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 refered 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:
For websites:
This section provides two examples of the most common cited sources: a print book and an online journal retrieved from a research database.
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.
In addition, Academic OneFile provides a citation tool for help with creating citations. On the right side of the page, under the TOOLS menu, click on the citation tools link.
Article - ProQuest 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.
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.)
In addition, ProQuest provides a citation tool for help with creating citations. On the blue toolbar at the top of the page, click on the cite button.
Other databases have similar formats - look for bibliographic information under the article titles and below the article body, towards the bottom of the page.