2565 Citation Rules Cb28ab52

Citation Rules

Mandatory Citation Requirements

Every factual claim MUST include:

1. Author/Organization - Who made this claim
2. Date - When published
3. Source Title - Name of paper, article, report
4. URL/DOI - Direct link for verification
5. Page/Section - For lengthy documents

Citation Formats

Inline Citation (in text)

(Author, Year, Section/Page)

Examples:

• Single author: (Smith, 2024, p. 15)
• Multiple authors: (Smith et al., 2024)
• Organization: (OpenAI, 2024, "Safety")
• No author: ("Article Title", 2024)

Full Citation (in bibliography)

Academic Paper:

Smith, J., Johnson, K., & Lee, M. (2024). "Title of Paper." 
Journal Name, 45(3), 140-156. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Web Source:

Organization. (2024). "Page Title." Website Name. 
Retrieved January 15, 2025, from https://example.com/page

Technical Documentation:

Company. (2024). "Documentation Title" (Version X.Y). 
https://docs.example.com/page

News Article:

Author, F. (2024, January 15). "Article Title." 
Publication Name. https://example.com/article

Direct Quotes

Short quotes (< 40 words):

According to the report, "exact quote here" (Author, Year, p. XX).

Long quotes (> 40 words):

> Block quote format with indentation.
> Multiple lines as needed.
> (Author, Year, p. XX)

Data and Statistics

Required Elements

• Exact figure with units
• Source with methodology
• Sample size (if applicable)
• Date of data collection
• Confidence interval (if available)

Example:

The market grew by 23.5% YoY to $4.2B in Q3 2024 (n=500 companies surveyed; 
Gartner, 2024, "Market Analysis Report", p. 12; 95% CI: 21.2%-25.8%).

Source Type Formatting

Government/Regulatory

Agency Name. (Year). Document Title (Report No. XXX). 
https://agency.gov/document

Standard/Specification

Organization. (Year). Standard Title (Standard No. ISO/IEEE XXX). 
https://standards.org/xxx

GitHub Repository

Author/Organization. (Year). Repository Name [Software]. 
GitHub. https://github.com/owner/repo

Patent

Inventor, F. (Year). Patent Title (Patent No. US XXXXXXX). 
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://patents.google.com/xxx

Dataset

Creator. (Year). Dataset Name (Version X) [Data set]. 
Repository. https://doi.org/xxx

Bibliography Structure

Order

1. Alphabetically by first author's last name
2. Multiple works by same author: chronologically
3. Same author, same year: add a, b, c suffix

Sections (for large bibliographies)

## Bibliography

### Academic Sources
[A-rated and B-rated peer-reviewed]

### Industry Reports
[White papers, analyst reports]

### Official Documentation
[Standards, specifications, guides]

### News and Media
[Journalism, press coverage]

### Online Resources
[Websites, blogs, social media]

Special Cases

No Author

("Article Title", Year)
Bibliography: Article Title. (Year). Source. URL

No Date

(Author, n.d.)
Add "Retrieved [date]" in bibliography

Multiple Sources for Same Claim

(Smith, 2024; Jones, 2023; Lee et al., 2024)

Secondary Citation (avoid if possible)

(Original Author, Year, as cited in Secondary Author, Year)
Note: Always try to find original source

Personal Communication

(J. Smith, personal communication, January 15, 2024)
Note: Do not include in bibliography

Verification Protocol

Before Adding Citation

1. Access the source URL
2. Verify the quote/data matches
3. Check author credentials
4. Confirm publication date
5. Assess source quality (A-E rating)

Archive Requirements

• For news articles: Create archive.org link
• For social media: Screenshot with timestamp
• For APIs/dynamic content: Note retrieval date

Broken Link Handling

[Archived] Original Author. (Year). "Title." 
Original URL (archived at https://archive.org/xxx)

Citation Density Guidelines

Common Mistakes to Avoid