 Article citations, how to recognize them, brought to you by the John M. Fowl Library at California State University, San Bernardino. The information in this video applies to all citation styles. Many of the Fowl Library's databases will identify the items in your search results for you, however you will encounter situations where no such help is given. The ability to identify article citations as well as their individual parts is a valuable skill that will serve you well whether you are searching a database, filling out a worksheet assignment, or checking automatically generated citations for errors. So what is a citation? A citation is all the information required to accurately identify one particular article, book, chapter in a book, etc. Why are they important? Authors frequently need to consult and use the work, words, and ideas of other authors. Citations clarify for readers where the work, words, and ideas of other authors come from. Citations also give a reader the ability to find a particular article, book, or book, chapter and let them read it for themselves. Perhaps you read an article and you find an interesting quote in that article while the quote is just part of that article, you want to read the whole thing. That's where your citation will help you find it. Whether you're talking about a scholarly journal article or a magazine article, the citation will always have the same basic elements. These include the title of the article, the author or authors, the title of the journal or magazine, and it's important to note here that it may not necessarily say journal in the title of a journal. The date, some put a date, some don't, but there's always a volume number. Sometimes there's an issue number, sometimes not, and then the pages that the article appears on. Now I'd like to show you some sample article citations from four different databases. Each database will display a citation a little bit differently, but the basic elements are always there. I will begin with the one search database. I've entered my keyword search and I get the drop-down menu that lets me choose articles. So we know that all of the things we retrieve here in the search will be articles. Let's take a closer look. So what we're seeing here under number one is the title of the article, the authors for the article, the title of the journal, along with a date, the volume number 169, and the pages 269 to 275. When we click on the title of the article and go to the next screen, these items are repeated and in the same order, and now we're getting a little bit of an abstract here. So this database, one search, has a consistent look between screens for the citations. Next I'll show you the science direct database. I've entered my search and here we go. And again we'll look at that first item. Here we're only getting part of that citation information. We're seeing the title of the article, the title of the journal, along with a date there, but it's kind of cut off. There's the three dots that let us know it's continuing on with more information on the next screen, and then the list of authors. So when we click on the title of the article and go to the next screen, we're seeing in the big letters here the title of the article, the authors down below, but up above is where they put the title of the journal, along with the volume number, the date, and the pages. So this database makes it look a little bit different on that second screen. The third database is the psych info database. Again on this item number four here we're seeing the title of the article right up front. Underneath that the list of authors followed by the title of the journal, behavioral ecology, volume 31, number three with the date, and then the pages. And when we click on the title of the article and go to the next screen, this is another database that changes the appearance of the citation from one screen to another. The article title is right at the top. Followed by the authors and some detailed information if you need to get in touch with those authors. But in this database, source gives you the rest of the citation, the title of the journal, the volume, the number, the date, and the pages. The last database is sports medicine and education index. The first item that comes up here shows the article title in blue there, followed by the authors, the title of the journal, British Journal of Sports Medicine, and that one does give you a location, volume 45, and issue number 10, a date, and then the page that it begins on. Also a little snippet there of the abstract. Clicking on the title of the article takes us to the next screen, where that information is repeated pretty much in the same order. Sometimes you'll have a situation where you have a mix of citation types. So how can you tell if a particular citation is for an article, a book, or a chapter in a book? Here's an example of each kind. And in bold, you can see that the article is the only one that will have the title of a journal or magazine followed by a volume number, and sometimes by an issue number. Compare what that looks like to the book citation and the chapter in a book citation. And you'll see that they're very different. For detailed help with APA, MLA, or Chicago style, check our workshops calendar. We offer both live and recorded workshops, and you'll find those both under this button right here, workshops. Another excellent place to check for information on any of those citation styles is here in our library guides collection under the section for Citing and Writing. The end. Thanks for watching.