What is a citation? Why do we cite information? How do we cite information? Answers to these questions and more can be found in the resources below. 

APA Style

Established by the American Psychological Association.  This style is standard for multiple disciplines including many in the Social Sciences.  The official APA style site provides robust citation examples and support.

MLA Style

Citation style established by the Modern Language Association.

Other Styles

CHICAGO, TURABIAN and CSE/CBE, HARVARD,  IEEE  

CSE/CBE refers to the citation format established by the Council of Biology Editors. CBE is the format preferred by writers in Biology, Geology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine, and Physics.

If you are publishing your work, you need to secure copyright permissions from the original copyright owner if the work contains third party content (including but limited to images, large quantities of journal or book content, tables and figures, music and other accompanying material).  Consult the library copyright web page for additional guidance on this topic: http://lib.calpoly.edu/copyright.

There are various online tools that will help you generate citations,  Some, such as EasyBib and Citation Machine, provide  a limited number of citations before asking for some form of payment. 

The OWL at Purdue has FREE citation generators for several styles. 

WARNING:DO NOT BLINDLY TRUST ANY GENERATORS, AND BE PREPARED TO ADJUST THE CITATIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE PARTICULAR STYLE, INCLUDING INDENTATION, CAPITALIZATION, ITALICIZATION, AND THE ORDER OF THE CONTENT.

It is rarely helpful to cite a database (because most works are discoverable via more than one database). 

APA Style Guidance on Citing Databases 

An exception is when the database contains proprietary information that cannot be accessed in another way, such as some of the business resources Cal Poly subscribes to (such as MRI Simmons). 

Guidance on how to cite such sources is not as detailed as for other kinds of information, so in some cases you (or your instructor) must choose an approach, with the goal of presenting enough information for the reader to locate your source material.  

Example: For MRI Simmons reports, you can follow APA guidelines for a dataset.  Examples are linked on this external library page: https://libguides.stthomas.edu/c.php?g=612648&p=4280359

What is an annotated bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a bibliography (works cited) with an additional description (i.e., annotation) of each source that includes a summary, assessment, and reflection of the source. The purpose of the annotation is to help the reader evaluate whether the work cited is relevant to a specific research topic or line of inquiry.

In the resources below, you'll find information about annotated bibliographies including what they are, why they're used, characteristics and anatomy, citation styles, and examples.

What elements might an annotation include?

1. Bibliography according to the appropriate citation style (MLA, APA, CBE/CSE, etc.).
2. Explanation of main points and/or purpose of the work—basically, its thesis—which shows among other things that you have read and thoroughly understand the source.
3. Verification or critique of the authority or qualifications of the author.
4. Comments on the worth, effectiveness, and usefulness of the work in terms of both the topic being researched and/or your own research project.
5. The point of view or perspective from which the work was written. For instance, you may note whether the author seemed to have particular biases or was trying to reach a particular audience.
6. Relevant links to other work done in the area, like related sources, possibly including a comparison with some of those already on your list. You may want to establish connections to other aspects of the same argument or opposing views.

The first four elements above are usually a necessary part of the annotated bibliography. Points 5 and 6 may involve a little more analysis of the source, but you may include them in other kinds of annotations besides evaluative ones. 

Credit: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.

Sample MLA Annotation from Purdue Owl:

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor Books, 1995.

Lamott's book offers honest advice on the nature of a writing life, complete with its insecurities and failures. Taking a humorous approach to the realities of being a writer, the chapters in Lamott's book are wry and anecdotal and offer advice on everything from plot development to jealousy, from perfectionism to struggling with one's own internal critic.

In the process, Lamott includes writing exercises designed to be both productive and fun. Lamott offers sane advice for those struggling with the anxieties of writing, but her main project seems to be offering the reader a reality check regarding writing, publishing, and struggling with one's own imperfect humanity in the process. Rather than a practical handbook to producing and/or publishing, this text is indispensable because of its honest perspective, its down-to-earth humor, and its encouraging approach.

Chapters in this text could easily be included in the curriculum for a writing class. Several of the chapters in Part 1 address the writing process and would serve to generate discussion on students' own drafting and revising processes. Some of the writing exercises would also be appropriate for generating classroom writing exercises. Students should find Lamott's style both engaging and enjoyable.

In the sample annotation above, the writer includes three paragraphs: a summary, an evaluation of the text, and a reflection on its applicability to his/her own research, respectively.