Getting the citations and references right can be tricky—most researchers also consider it trivial. However, journals insist that authors follow the style recommended for references meticulously. Perhaps what researchers need most is a handy source that can show by example how the bibliographic details of different kinds of sources – papers in journals, chapters in multi-author volumes, books, conference proceeding, and so on – are to be presented in many different styles, which often have terse and cryptic names (MLA, APA, Chicago, and so on).
Charles Lipson’s Cite Right [1], now in its second edition, is not only that handy guide but also offers sound advice on the whole issue of citing and referencing: why cite at all, what should be cited and what need not be cited, and so on. The book is dedicated to the author’s students, which explains how it manages to include such nuts-and-bolts matters as breaking long URLs into two or more lines, handling references to papers with very many authors, and when to include the name of the (US) state along with the name of the city in giving the place of publication, all explained in a lively style that serves to make this dry topic particularly palatable.
Whether you are a chemist, an anthropologist, an economist, or a mathematician, Cite Right will steer you clear of the minefield that citing and referencing can be.
[1] Lipson C. 2011. Cite Right: a quick guide to Citations styles—MLA, APA, Chicago, the Sciences, professions, and more. University of Chicago Press. 213 pp.
