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POLS-384: Strategies of Political Research

Identifying a Citation

There are common types of citations that you will come across as you search for academic resources. Spotting a few key differences between, say, a book and an article, will save countless hours when it comes to retrieving or requesting the item you need. This guide provides only the most succinct examples that should get you started.

Book citation:

Evans, Bryan M., and Charles W. Smith. 2014. Transforming provincial politics: The political economy of Canada's provinces and territories in the neoliberal era. Toronto [Ontario]: University of Toronto Press.

  • note the inclusion of:
    • a single title
    • a publisher
    • a geographic location (of the publisher/press)
    • a publication date is stated simply as a year
    • the lack of page numbers

Prost, Catherine. "Building thin: national identity and inclusion." In After the Nation?: Critical Reflections on Nationalism and Post-Nationalism, edited by Keith Breen and Shane O'Neill, 214-33. London: Palgrave, 2010.

  • note inclusion of:
    • 2 titles (a chapter title indicated by enclosure in quotation marks; the book title indicated by italics) 
    • 2 sets of personal names (the chapter author leads the citation; the book editor(s) follow the book title and are indicated by the 'edited by' statement)
    • Use of In to indicate the book chapter is contained within a larger published work.
    • page numbers for the chapter

D'Erman, Valerie J. 2016. “Comparative intergovernmental politics: CETA negotiations between Canada and the EU.” Politics and Governance 4, no. 3 (2016): 90-9.

  • note inclusion of:
    • both an article title and a journal title
    • a volume number, and sometimes an issue number
    • and also note the lack of a geographic location and publisher/press e.g. London: Oxford University Press, which eliminates the citation being a book or book chapter

“Health Department: Memorandums of Understanding.” Health Canada, Ottawa. Accessed 10/30/2007. Available at: http://www.itk.ca/health/MOUs-Index.php

  • note inclusion of:
    • a url
    • retrieval date
    • a web citation might include an author, but often does not

If you are citing a webpage, be absolutely sure that you are not citing the online version of a journal, magazine or newspaper article. They would be cited differently!