ANTH 0128: Mesoamerican Archaeology

APA Citation Style is frequently used in the social sciences and natural/physical sciences. The first style rules were published in 1929 and the American Psychological Association has produced six editions of the Publication Manual since then.

APA style uses Parenthetical In-Text Citations within the main text of your paper. The sources that you refer to are then compiled into a References List at the end of the paper.

One key feature of APA style is that it now includes DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers), unique codes that are increasingly assigned to published articles.

Chicago Citation Style is used most often in historical research, although other humanities and social science disciplines sometimes use it as well. The first edition of the Chicago Manual of Style was published in 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. NOTE: the 18th edition of Chicago Citation Style was released in the summer of 2024.

Chicago style actually offers two different options for in-text citations:

1. Notes and Bibliography: Numbers within a paper correspond to footnotes (bottom of the page) or endnotes (end of the chapter or whole work). This is the more commonly used version of Chicago style, and typically this is the version people mean when they just say "Chicago."
    
2.  Author-Date: This version is similar to MLA, using parenthetical in-text citations within a paper.

In both variations of Chicago, the Bibliography at the end of the paper should include complete citations for all of the sources you referenced in a paper, and may also include sources that you consulted but did not end up paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting in the paper's text.

MLA Citation Style is most frequently used in the humanities (literature, languages, art). The MLA Handbook was first published by the Modern Language Association in 1951.

MLA style uses Parenthetical In-Text Citations throughout your paper, with authors and page numbers. There is also a Works Cited page at the end of the paper with full citations.

While staying organized is a key element of any successful research project, sometimes using a tool like citation management software can help, especially for large projects. Citation management software helps you store, organize, and generate your citations in your required citation style. It can be an amazing time-saving and organizational tool, but just like web-based citation generators (such as Citation Machine or the cite button in a library database), make sure to double check your citations and the information being input into the generator to make sure that your citations are accurate.

If you are interested in citation management software and want help setting it up, please feel free to ask a librarian for help.

Zotero is a very popular citation management software and accommodates a wide variety of disciplines and citation styles. Below is a link to a research guide explaining how to get started with Zotero from the Hirsch Health Sciences Library at the Boston Health Sciences Campus.