Citation style comparison

Style	Primary field	In-text citation	Bibliography label
APA 7th	Social sciences, psychology	(Author, Year)	References
MLA 9th	Humanities, literature	(Author Page#)	Works Cited
Chicago 17th (Notes-Bibliography)	History, arts	Footnote / endnote number	Bibliography
Chicago 17th (Author-Date)	Sciences, social sciences	(Author Year)	References
IEEE	Engineering, computer science	[1], [2], [3] (numbered)	References
AMA 11th	Medicine, health sciences	Superscript number (¹)	References

In-text citation vs. bibliography entry

In-text citations appear inside the body of your writing and briefly identify the source (author, year, page). They direct the reader to the full entry in the bibliography (or works-cited page or reference list). Bibliography entries contain the full publication details needed to locate the original source.

DOI vs. URL

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent, stable link to a document that is managed by registration agencies and does not change even if the publisher moves the content. Always prefer a DOI over a URL when one is available. Format it as a hyperlink: https://doi.org/10.XXXX/XXXXXXX. A URL is only reliable if the page is stable; include an "accessed" date for web pages that may change or disappear.

Common source types: what to gather

Journal article: author(s), article title, journal name, year, volume, issue, page range, DOI
Book: author(s) or editor(s), title, edition (if not first), publisher, year, place of publication
Website: author or organization, page title, site name, publication or last-updated date, URL, accessed date
Video: creator or channel name, video title, platform (YouTube/Vimeo), upload date, URL
Social media post: account name (and @handle), text of post (truncated), platform, date, URL