted according to one of three styles: American Psychological Association (APA) for scientific papers, Modern Language Association (MLA) for humanities papers, and Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) for the social sciences. Make sure you always check with your superior - whether a professor or boss - about which style they prefer.

Sample Bibliographies

bibliography in books

Writing an APA Bibliography

Step 1 Create a reference list.

  • For example, if the author's name for a source is "John Adams Smith," you would list him as "Smith, J.A.," before listing the title of his piece.

Step 3 Use ellipses if there are more than seven authors.

  • For example, if one source has twelve authors, and the seventh author is "Smith, J.A." and the twelfth is "Timothy, S.J.," you would list the first six authors, then write "Smith, J.A. ...Timothy, S.J."

Step 4 List sources by the same author is chronological order.

  • For example, if you have a World Health Organization Report without an author as one of your sources, you would write, "World Health Organization, "Report on Development Strategies in Developing Nations," July 1996."

Step 6 Indent each line after the first line of each source.

  • For example, an article citation might look like this: Jensen, O. E. (2012). "African Elephants." Savannah Quarterly , 2(1), 88.
  • If the periodical the article comes from always begins with page number 1 (these types of periodicals are called “paginated by issue” periodicals, you should include the full page range of the article.
  • If the article was retrieved online, end the citation with the words "Retrieved from" followed by the web address.

Step 8 Cite books.

  • Example: Worden, B. L. (1999). Echoing Eden. New York, New York: One Two Press.
  • If the title is more than one word long and doesn’t contain any proper nouns, only the first word should be capitalized. Only the first letter of any subtitle should be capitalized as well.

Step 9 [9]...

  • For example, a cited website might look like this: Quarry, R. R. (May 23, 2010). Wild Skies. Retrieved from http://wildskies.com.
  • If no author is available, just start with the title. If no date is available, write "n.d."

Step 10 Check a reliable source for other citation rules.

Writing a MLA Bibliography

Step 1 Create a works cited page.

  • You shouldn’t use an author’s title or degrees when listing their names in your bibliography. This is true even if they are listed that way on the source.

Step 6 Cite books.

  • For example, a book citation might look like this: Butler, Olivia. Parable of the Flower. Sacramento: Seed Press, 1996.

Step 7 Cite articles.

  • For example, an article published in a scholarly journal might look like this: Green, Marsha. "Life in Costa Rica." Science Magazine vol. 1, no. 4, Mar 2013: 1-2.
  • If you’re citing an article in a newspaper, you only need the name of the newspaper, followed by the date it was published, and the page number. A citation for that might look like this: Smith, Jennifer. “Tiny Tim Wins Award.” New York Times, 24 Dec 2017, p. A7.

Step 8 Cite websites.

  • For example, a website citation might look like this: Jong, June. "How to Write an Essay." Writing Portal. 2 Aug. 2012. University of California. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://writingportal.com>
  • Some websites, particularly academic ones, will have what’s called a DOI (digital object identifier). Write “doi:” in front of this number in place of the website’s url if a DOI is available.

Step 9 Use reliable sources to look for the citations rules for other types of sources.

Writing a CMS Bibliography

Step 1 Create a bibliography page.

  • Example: Skylar Marsh. "Walking on Water." Earth Magazine 4(2001): 23.

Step 6 Cite books.

  • For example, a book entry might look like this: Walter White. Space and Time . New York: London Press, 1982

Step 7 Cite websites.

  • Example: University of California. "History of University of California." Last modified April 3, 2013. http://universityofcalifornia.com.
  • Unless there is a publication date for the website you’re citing, you don’t need to include an access date. If you do have an access date, it goes at the end of the citation.

Expert Q&A

Diane Stubbs

Video . By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube.

  • Ask your teacher or professor which style they prefer you to use in your paper. Thanks Helpful 6 Not Helpful 2
  • Be sure to include each and every source you reference in your work. Thanks Helpful 7 Not Helpful 5
  • When writing a bibliography or a reference page, it really comes down to looking at an example and applying it to your own information. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

bibliography in books

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Write an APA Style References Page

  • ↑ https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/citing-references/compilingbibliography
  • ↑ https://morningside.libguides.com/APA7/references
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/03/
  • ↑ https://libraryguides.vu.edu.au/harvard/sample-reference-list
  • ↑ Cite articles
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/08/
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
  • ↑ https://www.scribbr.com/mla/works-cited/
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/
  • ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_page_basic_format.html
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/07/
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/02/
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/03/
  • ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/05/

About This Article

Diane Stubbs

To create an APA bibliography, title a separate page at the end of your paper "References." Then, use the authors' last names to organize your list alphabetically, for example by writing the author John Adam Smith as "Smith, J. A." If a source has more than 7 authors, list the first 7 before adding an ellipses. To cite an article, include the author's name, year of publication, article title, publication title, and page numbers. When citing a book, begin with the author's name, then the date of publication, title in Italics, location of the publisher, and publisher's name. For tips on how to write an MLA or CMS bibliography, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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  • Harvard Style Bibliography | Format & Examples

Harvard Style Bibliography | Format & Examples

Published on 1 May 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 7 November 2022.

In Harvard style , the bibliography or reference list provides full references for the sources you used in your writing.

  • A reference list consists of entries corresponding to your in-text citations .
  • A bibliography sometimes also lists sources that you consulted for background research, but did not cite in your text.

The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. If in doubt about which to include, check with your instructor or department.

The information you include in a reference varies depending on the type of source, but it usually includes the author, date, and title of the work, followed by details of where it was published. You can automatically generate accurate references using our free reference generator:

Harvard Reference Generator

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Table of contents

Formatting a harvard style bibliography, harvard reference examples, referencing sources with multiple authors, referencing sources with missing information, frequently asked questions about harvard bibliographies.

Sources are alphabetised by author last name. The heading ‘Reference list’ or ‘Bibliography’ appears at the top.

Each new source appears on a new line, and when an entry for a single source extends onto a second line, a hanging indent is used:

Harvard bibliography

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Reference list or bibliography entries always start with the author’s last name and initial, the publication date and the title of the source. The other information required varies depending on the source type. Formats and examples for the most common source types are given below.

  • Entire book
  • Book chapter
  • Translated book
  • Edition of a book

Journal articles

  • Print journal
  • Online-only journal with DOI
  • Online-only journal without DOI
  • General web page
  • Online article or blog
  • Social media post

Newspapers and magazines

  • Newspaper article
  • Magazine article

When a source has up to three authors, list all of them in the order their names appear on the source. If there are four or more, give only the first name followed by ‘ et al. ’:

Sometimes a source won’t list all the information you need for your reference. Here’s what to do when you don’t know the publication date or author of a source.

Some online sources, as well as historical documents, may lack a clear publication date. In these cases, you can replace the date in the reference list entry with the words ‘no date’. With online sources, you still include an access date at the end:

When a source doesn’t list an author, you can often list a corporate source as an author instead, as with ‘Scribbr’ in the above example. When that’s not possible, begin the entry with the title instead of the author:

Though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a difference in meaning:

  • A reference list only includes sources cited in the text – every entry corresponds to an in-text citation .
  • A bibliography also includes other sources which were consulted during the research but not cited.

In Harvard referencing, up to three author names are included in an in-text citation or reference list entry. When there are four or more authors, include only the first, followed by ‘ et al. ’

In Harvard style referencing , to distinguish between two sources by the same author that were published in the same year, you add a different letter after the year for each source:

  • (Smith, 2019a)
  • (Smith, 2019b)

Add ‘a’ to the first one you cite, ‘b’ to the second, and so on. Do the same in your bibliography or reference list .

To create a hanging indent for your bibliography or reference list :

  • Highlight all the entries
  • Click on the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the ‘Paragraph’ tab in the top menu.
  • In the pop-up window, under ‘Special’ in the ‘Indentation’ section, use the drop-down menu to select ‘Hanging’.
  • Then close the window with ‘OK’.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, November 07). Harvard Style Bibliography | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 15 February 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-bibliography/

Is this article helpful?

Jack Caulfield

Research Process: Bibliographic Information

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Bibliographic Information

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What is a bibliography?

A bibliography is a list of works on a subject or by an author that were used or consulted to write a research paper, book or article. It can also be referred to as a list of works cited. It is usually found at the end of a book, article or research paper. 

Gathering Information

Regardless of what citation style is being used, there are key pieces of information that need to be collected in order to create the citation.

For books and/or journals:

  • Author name
  • Title of publication 
  • Article title (if using a journal)
  • Date of publication
  • Place of publication
  • Volume number of a journal, magazine or encyclopedia
  • Page number(s)

For websites:

  • Author and/or editor name
  • Title of the website
  • Company or organization that owns or posts to the website
  • URL (website address)
  • Date of access 

This section provides two examples of the most common cited sources: a print book and an online journal retrieved from a research database. 

Book - Print

For print books, bibliographic information can be found on the  TITLE PAGE . This page has the complete title of the book, author(s) and publication information.

The publisher information will vary according to the publisher - sometimes this page will include the name of the publisher, the place of publication and the date.

For this example :  Book title: HTML, XHTML, and CSS Bible Author: Steven M. Schafer Publisher: Wiley Publications, Inc.

If you cannot find the place or date of publication on the title page, refer to the  COPYRIGHT PAGE  for this information. The copyright page is the page behind the title page, usually written in a small font, it carries the copyright notice, edition information, publication information, printing history, cataloging data, and the ISBN number.

For this example : Place of publication: Indianapolis, IN Date of publication: 2010

Article - Academic OneFile Database

In the article view:

Bibliographic information can be found under the article title, at the top of the page. The information provided in this area is  NOT  formatted according to any style.

Citations can also be found at the bottom of the page; in an area titled  SOURCE CITATION . The database does not specify which style is used in creating this citation, so be sure to double check it against the style rules for accuracy.

Article - ProQuest Database

Bibliographic information can be found under the article title, at the top of the page. The information provided in this area is  NOT  formatted according to any style. 

Bibliographic information can also be found at the bottom of the page; in an area titled  INDEXING . (Not all the information provided in this area is necessary for creating citations, refer to the rules of the style being used for what information is needed.)

Other databases have similar formats - look for bibliographic information under the article titles and below the article body, towards the bottom of the page. 

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What Is a Bibliography?

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A bibliography is a list of books, scholarly  articles , speeches, private records, diaries, interviews, laws, letters, websites, and other sources you use when researching a topic and writing a paper. The bibliography appears at the end.

The main purpose of a bibliography entry is to give credit to authors whose work you've consulted in your research. It also makes it easy for a reader to find out more about your topic by delving into the research that you used to write your paper. In the academic world, papers aren't written in a vacuum; academic journals are the way new research on a topic circulates and previous work is built upon.

Bibliography entries must be written in a very specific format, but that format will depend on the particular style of writing you follow. Your teacher or publisher will tell you which style to use, and for most academic papers it will be either MLA , American Psychological Association (APA), Chicago (author-date citations or footnotes/endnotes format), or Turabian style .

The bibliography is sometimes also called the references, works cited, or works consulted page.

Components of a Bibliography Entry

Bibliography entries will compile:

  • Authors and/or editors (and translator, if applicable)
  • Title of your source (as well as edition, volume, and the book title if your source is a chapter or article in a multi-author book with an editor)
  • Publication information (the city, state, name of the publisher, date published, page numbers consulted, and URL or DOI, if applicable)
  • Access date, in the case of online sources (check with the style guide at the beginning of your research as to whether you need to track this information)

Order and Formatting

Your entries should be listed in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author. If you are using two publications that are written by the same author, the order and format will depend on the style guide.

In MLA, Chicago, and Turabian style, you should list the duplicate-author entries in alphabetical order according to the title of the work. The author's name is written as normal for his or her first entry, but for the second entry, you will replace the author's name with three long dashes. 

In APA style, you list the duplicate-author entries in chronological order of publication, placing the earliest first. The name of the author is used for all entries.

For works with more than one author, styles vary as to whether you invert the name of any authors after the first. Whether you use title casing or sentence-style casing on titles of sources, and whether you separate elements with commas or periods also varies among different style guides. Consult the guide's manual for more detailed information.

Bibliography entries are usually formatted using a hanging indent. This means that the first line of each citation is not indented, but subsequent lines of each citation are indented. Check with your instructor or publication to see if this format is required, and look up information in your word processor's help program if you do not know how to create a hanging indent with it.

Chicago's Bibliography vs. Reference System

Chicago has two different ways of citing works consulted: using a bibliography or a references page. Use of a bibliography or a references page depends on whether you're using author-date parenthetical citations in the paper or footnotes/endnotes. If you're using parenthetical citations, then you'll follow the references page formatting. If you're using footnotes or endnotes, you'll use a bibliography. The difference in the formatting of entries between the two systems is the location of the date of the cited publication. In a bibliography, it goes at the end of an entry. In a references list in the author-date style, it goes right after the author's name, similar to APA style.

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  • Bibliography: Definition and Examples
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  • APA In-Text Citations
  • MLA Sample Pages
  • How to Use Block Quotations in Writing
  • Writing a History Book Review
  • Definition of Appendix in a Book or Written Work
  • MLA Style Parenthetical Citations
  • Tips for Typing an Academic Paper on a Computer
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Go to Index

Notes and Bibliography: Sample Citations

Go to Author-Date: Sample Citations

The following examples illustrate the notes and bibliography system. Sample notes show full citations followed by shortened citations for the same sources. Sample bibliography entries follow the notes. For more details and many more examples, see chapter 14 of The Chicago Manual of Style . For examples of the same citations using the author-date system, follow the Author-Date link above.

1. Zadie Smith, Swing Time   (New York: Penguin Press, 2016), 315–16.

2. Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 12.

Shortened notes

3. Smith, Swing Time , 320.

4. Grazer and Fishman, Curious Mind , 37.

Bibliography entries (in alphabetical order)

Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life . New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.

Smith, Zadie. Swing Time . New York: Penguin Press, 2016.

For many more examples, covering virtually every type of book, see 14.100–163 in The Chicago Manual of Style .

Chapter or other part of an edited book

In a note, cite specific pages. In the bibliography, include the page range for the chapter or part.

1. Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” in The Making of the American Essay , ed. John D’Agata (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016), 177–78.

Shortened note

2. Thoreau, “Walking,” 182.

Bibliography entry

Thoreau, Henry David. “Walking.” In The Making of the American Essay , edited by John D’Agata, 167–95. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016.

In some cases, you may want to cite the collection as a whole instead.

1. John D’Agata, ed., The Making of the American Essay (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016), 177–78.

2. D’Agata, American Essay , 182.

D’Agata, John, ed. The Making of the American Essay . Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016.

For more examples, see 14.103–5 and 14.106–12 in The Chicago Manual of Style .

Translated book

1. Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words , trans. Ann Goldstein (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), 146.

2. Lahiri, In Other Words , 184.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. In Other Words . Translated by Ann Goldstein. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.

For books consulted online, include a URL or the name of the database. For other types of e-books, name the format. If no fixed page numbers are available, cite a section title or a chapter or other number in the notes, if any (or simply omit).

1. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851), 627, http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.

2. Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), chap. 10, doc. 19, http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

3. Brooke Borel, The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016), 92, ProQuest Ebrary.

4. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2007), chap. 3, Kindle.

5. Melville, Moby-Dick , 722–23.

6. Kurland and Lerner, Founder s ’ Constitution , chap. 4, doc. 29.

7. Borel, Fact-Checking , 104–5.

8. Austen, Pride and Prejudice , chap. 14.

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice . New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Kindle.

Borel, Brooke. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebrary.

Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders’ Constitution . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale . New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.

For more examples, see 14.1 59 –63 in The Chicago Manual of Style .

Journal article

In a note, cite specific page numbers. In the bibliography, include the page range for the whole article. For articles consulted online, include a URL or the name of the database. Many journal articles list a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). A DOI forms a permanent URL that begins https://doi.org/. This URL is preferable to the URL that appears in your browser’s address bar.

1. Susan Satterfield, “Livy and the Pax Deum ,” Classical Philology 111, no. 2 (April 2016): 170.

2. Shao-Hsun Keng, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem, “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality,” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 9–10, https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.

3. Peter LaSalle, “Conundrum: A Story about Reading,” New England Review 38, no. 1 (2017): 95, Project MUSE.

4. Satterfield, “Livy,” 172–73.

5. Keng, Lin, and Orazem, “Expanding College Access,” 23.

6. LaSalle, “Conundrum,” 101.

Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.

LaSalle, Peter. “Conundrum: A Story about Reading.” New England Review 38, no. 1 (2017): 95–109. Project MUSE.

Satterfield, Susan. “Livy and the Pax Deum .” Classical Philology 111, no. 2 (April 2016): 165–76.

Journal articles often list many authors, especially in the sciences. If there are four or more authors, list up to ten in the bibliography; in a note, list only the first, followed by et al . (“and others”). For more than ten authors (not shown here), list the first seven in the bibliography, followed by et al .

7. Rachel A. Bay et al., “Predicting Responses to Contemporary Environmental Change Using Evolutionary Response Architectures,” American Naturalist 189, no. 5 (May 2017): 465, https://doi.org/10.1086/691233.

8. Bay et al., “Predicting Responses,” 466.

Bay, Rachael A., Noah Rose, Rowan Barrett, Louis Bernatchez, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Jesse R. Lasky, Rachel B. Brem, Stephen R. Palumbi, and Peter Ralph. “Predicting Responses to Contemporary Environmental Change Using Evolutionary Response Architectures.” American Naturalist 189, no. 5 (May 2017): 463–73. https://doi.org/10.1086/691233.

For more examples, see 14.1 68 – 87 in The Chicago Manual of Style .

News or magazine article

Articles from newspapers or news sites, magazines, blogs, and the like are cited similarly. Page numbers, if any, can be cited in a note but are omitted from a bibliography entry. If you consulted the article online, include a URL or the name of the database.

1. Rebecca Mead, “The Prophet of Dystopia,” New Yorker , April 17, 2017, 43.

2. Farhad Manjoo, “Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy of the Camera,” New York Times , March 8, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/technology/snap-makes-a-bet-on-the-cultural-supremacy-of-the-camera.html.

3. Rob Pegoraro, “Apple’s iPhone Is Sleek, Smart and Simple,” Washington Post , July 5, 2007, LexisNexis Academic.

4. Tanya Pai, “The Squishy, Sugary History of Peeps,” Vox , April 11, 2017, http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/11/15209084/peeps-easter.

5. Mead, “Dystopia,” 47.

6. Manjoo, “Snap.”

7. Pegoraro, “Apple’s iPhone.”

8. Pai, “History of Peeps.”

Manjoo, Farhad. “Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy of the Camera.” New York Times , March 8, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/technology/snap-makes-a-bet-on-the-cultural-supremacy-of-the-camera.html.

Mead, Rebecca. “The Prophet of Dystopia.” New Yorker , April 17, 2017.

Pai, Tanya. “The Squishy, Sugary History of Peeps.” Vox , April 11, 2017. http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/11/15209084/peeps-easter.

Pegoraro, Rob. “Apple’s iPhone Is Sleek, Smart and Simple.” Washington Post , July 5, 2007. LexisNexis Academic.

Readers’ comments are cited in the text or in a note but omitted from a bibliography.

9. Eduardo B (Los Angeles), March 9, 2017, comment on Manjoo, “Snap.”

For more examples, see 14.1 88 – 90 (magazines), 14.191–200 (newspapers), and 14.208 (blogs) in The Chicago Manual of Style .

Book review

1. Michiko Kakutani, “Friendship Takes a Path That Diverges,” review of Swing Time , by Zadie Smith, New York Times , November 7, 2016.

2. Kakutani, “Friendship.”

Kakutani, Michiko. “Friendship Takes a Path That Diverges.” Review of Swing Time , by Zadie Smith. New York Times , November 7, 2016.

1. Kory Stamper, “From ‘F-Bomb’ to ‘Photobomb,’ How the Dictionary Keeps Up with English,” interview by Terry Gross, Fresh Air , NPR, April 19, 2017, audio, 35:25, http://www.npr.org/2017/04/19/524618639/from-f-bomb-to-photobomb-how-the-dictionary-keeps-up-with-english.

2. Stamper, interview.

Stamper, Kory. “From ‘F-Bomb’ to ‘Photobomb,’ How the Dictionary Keeps Up with English.” Interview by Terry Gross. Fresh Air , NPR, April 19, 2017. Audio, 35:25. http://www.npr.org/2017/04/19/524618639/from-f-bomb-to-photobomb-how-the-dictionary-keeps-up-with-english.

Thesis or dissertation

1. Cynthia Lillian Rutz, “ King Lear and Its Folktale Analogues” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2013), 99–100.

2. Rutz, “ King Lear ,” 158.

Rutz, Cynthia Lillian. “ King Lear and Its Folktale Analogues.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2013.

Website content

It is often sufficient simply to describe web pages and other website content in the text (“As of May 1, 2017, Yale’s home page listed . . .”). If a more formal citation is needed, it may be styled like the examples below. For a source that does not list a date of publication or revision, include an access date (as in example note 2).

1. “Privacy Policy,” Privacy & Terms, Google, last modified April 17, 2017, https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

2. “About Yale: Yale Facts,” Yale University, accessed May 1, 2017, https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

3. Katie Bouman, “How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole,” filmed November 2016 at TEDxBeaconStreet, Brookline, MA, video, 12:51, https://www.ted.com/talks/katie_bouman_what_does_a_black_hole_look_like.

4. Google, “Privacy Policy.”

5. “Yale Facts.”

6. Bouman, “Black Hole.”

Bouman, Katie. “How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole.” Filmed November 2016 at TEDxBeaconStreet, Brookline, MA. Video, 12:51. https://www.ted.com/talks/katie_bouman_what_does_a_black_hole_look_like.

Google. “Privacy Policy.” Privacy & Terms. Last modified April 17, 2017. https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Yale University. “About Yale: Yale Facts.” Accessed May 1, 2017. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

For more examples, see 14. 20 5–10 in The Chicago Manual of Style . For multimedia, including live performances, see 14. 261–68 .

Social media content

Citations of content shared through social media can usually be limited to the text (as in the first example below). A note may be added if a more formal citation is needed. In rare cases, a bibliography entry may also be appropriate. In place of a title, quote up to the first 160 characters of the post. Comments are cited in reference to the original post.

Conan O’Brien’s tweet was characteristically deadpan: “In honor of Earth Day, I’m recycling my tweets” (@ConanOBrien, April 22, 2015).

1. Pete Souza (@petesouza), “President Obama bids farewell to President Xi of China at the conclusion of the Nuclear Security Summit,” Instagram photo, April 1, 2016, https://www.instagram.com/p/BDrmfXTtNCt/.

2. Chicago Manual of Style, “Is the world ready for singular they? We thought so back in 1993,” Facebook, April 17, 2015, https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoManual/posts/10152906193679151.

3. Souza, “President Obama.”

4. Michele Truty, April 17, 2015, 1:09 p.m., comment on Chicago Manual of Style, “singular they.”

Chicago Manual of Style. “Is the world ready for singular they? We thought so back in 1993.” Facebook, April 17, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoManual/posts/10152906193679151.

Personal communication

Personal communications, including email and text messages and direct messages sent through social media, are usually cited in the text or in a note only; they are rarely included in a bibliography.

1. Sam Gomez, Facebook message to author, August 1, 2017.

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MLA Book Citation

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How to cite a book in a bibliography using MLA

The most basic entry for a book consists of the author’s name, the book title, the publisher’s name, and the year of publication. This guide gives examples and guidance according to the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook .

Basic structure:

Last Name, First Name. Book Title . Publisher Name, Year Published.

Smith, John M. The Sample Book . BibMe Publishers, 2008.

Author formatting

  • Reverse the author’s name (Last name then first name), placing a comma after the last name and a period after the first name (or any middle name initial).
  • The name should not be abbreviated and should be written exactly as it appears on the title page.
  • Titles and affiliations (sir, mr., mrs., PhD., Dr., etc.) associated with the author should generally be omitted.
  • A suffix, such as a roman numeral or Jr./Sr. should appear after the author’s given name, preceded by a comma.

Smith, John, Jr. The Sample Book . BibMe Publishers, 2008.

Two authors

For a book written by two authors, both names are listed in the order they appear on the title page.

  • Reverse only the first author’s name and write the second name in normal order (first name last name).
  • Separate author names with a comma and place the word “and” between the names.

Smith, John, and Jane Doe. The Sample Book . BibMe Publishers, 2008.

Three authors or more

For books with three or more authors, include only the first author’s name in the citation, followed by a comma and the abbreviation “et al.”

Smith, John, et al. The Sample Book . BibMe Publishers, 2008.

Title formatting

  • Italicize the full title of the book, including any subtitles, and follow it with a period.
  • If the book has a subtitle, follow the main title with a colon (unless the main title ends with a question mark or exclamation point).
  • Use title case.

Smith, John M. The Sample Book: Let’s Learn to Cite . BibMe Publishers, 2008.

Publication information formatting

After the book title is the publisher’s name, a comma, then the year the book was published.

Where do you find this information? Generally, you will find the publication information on the title page of the book. If it is not available there, it may be on the copyright page.

Abbreviations for publisher names

Publisher names should be abbreviated where appropriate.

Omit articles (e.g., A, An) and business titles (e.g., Co., Corp., Inc., Ltd.). For example:

  • The BibMe Publishers –> BibMe Publishers
  • BibMe Publishers, Ltd. –> BibMe Publishers

If the publisher is an academic or university press, with the words “university” and “press” (in any language), abbreviate “U” for “university” and “P” for “press” in the publisher’s name. This will distinguish the publisher from the university, which may publish independently of the publisher in question. (e.g., Oxford UP).

  • University of BibMe Press –> U of BibMe P
  • BibMe University Press –> BibMe UP
  • BibMe Press –> BibMe Press

Smith, John. The Sample Book . Iowa State UP, 2008.

Citing an afterword, foreword, introduction, or preface

If you are citing a specific contribution to a book, such as an afterword, foreword, introduction, or preface, do the following:

  • After the author’s name, include either the generic label (e.g., Afterword) followed by a period OR include the unique section’s title in quotation marks (e.g., “Novel Moves”) followed by a period.
  • Include the page number or page range after the publication year. Separated the page and year with a comma, and follow the page(s) with a period.

Smith, John. Introduction. The Sample Book . BibMe, 2008, pp. 12-20.

Smith, John. “Unique Introduction Title.” The Sample Book . BibMe, 2008, pp. 12-20.

Citing editions or a revised book

When a book has no edition number or name, it is generally a first edition and no indication is needed. If the book you’re citing does show a later edition than its first, you should indicate the new edition in your citation. You will usually find edition details, including the date, on the title page or the copyright page.

  • Place the edition after the book title, and before the publisher. There is a period after the title, and a comma after the edition.
  • A numbered edition is abbreviated to “# ed.” (e.g., 9th ed.).
  • Abbreviate “Revised edition” as “Rev. ed.”
  • “Abridged edition” as “Abr. ed.”

Smith, John. The Sample Book . Rev. ed., BibMe, 2008.

Smith, John. The Sample Book . 2nd ed., BibMe, 2008.

Write ordinal numbers (e.g., 2nd) without a superscript.

You don’t need to include a source’s printing details, such as reprint details, in the source’s works-cited list entry. You may include an edition number as discussed above.

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As per the MLA Handbook , titles used in p arenthetical citations may be shortened or abbreviated if they are longer than a few words.

SHORTENED TITLES

Long titles can be shortened to the first noun phrase, first punctuation mark, or at the end of the first clause.

  • My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry –>  My Grandmother
  • Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe –>  Fried Green Tomatoes

ABBREVIATED TITLES

Abbreviating titles can be helpful and more concise when citing multiple works by a single author. Abbreviated titles should only be used in parenthetical citations. In prose, MLA suggests sticking to a shortened form of the title instead.

Common Abbreviations (Shakespeare, Chaucer, Bible)

Appendix 1 of the MLA Handbook provides a list of common academic abbreviations to be used in parenthetical citations. Some standard references include works by established classical authors like Shakespeare and Chaucer and books in the Bible.

  • The first act of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (Ant.) ….
  • “Eternity was in our lips and in our eyes” ( Ant . 1.3.28)

Single-Word Abbreviations

You can also come up with your own straightforward abbreviations if needed. For single-word titles, use the first syllable followed by a period.

  • In Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing ( Home. ), she writes…( Home. 45).

Multiple-Word Abbreviations

For titles containing multiple words, you may abbreviate. Your abbreviation should consist of the first letter of each capitalized word. Be sure to use the full title on first reference and introduce the abbreviation in parentheses immediately afterward.

  • Amanda Gorman writes in  Call Us What We Carry ( CUWWC ) that… ( CUWWC 12).

As per Section 6 of the MLA Handbook , 9 th edition, if a book you are citing is part of a multivolume work, the volume number should be mentioned in the full reference in your works cited page. The placement of the volume number may change depending on if the books are individually titled and/or if you are citing one book or the entire collection.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Book Title. Edition no., vol. no., Publisher, year of publication.

Pinksmith, Tom. The Secret Life of Koalas . 2nd ed., vol. 1, Oxford UP, 2003.

If you are referring to the the entire multivolume set, mention the number of volumes at the end of the citation instead.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Book Title. Edition no., Publisher, year(s) of publication. # vols. in set.

Pinksmith, Tom. The Secret Life of Koalas . 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 2003-21. 7 vols.

As per Appendix 2 of the MLA Handbook , 9 th edition, a foreword, afterword, or introduction should be cited as a book chapter. If the chapter doesn’t have a unique name, write the label in regular roman text (not italicized or in quotation marks) immediately following the name(s) of the author(s). If the introduction, foreword, or afterword does have a separate title, use its title within quotation marks instead of the label in your citation.

The citation should also include the title of the book in italics, the publisher, year of publication, and the page range details for the section being cited.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Section Name or “Section Title.” Book Name , Publisher, year, pp. xx-xx.

Duncan, David. Preface. Introduction to Alchemy , Altruist Publications, 1967, pp. 23-46.

In MLA style, works that stand alone are italicized. The book title, website, and report are examples of such references. However, works that are a part of a main work, such as a chapter in a book or an article in a journal, are not italicized. Instead, they are enclosed in double quotation marks. As author names are included in citations, these elements are not added in in-text citations unless the names of the authors are not available for a source.

In cases in which italicization is not possible (e.g., handwriting and typewriting), then standalone works like book titles, websites, and reports should be underlined instead.

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MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9 th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

When you are gathering book sources, be sure to make note of the following bibliographic items: the author name(s), other contributors such as translators or editors, the book’s title, editions of the book, the publication date, the publisher, and the pagination.

The 8 th  edition of the MLA handbook highlights principles over prescriptive practices. Essentially, a writer will need to take note of primary elements in every source, such as author, title, etc. and then assort them in a general format. Thus, by using this methodology, a writer will be able to cite any source regardless of whether it’s included in this list.

Please note these changes in the new edition:

  • Commas are used instead of periods between Publisher, Publication Date, and Pagination.
  • Medium is no longer necessary.
  • Containers are now a part of the MLA process. Commas should be used after container titles.
  • DOIs should be used instead of URLS when available.
  • Use the term “Accessed” instead of listing the date or the abbreviation, “n.d."

Below is the general format for any citation:

Author. Title. Title of container (do not list container for standalone books, e.g. novels), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs URL or DOI). 2 nd  container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).

Basic Book Format

The author’s name or a book with a single author's name appears in last name, first name format. The basic form for a book citation is:

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book . City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

* Note: the City of Publication should only be used if the book was published before 1900, if the publisher has offices in more than one country, or if the publisher is unknown in North America.

Book with One Author

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science . Penguin, 1987.

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House . MacMurray, 1999.

Book with More Than One Author

When a book has two authors, order the authors in the same way they are presented in the book. Start by listing the first name that appears on the book in last name, first name format; subsequent author names appear in normal order (first name last name format).

Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring . Allyn and Bacon, 2000.

If there are three or more authors, list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (Latin for "and others") in place of the subsequent authors' names. (Note that there is a period after “al” in “et al.” Also note that there is never a period after the “et” in “et al.”).

Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition . Utah State UP, 2004.

Two or More Books by the Same Author

List works alphabetically by title. (Remember to ignore articles like A, An, and The.) Provide the author’s name in last name, first name format for the first entry only. For each subsequent entry by the same author, use three hyphens and a period.

Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism . St. Martin's, 1997.

---. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History . Southern Illinois UP, 1993.

Book by a Corporate Author or Organization

A corporate author may include a commission, a committee, a government agency, or a group that does not identify individual members on the title page.

List the names of corporate authors in the place where an author’s name typically appears at the beginning of the entry.

American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children . Random House, 1998.

When the author and publisher are the same, skip the author, and list the title first. Then, list the corporate author only as the publisher.

Fair Housing—Fair Lending. Aspen Law & Business, 1985.

Book with No Author

List by title of the book. Incorporate these entries alphabetically just as you would with works that include an author name. For example, the following entry might appear between entries of works written by Dean, Shaun and Forsythe, Jonathan.

Encyclopedia of Indiana . Somerset, 1993.

Remember that for an in-text (parenthetical) citation of a book with no author, you should provide the name of the work in the signal phrase and the page number in parentheses. You may also use a shortened version of the title of the book accompanied by the page number. For more information see the In-text Citations for Print Sources with No Known Author section of In-text Citations: The Basics .

A Translated Book

If you want to emphasize the work rather than the translator, cite as you would any other book. Add “translated by” and follow with the name(s) of the translator(s).

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason . Translated by Richard Howard, Vintage-Random House, 1988.

If you want to focus on the translation, list the translator as the author. In place of the author’s name, the translator’s name appears. His or her name is followed by the label, “translator.” If the author of the book does not appear in the title of the book, include the name, with a “By” after the title of the book and before the publisher. Note that this type of citation is less common and should only be used for papers or writing in which translation plays a central role.

Howard, Richard, translator. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason . By Michel Foucault, Vintage-Random House, 1988.

Republished Book

Books may be republished due to popularity without becoming a new edition. New editions are typically revisions of the original work. For books that originally appeared at an earlier date and that have been republished at a later one, insert the original publication date before the publication information.

For books that are new editions (i.e. different from the first or other editions of the book), see An Edition of a Book below.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble . 1990. Routledge, 1999.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine . 1984. Perennial-Harper, 1993.

An Edition of a Book

There are two types of editions in book publishing: a book that has been published more than once in different editions and a book that is prepared by someone other than the author (typically an editor).

A Subsequent Edition

Cite the book as you normally would, but add the number of the edition after the title.

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students . 3rd ed., Pearson, 2004.

A Work Prepared by an Editor

Cite the book as you normally would, but add the editor after the title with the label "edited by."

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre,  edited by Margaret Smith, Oxford UP, 1998.

Note that the format for citing sources with important contributors with editor-like roles follows the same basic template:

...adapted by John Doe...

Finally, in the event that the source features a contributor that cannot be described with a past-tense verb and the word "by" (e.g., "edited by"), you may instead use a noun followed by a comma, like so:

...guest editor, Jane Smith...

Anthology or Collection (e.g. Collection of Essays)

To cite the entire anthology or collection, list by editor(s) followed by a comma and "editor" or, for multiple editors, "editors." This sort of entry is somewhat rare. If you are citing a particular piece within an anthology or collection (more common), see A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection below.

Hill, Charles A., and Marguerite Helmers, editors. Defining Visual Rhetorics . Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.

Peterson, Nancy J., editor. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches . Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.

A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection

Works may include an essay in an edited collection or anthology, or a chapter of a book. The basic form is for this sort of citation is as follows:

Last name, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection , edited by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.

Some examples:

Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One , edited by Ben Rafoth, Heinemann, 2000, pp. 24-34.

Swanson, Gunnar. "Graphic Design Education as a Liberal Art: Design and Knowledge in the University and The 'Real World.'" The Education of a Graphic Designer , edited by Steven Heller, Allworth Press, 1998, pp. 13-24.

Note on Cross-referencing Several Items from One Anthology: If you cite more than one essay from the same edited collection, MLA indicates you may cross-reference within your works cited list in order to avoid writing out the publishing information for each separate essay. You should consider this option if you have several references from a single text. To do so, include a separate entry for the entire collection listed by the editor's name as below:

Rose, Shirley K, and Irwin Weiser, editors. The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher . Heinemann, 1999.

Then, for each individual essay from the collection, list the author's name in last name, first name format, the title of the essay, the editor's last name, and the page range:

L'Eplattenier, Barbara. "Finding Ourselves in the Past: An Argument for Historical Work on WPAs." Rose and Weiser, pp. 131-40.

Peeples, Tim. "'Seeing' the WPA With/Through Postmodern Mapping." Rose and Weiser, pp. 153-67.

Please note: When cross-referencing items in the works cited list, alphabetical order should be maintained for the entire list.

Poem or Short Story Examples :

Burns, Robert. "Red, Red Rose." 100 Best-Loved Poems, edited by Philip Smith, Dover, 1995, p. 26.

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories , edited by Tobias Wolff, Vintage, 1994, pp. 306-07.

If the specific literary work is part of the author's own collection (all of the works have the same author), then there will be no editor to reference:

Whitman, Walt. "I Sing the Body Electric." Selected Poems, Dover, 1991, pp. 12-19.

Carter, Angela. "The Tiger's Bride." Burning Your Boats: The Collected Stories, Penguin, 1995, pp. 154-69.

Article in a Reference Book (e.g. Encyclopedias, Dictionaries)

For entries in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference works, cite the entry name as you would any other work in a collection but do not include the publisher information. Also, if the reference book is organized alphabetically, as most are, do not list the volume or the page number of the article or item.

"Ideology." The American Heritage Dictionary.  3rd ed. 1997. 

A Multivolume Work

When citing only one volume of a multivolume work, include the volume number after the work's title, or after the work's editor or translator.

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria . Translated by H. E. Butler, vol. 2, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980.

When citing more than one volume of a multivolume work, cite the total number of volumes in the work. Also, be sure in your in-text citation to provide both the volume number and page number(s) ( see "Citing Multivolume Works" on our in-text citations resource .)

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria . Translated by H. E. Butler, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980. 4 vols.

If the volume you are using has its own title, cite the book without referring to the other volumes as if it were an independent publication.

Churchill, Winston S. The Age of Revolution . Dodd, 1957.

An Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword

When citing an introduction, a preface, a foreword, or an afterword, write the name of the author(s) of the piece you are citing. Then give the name of the part being cited, which should not be italicized or enclosed in quotation marks; in italics, provide the name of the work and the name of the author of the introduction/preface/foreword/afterword. Finish the citation with the details of publication and page range.

Farrell, Thomas B. Introduction. Norms of Rhetorical Culture , by Farrell, Yale UP, 1993, pp. 1-13.

If the writer of the piece is different from the author of the complete work , then write the full name of the principal work's author after the word "By." For example, if you were to cite Hugh Dalziel Duncan’s introduction of Kenneth Burke’s book Permanence and Change, you would write the entry as follows:

Duncan, Hugh Dalziel. Introduction. Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose, by Kenneth Burke, 1935, 3rd ed., U of California P, 1984, pp. xiii-xliv.

Book Published Before 1900

Original copies of books published before 1900 are usually defined by their place of publication rather than the publisher. Unless you are using a newer edition, cite the city of publication where you would normally cite the publisher.

Thoreau, Henry David. Excursions . Boston, 1863.

Italicize “The Bible” and follow it with the version you are using. Remember that your in-text (parenthetical citation) should include the name of the specific edition of the Bible, followed by an abbreviation of the book, the chapter and verse(s). (See Citing the Bible at In-Text Citations: The Basics .)

The Bible. Authorized King James Version , Oxford UP, 1998.

The Bible. The New Oxford Annotated Version , 3rd ed., Oxford UP, 2001.

The New Jerusalem Bible. Edited by Susan Jones, Doubleday, 1985.

A Government Publication

Cite the author of the publication if the author is identified. Otherwise, start with the name of the national government, followed by the agency (including any subdivisions or agencies) that serves as the organizational author. For congressional documents, be sure to include the number of the Congress and the session when the hearing was held or resolution passed as well as the report number. US government documents are typically published by the Government Printing Office.

United States, Congress, Senate, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hearing on the Geopolitics of Oil . Government Printing Office, 2007. 110th Congress, 1st session, Senate Report 111-8.

United States, Government Accountability Office. Climate Change: EPA and DOE Should Do More to Encourage Progress Under Two Voluntary Programs . Government Printing Office, 2006.

Cite the title and publication information for the pamphlet just as you would a book without an author. Pamphlets and promotional materials commonly feature corporate authors (commissions, committees, or other groups that does not provide individual group member names). If the pamphlet you are citing has no author, cite as directed below. If your pamphlet has an author or a corporate author, put the name of the author (last name, first name format) or corporate author in the place where the author name typically appears at the beginning of the entry. (See also Books by a Corporate Author or Organization above.)

Women's Health: Problems of the Digestive System . American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2006.

Your Rights Under California Welfare Programs . California Department of Social Services, 2007.

Dissertations and Master's Theses

Dissertations and master's theses may be used as sources whether published or not. Unlike previous editions, MLA 8 specifies no difference in style for published/unpublished works.

The main elements of a dissertation citation are the same as those for a book: author name(s), title (italicized) , and publication date. Conclude with an indication of the document type (e.g., "PhD dissertation"). The degree-granting institution may be included before the document type (though this is not required). If the dissertation was accessed through an online repository, include it as the second container after all the other elements.

Bishop, Karen Lynn. Documenting Institutional Identity: Strategic Writing in the IUPUI Comprehensive Campaign . 2002. Purdue University, PhD dissertation.

Bile, Jeffrey. Ecology, Feminism, and a Revised Critical Rhetoric: Toward a Dialectical Partnership . 2005. Ohio University, PhD dissertation.

Mitchell, Mark. The Impact of Product Quality Reducing Events on the Value of Brand-Name Capital: Evidence from Airline Crashes and the 1982 Tylenol Poisonings.  1987. PhD dissertation.  ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

List the names of corporate authors in the place where an author’s name typically appears at the beginning of the entry if the author and publisher are not the same.

Fair Housing—Fair Lending. Aspen Law & Business, 1985.

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Citation Styles: A Brief Guide to APA, MLA and Turabian

Sample bibliography: apa.

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The basic format for a book citation requires listing the author's name, the title of the book, the publisher's name, and the date of publication. Edited books, when cited in full, will list the editor's name instead of an author’s name. 

Becsey, L., Wachsberger, P., Samuels, S., et al (Directors). (2008). In the valley of Elah . [DVD]. Warner Home Video.

Ginsberg, J. P., Ayers, E., Burriss, L., & Powell, D. A. (2008). Discriminative delay Pavlovian eye-blink conditioning in veterans with and without post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders , 22 , 809-823. https://doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.08.009

Glantz, A. (2009). The war comes home: Washington's battle against America's veterans . University of California Press.

Jakupcak, M., Luterek, J., Hunt, S., Conybeare, D., & McFall, M. (2008). Post-traumatic stress and its relationship to physical health functioning in a sample of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seeking post-deployment VA health care. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease , 196 , 425-428.

Jensen, G. & Wiest, A. A. (2001). War in the age of technology myriad faces of modern armed conflict . New York University Press.

Killgore, W. D. S., Cotting, D. I., Thomas, J. L., Cox, A. L., McGurk, D., Vo, A. H., et al. (2008). Post-combat invincibility: Violent combat experiences are associated with increased risk-taking propensity following deployment. Journal of Psychiatric Research , 42 (13), 1112-1121. https://doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2008.01.001

Monson, C. M., Fredman, S. J., & Adair, K. C. (2008). Cognitive-behavioral conjoint therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: Application to operation enduring and Iraqi freedom veterans. Journal of Clinical Psychology , 64 , 958-971. https://doi:10.1002/jclp.20511

Paulson, D. S., & Krippner, S. (2007). Haunted by combat : Understanding PTSD in war veterans including women, reservists, and those coming back from Iraq . Praeger Security International.

Tanielian, T. L., Jaycox, L., & Rand Corporation. (2008). Invisible wounds of war: Psychological and cognitive injuries, their consequences, and services to assist recovery . Rand.

United States. Congress. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. (2007). Working in a war zone: Post traumatic stress disorder in civilians returning from Iraq . G.P.O.

Van Winkle, C. (2009). Soft spots: A marine's memoir of combat and post-traumatic stress disorder . St. Martin's Press.

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My NCBI Help [Internet].

My bibliography.

Created: December 13, 2010 ; Last Revision: July 26, 2023 .

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

My Bibliography is a reference tool that helps you save your citations from PubMed or, if not found there, to manually upload a citations file, or to enter citation information using My Bibliography templates. My Bibliography provides a centralized place for your publications where citations are easily accessed, exported as a file, and made public to share with others.

When linked to an eRA account, My Bibliography includes more features which allow eRA Commons users to see whether their publications comply with the NIH Public Access Policy, to start the compliance process for their publications, and to associate their publications to awards. In addition, HRA grantees can associate their publications to their HRA awards in My Bibliography.

NCBI started the transition to use only federated account credentials for NCBI account login on June 1st, 2021. The deadline for transitioning all NCBI accounts to 3rd-party only login is June 2022. Please read the below FAQs and write to vog.hin.mln.ibcn@ofni if you have any questions.

https://ncbiinsights.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ncbi-login-retirement-faqs

Section Contents

Image mybibliography-Image001.jpg

• Viewing Citations and Making Citations Private

• Downloading Citations and Copying Citations to Collections

• Sorting, Filtering, and Searching Citations

• Deleting Citations

• Managing Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy

• Sharing My Bibliography

• Adding Delegates in My Bibliography

• Confirming a My Bibliography Connection for Delegates

  • Creating a Bibliography

There are four options to populate a My Bibliography collection with author-specific citations: directly from PubMed, using a search tool in My Bibliography to add PubMed citations, uploading citations from a file, or using a template for publications not found in PubMed. Citations to articles published by other authors can be stored in a My NCBI collection .

• Adding Citations directly from PubMed

• Adding PubMed Citations in My Bibliography

• Adding Citations from a File

• Adding Citations Manually

Adding Citations Directly from PubMed

1. Sign in to My NCBI.

2. Run an author search.

3. Select the citations you want to add to My Bibliography, and then click the “Send to” button to expand the drop-down menu

4. Select “My Bibliography”

Image mybibliography-Image002.jpg

5. In the “Add to My Bibliography” page, click Add to save the selected citations to your My Bibliography collection.

Image mybibliography-Image003.jpg

Adding PubMed Citations in My Bibliography

Use the My Bibliography search tool to add PubMed citations:

1. Sign in to My NCBI and go to My Bibliography. Click “Manage My Bibliography.”

Image mybibliography-Image004.jpg

2. Click on ‘+Add citations’ and select ‘From PubMed.’

Image mybibliography-Image005.jpg

3. Enter an author full name, or last name and initials in the search box, and click “Search PubMed.”

Image mybibliography-Image006.jpg

4. Select the citations you wish to add to your My Bibliography collection and click “Add to My Bibliography.” Close the window and the newly added citations will immediately display in My Bibliography.

Image mybibliography-Image007.jpg

Adding Citations from a File

Use a file that has your article citations in either the MEDLINE or RIS format to add citations to your My Bibliography collection.

Sign in to My NCBI and go to My Bibliography. Click “Manage My Bibliography.”

1. Click on ‘+Add citations’ and select ‘From a file.’

Image mybibliography-Image008.jpg

Upload a file with citations in either MEDLINE or RIS format. A confirmation message indicates the number of citations added to your My Bibliography collection.

Image mybibliography-Image009.jpg

In the cases where a file has citations in a format other than MEDLINE or RIS, a message will indicate that the format is not supported.

Adding Citations Manually

Use My Bibliography templates to create citations for publications not found in PubMed:

Click on ‘+Add citations’ and select ‘Manually.’

Image mybibliography-Image010.jpg

3. Select the type of publication to be entered manually: journal articles, books/chapters, meeting abstracts, presentations, patents, dataset/database, software, preprint articles and non-standard citations. Enter the publication information in the fields provided. All required fields are denoted with a red asterisk.

Image mybibliography-Image011.jpg

My Bibliography has multiple templates with fields pertinent to each type of publication (see list in the image above). For example, to enter information for preprint articles:

1. Select the option “Preprint.” All required fields are denoted with a red asterisk.

2. Enter the research manuscript title and author(s) name(s).

3. Enter the manuscript posted date. Enter revision date (if available).

4. Enter the preprint server or repository name where the manuscript is stored.

5. Enter the work assigned DOI. Note that NIH preference is to include DOI information. For further information on requirements, see the NIH Grants FAQ for Interim Research Products.

Image mybibliography-Image012.jpg

  • Viewing Citations and Making Citations Private

Sign in to My NCBI. To view all citations available in your bibliography, click “Manage My Bibliography” or the items number link.

My Bibliography displays citations that are included in PubMed, not published in PubMed and uploaded using a file, or created manually using My Bibliography templates. Citations included in PubMed have hyperlinked article titles . Click on each article title to view all information related to a citation that is found in the corresponding PubMed record.

Image mybibliography-Image013.jpg

When a My Bibliography collection is set as public to share with others , a URL is provided to a public view of your bibliography. The public view page displays all the citations stored in your My Bibliography collection. Using the Set to private option in Manage citations you can select citations to label as private which will not be displayed in My Bibliography’s public view page.

To label citations as private , select the citations to omit from your bibliography public view page and click the option Set to private under Manage citations.

Image mybibliography-Image014.jpg

In your My Bibliography collection page the selected citations will be labeled “private,” as shown below. These citations will not display in your bibliography public page.

Image mybibliography-Image015.jpg

  • Downloading Citations and Copying Citations to Collections

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Manage citations. also includes an option to copy citations to a new collection, or to an existing collection, by checking the boxes next to the citations to be copied and selecting the option “Copy to collection.” This option can be used to copy citations labeled “Other Citations” to an existing collection or a new collection . The Other Citations collection is no longer supported in My Bibliography 3.0 and these citations do not display in users’ My Bibliography public page.

  • The Manage citations feature includes two options for eRA Commons users: Manage awards and Compliance report PDF. These options are explained in detail in Managing Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy
  • Sorting, Filtering, and Searching Citations

In My Bibliography citations can be sorted by author name (either in ascending or descending order), by publication date (newest to oldest or oldest to newest), or by recently updated citations.

Image mybibliography-Image019.jpg

Use filter citations to limit results by citation status either public or private. Citations labeled “private” do not display in your My Bibliography public view page.

Image mybibliography-Image020.jpg

Locating citations in My Bibliography can be accomplished with ease by entering in the search box: article PMCID, citation PMID, article title words, author name, DOI, or journal title.

Image mybibliography-Image021.jpg

  • The default setting for the Sort option is to group citations by newest to oldest. Citations are sorted by the date an article was published and not the Entrez date
  • When sorting by author name, citations are sorted by the first listed authors in alphabetical order

• Meeting abstracts have two different dates: conference date and publication date. The publication date will be used to determine the sort date

• When a publication has both a print date and an Epub date, the print date will be used to sort citations

  • Deleting Citations

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  • Deleted citations can only be re-stated by loading citations from PubMed, uploading citations from a file, or entering citations manually using My Bibliography templates.
  • Managing Compliance to the NIH Public Access Policy

In My Bibliography eRA Commons users, who have awarded grants in their portfolio, are able to see whether their publications are compliant with the NIH Public Access Policy , to start the compliance process, and to associate their publications to NIH extramural awards.

• Checking your Publications Compliance Status

• Initiating the Compliance Process

• Associating Funding to your Publications

• Filtering your Publications by Awards and by Citation Status

• Viewing New Citations Linked to your Awards

• Creating a Compliance Report PDF for your Bibliography

Checking your Publications Compliance Status

Select the “eRA Commons” signing option in the NCBI login page , log in using your eRA Commons credentials, and proceed to link your eRA account to an existing NCBI account, or register for a new NCBI account.

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In the My Bibliography banner, check the citation compliance status bar for immediate feedback on the number of your publications that are non-compliant, not defined, in process, or complete. In the example below, Theodore Smith has two articles which are non-compliant, 29 not defined, two in process, and 190 articles compliant to the NIH Public Access Policy.

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Citations that have the Public Access Compliance information color coded in red are either non-compliant or not defined. Non-compliant article citations have awards associated to them, but the research article manuscripts have not been submitted to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. Non-compliant article citations do not display a PMCID. The compliance process can be started by clicking “Edit Status.”

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Not defined citations do not have awards associated to them and they do not display a PMCID. Citations that are not defined need to be identified as publications supported by NIH grants; click “Edit Status” to confirm that an article was partly or wholly supported by NIH grants. NIH funding information can be added to not defined citations by clicking the “Add award” button.

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Publications or products newly submitted to the NIHMS are considered in process and display the Public Access Compliance information color coded in blue . Note that the citation below has been assigned an NIHMS article ID number.

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Publications or products that are not funded by NIH grants, or were accepted for publication prior to April 7, 2008 (not covered by the NIH Public Access Policy), are marked as “Not Applicable-Exempted.”

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The Sort by filter has an option to help you organize your citations by Public Access Compliance.

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When selecting to sort article citations by public access compliance , the group of not defined citations will move to the top, followed by non-compliant citations, compliance in process, compliance complete, and last, not applicable-exempted article citations.

Initiating Public Access Compliance

Initiate the compliance process in My Bibliography, for not defined or non-compliant citations, by clicking “Edit Status” to activate the pop-up wizard.

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Citations that are not defined (citations that do not have grant associations) need to be identified as publications of research activities supported by NIH grants.

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Citations that are non-compliant (citations that have NIH grant associations) will be directed to a compliance status pop-up form where you will be able to begin an article submission to the NIH Manuscript Submission program (NIHMS), provide the NIHMS ID for your publication to change article compliance status to in process, confirm that other arrangements have been made with journal publishers or PubMed Central, or determine if your articles are exempt from the NIH Public Access policy.

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Associating Funding to your Publications

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Select the appropriate funding institution tab and choose the pertinent award ID(s) from the award list presented to you in either “My awards” or “Other awards.” Your selections will be saved automatically. To remove awards from your citations, uncheck the checkbox next to an award. Your citations will be updated immediately.

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In the “Search/Add other awards” tab, you can search for awards using a grant number, award title, or grantee name. The search box includes an auto-complete feature, which provides a list of possible grant number or grantee name matches.

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A list of grantee names affiliated with the selected grant number will be provided. Check the award(s) you wish to associate to a citation in your bibliography and the selected award(s) will be automatically saved in the “Other Awards” section. Afterwards you will be able to associate the newly selected awards to other citations in your bibliography.

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Filtering your Publications by Awards and by Citation Status

Filter citations is a feature of My Bibliography that helps you limit citation results by awards associated to your publications. Filter citations lists all the grants associated with your citations that are stored in My Bibliography. Click “Filter citations” and select one or more awards by which to limit your citation results.

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Use filter citations to limit results by citation status either public or private. Citations labeled “private” do not display in your My Bibliography public view page. See, Making Citations Private .

Viewing New Citations Linked to your Awards

My Bibliography will notify award owners when citations have been associated to their awards and added to their My Bibliography collection. Once a citation is associated to a grant in My Bibliography or the association is made via the NIH Manuscript Submission system, the article-grant association will be included in the corresponding PubMed citation, and it will be linked to the grant in the NIH research activities database as well.

My Bibliography will automatically add PubMed citations to your bibliography based on new associations made to grants awarded to you. A message will be displayed, which will provide a link to review the newly linked citations. In the image below, 82 article citation-award associations were found. The alert message will remain until it is dismissed by clicking the X on the right.

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For citations created manually, My Bibliography will look for citations newly added to PubMed and it will alert you to the matches it found. In the image above, the second alert lists 4 citation matches found. A link is provided to view the citation matches and to either confirm or reject them. In the cases where manually created citations differ significantly from the article citation provided by the journal publisher to PubMed, it is possible that a match would not be found. In those cases, delete the manually created citations and use “ + Add citations” to add citations directly from PubMed .

  • Grant owners can remove article-grant associations made by other users.
  • In the case of citations created manually in My Bibliography, only grant owners can associate their grants to these citations.

Creating an Award Compliance Report PDF for your Bibliography

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It is possible to sort citations by public access compliance before selecting citations to include a compliance report, select the option “Public Access Compliance” in the Sort by drop-down list.

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In the Export - PDF report pop-up, enter the First, Middle, and Last name to appear in the report and a starting page number. Do not enter a page number if you prefer to enter the page numbers directly on the report pages.

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The resulting PDF will have the information entered in the First, Middle and Last Name fields on the upper right corner of all the pages included in the report. The compliance status will be shown in the first column and the corresponding citations will be listed in the second column. Pagination will be displayed at the bottom of the page.

  • Sharing My Bibliography

Citations stored in My Bibliography can be shared with others using the personal public URL found in your My Bibliography collection. The My Bibliography public page displays all the citations currently stored in your My Bibliography collection that are not labeled as private (see Making Citations Private ). Citations in this public page can be sorted by recently updated, newest to oldest, oldest to newest, author name in descending or ascending order.

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• Any time someone uses the My Bibliography public URL to see a My Bibliography collection; retrieval will include all the citations currently stored in My Bibliography except for citations labeled “private” or labeled “Other citations.” The Other Citations collection is no longer supported in My Bibliography 3.0 and these citations do not display in users My Bibliography public page.

• Adding or deleting citations does not require an update to the My Bibliography public URL.

  • Adding Delegates in My Bibliography

My Bibliography users can grant access to other persons (delegates) to view and manage their My Bibliography collection. The delegates will then be able to add or to remove citations in a collection and they will be able to associate citations to grants as well. Delegate invitations are initiated by NCBI account owners.

The option to add a delegate is available in the My NCBI account settings page. To add a delegate to manage your My Bibliography collection:

Log in to your NCBI account and click on your username (top right corner of page) to access the Account Settings page. The Account Settings page can also be accessed in My Bibliography by clicking on your username (top right corner) and selecting “Account Settings.”

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Go to the “Delegates” section and click “Add a Delegate.”

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3. Enter the delegate’s e-mail address and click OK.

4. Your delegate will receive an e-mail with a URL that leads to an access confirmation page. After a delegate confirms the connection to your account, access to the account will be enabled.

• The Delegates section of the Account Settings page displays a list of all the delegates granted access to your My Bibliography collection.

• In the Delegates section you may add or remove delegates as well as modify the access granted.

  • Confirming a My Bibliography Connection for Delegates

Delegates are persons who are granted access by My Bibliography collection owners to view and manage their bibliographies. Delegates can add and remove citations in My Bibliography and check whether a publication is compliant with the NIH Public Access policy.

Delegate invitations are initiated by My Bibliography collection owners. The collection owners log in to their My NCBI accounts and select to add a delegate. A confirmation e-mail will be sent to the delegate(s) added to the NCBI account.

To confirm the connection:

Delegates must sign into their personal NCBI account before replying to the confirmation e-mail. To register for a NCBI account, go to https://www ​.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/

Respond to the confirmation e-mail from NCBI by clicking on the URL provided.

Click on the "Confirm Connection" button. Under Collections you should see a link for the bibliography for which you are a delegate along with a link to your personal bibliography. Note that these are separate bibliographies.

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • What is a DOI? Most online journal articles and e-books have a DOI. It is a unique identifier that provides a persistent link to the location of the content, and it should be provided in the reference where it is available. This alphanumeric string is usually located on the first page with other referencing elements in both print and online articles. All DOIs start with a 10 followed by a full stop, e.g. doi:10.1111/jan.12128
  • They can also be formatted as a URL, and this is the format used in APA 7th. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12128
  • Always include the DOI for works that have a DOI regardless of whether you have accessed the print or online version. If an online article has a DOI then you do not need to include a URL.
  • If a work does not have a DOI, for further guidance refer to the APA Style website, DOIs and URLs
  • DOI or URL hyperlinks can be formatted in blue text and underlined (the default setting for Microsoft), or in plain text that is not underlined, but links should be live if the work is to be read or published online.

(Author's surname, Year)

This was seen in an Australian study (Couch, 2017).

Couch (2017) suggests that . . .

Two authors

(Author 1’s surname & Author 2’s surname, Year)

(Zheng & Labeke, 2017)

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(First author’s surname et al., Year)

(De Keyser et al., 2019)

De Keyser et al. (2019) . . .

  • Go to  Getting started >  In-text citation  to view other examples such as multiple authors.

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright year). Title of book (Edition.). Publisher.

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright year). Title of book (Edition.). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Coronel, C., & Morris, S. (2019). Database systems: Design, implementation, and management (13th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Foster, E. & Godbole, S. (2014). Database systems: A pragmatic approach . Apress. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-0877-9

  • e-books are cited in the same way as print books but with the addition of a DOI (Digital Object Identifier).
  • No edition information is required for first editions. For subsequent editions include edition information after the title in parentheses, e.g. (2nd ed.).

Edited book

Editor, A. A., & Editor, B. B. (Eds.). (Copyright year). Title of book (Edition.). Publisher.

Editor, A. A., & Editor, B. B. (Eds.). (Copyright year). Title of book (Edition.). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Bruyère, S. M. (Ed.). (2016). Disability and employer practices: Research across the disciplines . Cornell University Press.

Gonida, E. N., & Lemos, M. S. (Eds.). (2019). Advances in motivation and achievement: Vol. 20. Motivation in education at a time of global change: Theory, research and implications for practice . Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0749-7423201920

Chapter in an edited book

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright year). Title of chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (Edition., pp. xxx–xxx). Publisher.

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright year). Title of chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (Edition., pp. xxx–xxx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Moye, J., & Wood, E. (2020). Understanding legal and clinical capacities. In J. Moye (Ed.), Assessing capacities of older adults: A casebook to guide difficult decisions (pp. 9–23). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000184-002

Book, republished in translation

For the in-text reference, give the date of the original book followed by the date of translation.

(Aubert, 2001/2007).

Author, A. A. (Copyright year). Title of book . (A. A. Translator, Trans.). Publisher. (Original work published xxxx)

Aubert, L. ( 2007). The music of the other: New challenges for ethnomusicology in a global age (C. Ribeiro, Trans.). Ashgate. (Original work published 2001)

Manuscript submitted for publication

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year work completed). Title of work [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Department Name. University Name.

Ralph, G. J., & Maloney, L. M. (2020). Investigations into social distancing policies: Urban versus rural areas [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Department of Disease Prevention. Challenge University.

Custom textbooks

See Custom textbooks in the Course materials guide.

For further guidance, see the APA Style website - Book references , Chapter references , Missing reference information

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Truman Capote Thought Answered Prayers Would Be His Defining Work. Instead, It Became His Downfall

The author’s unfinished novel and the real-life friendships it ruined are the subject of the new season of the FX series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans .

lee radziwill standing next to truman capote who is holding an emmy trophy and the both of them smiling

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“The novel is called, Answered Prayers ; and, if all goes well, I think it will answer mine,” he wrote in a letter to publisher Random House . But instead of offering any sort of divine intervention, the book eventually ruined Capote’s social circle and sent the famous writer on a calamitous path toward his death.

The salacious contents of Capote’s posthumous work are at the center of the second season of the FX anthology series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans . Beginning Wednesday on FX with episodes available next-day on Hulu , it stars Tom Hollander as Capote and an ensemble cast including Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, and Demi Moore .

Based on the book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer, Feud tells the story of Capote and the group of New York City socialites he befriended at the height of his popularity and affectionately called “the Swans.” But the author forever changed the course of his book—and his life—when he decided to publicize the scandalous secrets of his confidantes in the mid-1970s.

Answered Prayers was troubled from the start

While Capote seemed eager to get to work on Answered Prayers , the novel was quickly moved to the background for another project. In 1959, Capote and friend Harper Lee traveled to investigate the murders of the Clutter family in rural Kansas for an article for The New Yorker . Instead, the trip was only the beginning of a years-long saga that resulted with the publication of In Cold Blood in 1965. Capote’s full-length nonfiction crime book was a huge success. It became the best-selling book of the decade, made him a millionaire, and introduced the craft of narrative nonfiction.

author truman capote holding hands between his friends gloria guinness and barbara paley

By this time, Capote’s fame had helped him fully integrate among New York’s elite. He threw lavish parties and loved gossiping with his socialite friends he called the Swans . Among his primary companions were Barbara “Babe” Paley, Lee Radziwill, C.Z. Guest, Slim Keith, Marella Agnelli, and Gloria Guinness. Their interactions and shared secrets would lay the foundation for Answered Prayers —if Capote could ever get around to writing it.

In 1966, he and Random House signed a formal contract for the book. Capote received a $25,000 advance, and his due date was January 1, 1968. That deadline wasn’t met, and according to Vanity Fair , the two sides amended their agreement four more times over the next decade-plus. The financial offer for Capote eventually climbed as high as $1 million for a completed novel in 1981.

According to author Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott who wrote the book Swan Song , Capote was a perfectionist, sometimes rewriting dozens of pages just to change a handful of words, and prone to writer’s block. Even still, this doesn’t seem to explain his procrastination on Answered Prayers. The book felt doomed from the start, and the contents of its first three chapters sealed that fate.

Capote was warned about the book’s contents

Capote always envisioned Answered Prayers as a roman á clef , or a novel in which real people and places are disguised in fictional form. In this case, those people were his real-life friends in tales of graphic violence, sexual infidelity, drug use, and betrayal. So why would Capote risk their support publishing such a book?

For one, his success after In Cold Blood had significantly waned. He had commissions for Rolling Stone magazine that went unfiled, and his 1973 collection of nonfiction writings titled The Dogs Bark received tepid reviews. A book like Answered Prayers would certainly recapture the public’s attention for better or worse.

Capote submitted the proposed first chapter, “Mojave,” to Esquire . It published in 1975 without much controversy, even though it was apparent the subjects were Paley and her husband Bill, the founder of CBS. Although he later decided to withhold this chapter from the novel, an encouraged Capote moved forward with the next one, titled “La Côte Basque, 1965.”

Gerald Clarke, Capote’s biographer, expressed his concern that this next segment wouldn’t be received well. “I was reading it while Truman was floating in the pool on a raft. I said, ‘People aren’t going to be happy with this, Truman,’” Clarke recalled . “He said, ‘Nah, they’re too dumb. They won’t know who they are.’ He could not have been more wrong.”

The Swans quickly cut off Capote

Capote left New York City as soon as “La Côte Basque, 1965” published in Esquire ’s November 1975 issue, as he began rehearsing for an upcoming film role in Los Angeles. But he couldn’t escape the swift fallout. “The minute he published that second extract in Esquire , it was like detonating a bomb,” author Greenberg-Jephcott said . “Everyone turned on him, he was a persona non grata.”

Babe Paley, who was ill with lung cancer at the time, never spoke to Capote again. According to Penguin Random House , he wasn’t invited to her funeral after she died in July 1978. Capote attempted to reach Slim Keith by telephone and cable, but she didn’t reply. She did, however, consult a lawyer about suing him for libel, according to Vanity Fair .

Most shocking of all, Ann Woodward was found dead on October 10, 1975, just days before the chapter published. According to Vanity Fair , many believed Woodward—who in 1955 shot and killed her husband, though a grand jury later deemed it an accident—had seen an advance copy of “La Côte Basque” and its interpretation of her story then died by self-inflicted poisoning.

Lee Radziwill, the younger sister of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis , wasn’t prominently featured and had a more muted reaction to Capote and the piece. “He was absolutely in shock... he’d say, ‘But I’m a journalist—everybody knows that I’m a journalist!’ I just don’t think he realized what he was doing, because, God, did he pay for it,” she said .

Capote also cited the artistic value of the novel as a defense, suggesting he naively assumed no one would care. “What did they expect? I’m a writer, and I use everything. Did all those people think I was there just to entertain them?” he once asked . Capote published two more chapters, “Unspoiled Monsters” and “Kate McCloud,” over the next year, but the irreparable damage was already done.

Capote spiraled after “La Côte Basque”

andy warhol, truman capote, and debbie harry all sitting at a table at a nightclub

Now shunned by his friends and the café society they inhabited, Capote relied increasingly on drugs and alcohol to cope. According to Vanity Fair , he gained weight and spent much of his time at the famed Studio 54 nightclub, where he mingled with artist Andy Warhol , actor and singer Liza Minnelli , and others.

PBS writes that Capote abused cocaine, tranquilizers, and marijuana throughout the ’70s and had multiple stays in rehab. C.Z. Guest, who remained loyal to the author, even accompanied him to a clinic in Minnesota in 1978. But the uproar over Answered Prayers only exacerbated Capote’s struggles, and he became prone to public drunkenness and seizures.

In July 1978, Capote appeared inebriated on The Stanley Siegel Show in New York City. The host bluntly asked him, “What’s going to happen unless you lick this problem of drugs and alcohol?” Not even comprehending what he was saying, Capote grimly responded, “The obvious answer is that eventually I’ll kill myself.”

By this time, a clearly troubled Capote admitted he had stopped working on Answered Prayers , as he was “suffering a creative crisis and a personal one at the same time.” His relationship with longtime partner Jack Dunphy had deteriorated, and according to Vanity Fair , he was involved in a court dispute with another lover John O’Shea, whom he accused of running off with the manuscript for another chapter “Severe Insult to the Brain.” The suit was dropped in 1981.

The true fate of the Answered Prayers manuscript is unknown

Sick and exhausted, Capote traveled to Los Angeles in August 1984 to stay with longtime friend Joanne Carson, the second wife of late-night TV host Johnny Carson . On August 25, Carson entered her guest bedroom to find Capote struggling to breathe with a weak pulse. She said the author uttered the phrases “Beautiful Babe” and “Answered Prayers,” but he died before paramedics could arrive to help.

Answered Prayers by Truman Capote

Answered Prayers by Truman Capote

An unfinished version of Answered Prayers , which contained the three chapters previously seen in Esquire , published in the United Kingdom in 1986 and the United States a year later. However, the fate of the full version Capote originally conceptualized remains a mystery.

He had cryptically given Carson a key for an undisclosed safe-deposit box the day before his death, telling her the other chapters “will be found when they want to be found.” But, they were never discovered.

Another friend Joe Petrocik, who claimed to have seen a full manuscript from Capote, thought the writer might have stowed it away at a Greyhound bus depot during his 1978 college tour. Yet another theory is that Capote simply destroyed it after realizing the work didn’t meet his lofty expectations.

Meanwhile, biographer Clarke and others believed Capote simply abandoned the project, likely due to the backlash it generated. “Like other unfinished novels— [Charles] Dickens ’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood, for example, or [F. Scott] Fitzgerald ’s The Last Tycoon— the abbreviated Answered Prayers is tantalizingly incomplete. Yet, like them, it is substantial enough to be read, enjoyed and, to a limited degree, judged on its own merits,” he wrote .

In any case, the story of Answered Prayers provides a fascinating glimpse into Capote’s thoughts on friendship and social class, as well as the infamous feud it sparked.

Headshot of Tyler Piccotti

Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff in 2023, and before that had worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University, an avid sports fan, a frequent moviegoer, and trivia buff.

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A jazzy new biography unfurls Ella Fitzgerald’s life and career

Blending historical knowledge with insights gleaned from newly available archives of black newspapers, judith tick recounts ella  fitzgerald’s trailblazing career..

As an aspiring performer, a teenage Ella Fitzgerald competed in the famed Harlem Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in New York. She had intended to dance, but when the act preceding hers was a dance number, Fitzgerald made a last-minute decision to sing instead. Visibly nervous, she initially drew ridicule from the audience. Pushing past her fear, Fitzgerald delivered a performance that helped launch her iconic career, which spanned the 20th century, shaped the American songbook, and established Fitzgerald as one of the preeminent singers of the modern era.

In “Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song,” Judith Tick recounts the performer’s remarkable career and the impact it had on both the music scene and American society. A professor emerita of music history at Northeastern University, Tick blends her understanding of the era with recent interviews and newly accessible digital copies of Black-owned newspapers of the time. 

Tick recounts the extraordinary resistance that Fitzgerald faced – and overcame. And while the young performer’s experience at the Apollo hinted at the professional success that would follow, Fitzgerald continued to defy personal and professional expectations.

Her success was by no means assured. Born in 1917, Fitzgerald grew up in one of the poorest sections of Yonkers, New York. By all accounts, she was a shy girl, although she aspired to be a dancer and would often sing for her friends. Local competitions provided her with early experience and exposure. 

But it was her 1934 appearance at the Apollo that revealed another talent – Fitzgerald’s ability to connect with almost any audience. That skill graced her entire career and allowed her to expand beyond the class and racial restrictions of the day as she blazed new musical ground. She contributed to the development of bebop and blurred the line between jazz and pop music. 

Tick describes how the contest at the Apollo caught the attention of Chick Webb, who invited Fitzgerald to join his band, a partnership that extended through the decade and anchored both of their careers. “Girl singers,” as Tick explains, were common during the era. Usually young and attractive, they would accompany big bands more as novelty acts than as vocalists. Down Beat magazine and other industry publications called these vocalists “decorative furniture,” as they casually referred to the women’s inferiority as musicians. 

Against this sexist backdrop, Fitzgerald and Webb enjoyed an extraordinary collaboration. And when Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald assumed the leadership of the band. In the decades that followed, her work with Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, and Louis Armstrong continued to chart new paths. She and Armstrong shared top billing in a 1956 concert, a remarkable achievement for a female singer at the time. 

Tick places Fitzgerald’s experiences in the context of each decade. Her research is enriched by access to Black-owned newspapers, including the Baltimore Afro-American and The Pittsburgh Courier. Comparing these press accounts with what was published in mainstream news outlets, Tick reveals how the very private Fitzgerald tended to be more candid with the Black press. For example, the singer voiced her dissatisfaction with the management of Decca Records. 

Fitzgerald’s impact extended beyond music. Her growing success, and the press it garnered, stood in contrast to legally sanctioned segregation. “The more famous she became,” Tick writes, “the more she drew press attention when racial discrimination was involved.” 

In one example, Pan American Airways bumped Fitzgerald from her first-class seat, putting her and her band in the back of the plane, a practice that echoed public buses at the time. While the airline was willing to reinstate her reservation, she refused when they would not also seat her band. 

Fitzgerald accomplished all of this while largely keeping her personal life out of the tabloids. She kept the focus on her music as she further defied expectations, interpreting the American songbook, blending jazz with pop, and expanding the music – and its influence – across audiences of different races and social classes.

Judith Tick proves to be the astute biographer that Fitzgerald deserves.

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  • How to Cite a Book in Chicago Style | Format & Examples

How to Cite a Book in Chicago Style | Format & Examples

Published on May 10, 2021 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on December 5, 2022.

Chicago Reference Generator

The basic formats for citing a book in a Chicago footnote and a bibliography entry are as follows:

Short notes always follow the same basic format. Full notes and bibliography entries contain additional information if the book specifies an edition, translator, or editor, and follow a specific format when citing an individual chapter in a book.

Note that book citations look slightly different in Chicago author-date style . In both cases, make sure to pay attention to the punctuation (e.g., commas , quotation marks , and periods) in your notes and citations.

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Citing a specific edition, translated books, citing a chapter from a book, e-books and online books, citing books in chicago author-date style, frequently asked questions about chicago style citations.

Scholarly books often come in different editions with important differences in content. When edition information (e.g., “Second Edition,” “Revised Edition”) is stated on the cover and/or title page of the book, it should be included in your citation.

Edition information is always abbreviated and followed by a period (e.g., “2nd ed.” or “rev. ed.”).

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When a book is translated from another language, it’s important to identify the translator as well as the author. “Translated by” is abbreviated to “trans.” in the citation.

In the bibliography, the words “Translated by” are written in full. The translator’s name is not inverted, unlike that of the author.

When referring to a chapter from a multi-authored book (such as an essay collection or anthology), cite the specific chapter rather than the whole book. This means listing the author and title of the chapter first, then providing information about the book as a whole.

The editor’s name is preceded by “ed.” in a note and by “edited by” in the bibliography. A page range is included in the bibliography entry to show the location of the chapter in the book.

A short note just lists the chapter title, not that of the book, and omits the editor’s name.

When citing a book you accessed online or in the form of an e-book, simply add relevant information about its format or location to the end of your citation.

Note that books in these formats might lack reliable page numbers. If there are no page numbers, or page numbers that would look different for another user, use another locator in your notes instead, such as a chapter number.

For an online book, add the URL or DOI where it can be accessed.

For an e-book, add the format or device name (e.g., “Kindle,” “iBooks”). You don’t need to add a URL or DOI in this case.

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In author-date style , books are cited with brief in-text citations corresponding to entries in a reference list. A reference list looks the same as a bibliography, except that the year is placed directly after the author’s name.

  • Translation
  • Online book

In a Chicago style footnote , list up to three authors. If there are more than three, name only the first author, followed by “ et al. “

In the bibliography , list up to 10 authors. If there are more than 10, list the first seven followed by “et al.”

The same rules apply in Chicago author-date style .

To automatically generate accurate Chicago references, you can use Scribbr’s free Chicago reference generator .

Page numbers should be included in your Chicago in-text citations when:

  • You’re quoting from the text.
  • You’re paraphrasing a particular passage.
  • You’re referring to information from a specific section.

When you’re referring to the overall argument or general content of a source, it’s unnecessary to include page numbers.

In Chicago notes and bibliography style , the usual standard is to use a full note for the first citation of each source, and short notes for any subsequent citations of the same source.

However, your institution’s guidelines may differ from the standard rule. In some fields, you’re required to use a full note every time, whereas in some other fields you can use short notes every time, as long as all sources are listed in your bibliography . If you’re not sure, check with your instructor.

  • A reference list is used with Chicago author-date citations .
  • A bibliography is used with Chicago footnote citations .

Both present the exact same information; the only difference is the placement of the year in source citations:

  • In a reference list entry, the publication year appears directly after the author’s name.
  • In a bibliography entry, the year appears near the end of the entry (the exact placement depends on the source type).

There are also other types of bibliography that work as stand-alone texts, such as a Chicago annotated bibliography .

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Caulfield, J. (2022, December 05). How to Cite a Book in Chicago Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved February 15, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/chicago-style/book-citations/

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Anne Edwards, Best-Selling ‘Queen of Biography,’ Dies at 96

She profiled Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Ronald Reagan. She also profiled herself, in two memoirs and an autobiography.

A portrait of Anne Edwards, a woman with bright red hair wearing a red blouse and a patterned scarf. Her chin is resting on her left hand, and her right hand is on her left shoulder.

By Sam Roberts

Anne Edwards, a prodigious and peripatetic author who published best-selling books about the actresses Vivien Leigh and Katharine Hepburn as well as 14 other celebrity biographies, eight novels, three children’s books, two memoirs and one autobiography, died on Jan. 20 in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 96.

Her daughter, Catherine Edwards Sadler, said she died of lung cancer at a senior living facility.

A child performer on radio and the stage, Ms. Edwards sold her first screenplay in 1949, when she was 22 (the movie “Quantez,” a western starring Fred MacMurray, was released in 1957); her first novel (the mystery “The Survivors”) in 1968; and her first biography (of Judy Garland) in 1975. Her “Vivien Leigh: A Biography” (1977) spent 19 weeks on The New York Times’s hardcover best-seller list.

Reviewing that book for The Times , Richard R. Lingeman wrote that Ms. Edwards “has, with tact, sympathy and intelligence, given us an admirable portrait of Vivien Leigh that is a portrait of an admirable lady.”

Ms. Edwards said that she chose the subjects of her biographies — they also included Sonya Tolstoy, the wife of Leo Tolstoy — for the themes she believed they personified.

“Vivien, Judy and Sonya were vastly interesting people and symbolic of certain things,” she told Publishers Weekly. “Judy, the exploitation of a woman; Vivien, somebody who suffered from manic depression; Sonya, an intelligent woman subjugated to a man who used her, drained her, made a villain of her.”

Ms. Edwards also wrote biographies of, among others, Maria Callas, Ronald Reagan , Barbra Streisand and Diana, Princess of Wales. Her screenwriting credits include the British thriller “A Question of Adultery” (1958), starring Julie London, which was released in the United States as “The Case of Mrs. Loring,” and, with Sidney Buchman, and early and unused drafts of the screenplay for “Funny Girl” (1968).

Kirkus Reviews proclaimed her “the queen of biography.”

Her novels included “Haunted Summer” (1974), about the author Mary Shelley and the poet Lord Byron, which was adapted into a film in 1988.

Shortly after her biography of Vivien Leigh was published, Ms. Edwards was hired by the Zanuck-Brown Company to write a story that could be adapted as a film sequel to “Gone With the Wind,” in which Miss Leigh had memorably played Scarlett O’Hara. Because of a conflict with the estate of the novel’s author, Margaret Mitchell, the sequel was completed but never published and the movie was never made.

Anne Louise Josephson was born on Aug. 20, 1927, in Port Chester, N.Y., just north of New York City. Her father, Milton, was a traveling clothes salesman. Her mother, Marian (Fish) Josephson, managed the home.

The family moved to California in the late 1930s at the invitation of an uncle, Dave Chasen , a comedian whose West Hollywood restaurant, Chasen’s, which he opened in 1936, had become a magnet for movie stars.

She appeared onstage in children’s acting, singing and dancing ensembles and tap-danced on radio. But, she wrote in her autobiography, “Leaving Home” (2012), “My dream was never to be a star (or even a supporting player) but to write.” After appearing with the Meglin Kiddies, she joined the rival Gus Edwards troupe. By the time she graduated from high school, she had adopted Edwards as her surname.

Ms. Edwards studied writing at the University of California, Los Angeles (where she later taught), from 1945 to 1946 while working in a junior writers’ program for MGM. She also studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas from 1947 to 1948.

After being bedridden with polio for a year, she gravitated overseas, living in expatriate communities in Britain, Switzerland and France from the mid-1950s until 1973. When she returned to the United States, she lived in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York before returning to Beverly Hills.

In 1947, she married Harvey E. Wishner, whose uncle, the writer and director Robert Rossen, helped introduce her to Hollywood screenwriting. That marriage ended in divorce, as did her second marriage, to the producer Leon Becker. In addition to her daughter, from her first marriage, she is survived by a son, Michael Edwards, also from that marriage; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Her third husband, the author and songwriter Stephen Citron, whom she married in 1980, died in 2013.

Ms. Edwards, who was president of the Authors Guild in 1981, lamented the dearth of women working in creative roles in Hollywood when she was starting out. Mostly, she told Film International in 2013, “women were either actresses or they were script girls, secretaries or in the wardrobe department. There were a few women writers employed at studios.”

She said that she wrote “Leaving Home” in part to expose the pressures that the Red Scare of the 1950s had placed on Hollywood professionals who had been blacklisted, or feared they would be, to move to Europe. (Jonathan Yardley, in reviewing the book in The Washington Post , took her to task for claiming “membership in a persecuted group to which she did not belong,” which he called “distasteful at best, dishonest at worst.”)

Writing about her life wasn’t difficult, Ms. Edwards said. “There comes a time, and I am at that age, when you have to take your life in your arms and hold it to you to keep it breathing,” she said in 2013. “It was a necessity.

“Writing is a lifeline to me,” she added. “I need it to breathe.”

Sam Roberts is an obituaries reporter for The Times, writing mini-biographies about the lives of remarkable people. More about Sam Roberts

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Energy & Environmental Science

Asymmetrically coordinated zncofe hetero-trimetallic atom catalyst enhances electrocatalytic oxygen reaction.

Synthesizing heterometal atomic sites with asymmetric coordination structures is of great significance for improving the electrocatalytic performance of atomically dispersed catalysts, yet it is also a challenge. Herein, an unusual ZnCoFe hetero-trimetallic atom site is elaborately developed with the nitrogen-coordinated Co and Zn atoms adjacent to the sulfur/nitrogen dual-coordinated Fe atoms (ZnN3CoN3FeN2S) anchored in sulfur/nitrogen-doped carbon via a simple two-step wet chemistry strategy based on metal-organic framework (MOF) and post-coordination process. The ZnCoFe-TAC/SNC shows the smallest ∆E of 0.676 V, indicating an outstanding bifunctional catalytic activity. Further, the ZnCoFe-TAC/SNC-based Zn-air battery displays high peak power density (304 mW cm-2) and specific capacity (760 mAh g-1). The in-situ XAS results show that Co is the main active site, and Fe is a co-catalytic site. Zn acts as an “electron regulator” to regulate the electron structures around the catalytic sites. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further reveal the synergetic effect of the interactions among Zn, Co, and Fe metal atoms on the catalytic performance. This work provides a universal insight into the controllable synthesis of trimetallic atom catalysts and a proposal for regulating the performance in energy conversion and catalytic applications.

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C. Chen, J. Chai, M. Sun, T. Guo, J. Lin, Y. Zhou, Z. Sun, F. Zhang, L. Zhang, W. Chen and Y. Li, Energy Environ. Sci. , 2024, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D4EE00134F

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COMMENTS

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