Skip to Main Content Musicians Institute Library

Guide to Citations

A guide for everyone explaining basics of different types of Citation: What their purposes are, how to do them, and why they are important.

Periodicals

Basic Footnote Format

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Article Title," Journal Title VolumeNumber, no. IssueNumber (Year): PageNumbers, doi/link.

Basic Bibliographic Format

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. "Article Title." Journal Title VolumeNumber, no. IssueNumber (Year): PageNumbers. doi/link.

  • NOTE: A "doi" is digital object identifier. It act similarly to a barcode in that it identifies the article regardless of what database it's published in. It can be used instead of a URL or a name of a database and is often preferable to those, because it's more permanent.°

°University of Illinois, Chicago. "What is a DOI and how to I use them in citations?" Accessed November 21, 2019. https://library.uic.edu/help/article/1966/what-is-a-doi-and-how-do-i-use-them-in-citations.

Example Citation for an Academic Journal Article

¹Bruno Nettl, "Persian Popular Music in 1969," Ethnomusicology 16, no. 2 (1972), 222, doi:10.2307/849722.

  • This is the footnote for the first time the article is cited.

²Nettl, "Persian Popular Music in 1969," [page number].

  • This is the footnote for every instance after the first that the article is cited.

Nettl, Bruno. "Persian Popular Music in 1969." Ethnomusicology 16, no. 2 (1972): 218-39. doi:10.2307/849722.

  • This is the bibliographic citation at the end of the paper. There are page numbers here which represent the pages within the journal that the article is on.

Basic Footnote Format

ReviewAuthorFirstname ReviewAuthorLastName, "Review," Review of "Title of Work Being Reviewed," by OriginalAuthorFirstName OriginalAuthorLastName and OriginalAuthorFirstName OriginalAuthorLastName, JournalName VolumeNumber, no. IssueNumber (Month YYY): Pagenumbers, doiNumber.

Basic Bibliographic Format

ReviewAuthorLastName, ReviewAuthorFirstname. "Review." Review of "Title of Work Being Reviewed"

by OriginalAuthorFirstName OriginalAuthorLastName and OriginalAuthorFirstName 

OriginalAuthorLastName. JournalName VolumeNumber, no. IssueNumber (Month YYY): Pagenumbers. doiNumber.

Example Citation for a Book Review

Michael Breen, "Review," Review of "Sounds of Then, Sounds of Now," by Shane Homan and Tony Mitchell, Popular Music 28, no. 3, October 2009, JSTOR, [page number].

  • This is the footnote for the first time the article is cited.

Breen, "Review," [page number]

  • This is the footnote for every instance after the first that the article is cited.

Breen, Michael. "Review." Review of "Sounds of Then, Sounds of Now," by Shane Homan and Tony Mitchell. Popular Music 28, no. 3. October 2009. JSTOR. 

  • This is the bibliographic citation at the end of the paper.

Basic Footnote Format

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Title of Article," NewspaperName, Date of Publication, PageNumber.

Basic Bibliographic Citation

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. "Title of Article." NewspaperName. Date of Publication.

Example Citation for a Newspaper article

Lindsay Zoladz, "Is There Anything We Can All Agree On? Yes: Dolly Parton," New York Times, November 21, 2019, [page number].

  • This is the footnote for the first time the article is cited.
  • Note that this is actually an online article, but I'm citing it as if it were a physical article. The only difference is that with the online version, I'd put the URL. See Web Articles for an example.

Zoladz, "Dolly Parton," [page number].

  • This is the footnote for every instance after the first that the article is cited.

Zoladz, Lindsay. "Is There Anything We Can All Agree On? Yes: Dolly Parton." New York Times. November 21, 2019.

  • This is the bibliographic citation at the end of the paper.

Example of a Magazine Article

Ralph Bond, "Why We Need A Quota Act," in Film & TV Technician, January 1957, Media History Project, 3.

  • This is the footnote for the first time the article is cited.

Bond, "Why We Need A Quota Act."

  • This is the footnote for every instance after the first that the article is cited.

Bond, Ralph. "Why We Need A Quota Act." In Film & TV Technician. January 1957. Media History Project.

  • This is the bibliographic citation at the end of the paper.

Basic Footnote Format

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Title of Article," NewspaperName, Date of Publication, PageNumber, Link

Basic Bibliographic Citation

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. "Title of Article." NewspaperName. Date of Publication. Link.

Example of a Newspaper/Magazine Article on the Web

David Lewis, "2020 Grammy nominations complete list: See who’s up for what," Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-11-20/la-et-ms-2020-grammy-nominations-winners-list-2020.

  • This is the footnote for the first time the article is cited.

Lewis, "2020 Grammy nominations complete list."

  • This is the footnote for every instance after the first that the article is cited.

Lewis, David. "2020 Grammy nominations complete list: See who’s up for what." Los Angeles Times. November 20, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-11-20/la-et-ms-2020-grammy-nominations-winners-list-2020.

  • This is the bibliographic citation at the end of the paper.