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Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction - NC State University Libraries [1:54]
A citation is a way of identifying and giving credit to others' published works that you used to support your own research. Other than facilitating researchers to locate sources of works, including citations in a paper also helps avoid plagiarism.
A citation consists of two parts: in-text citation and reference list. In-text citations are brief references of sources within the text of the paper, while reference list is a complete list of references at the end of the paper.
A citation style defines the necessary information for a citation, how the information is ordered, and what format citations should follow.
Generally, the citation style you use depends on your research area. Check with your instructor or supervisor if you are not sure which style you should use for your assignment. Some commonly used styles for different faculties are listed in the table below.
| Faculty (Subject) | Commonly Used Citation Style | Citation Guide by Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Business (FB) | APA / Harvard | Guides for Business |
| Construction & Environment (FCE) | IEEE / Harvard | Guides for Construction & Environment |
| Engineering (FENG) | IEEE / APA | Guides for Engineering |
| Health Sciences & Social Sciences (FHSS) | APA | |
| Humanities (FH) | APA / MLA | Guides for Humanities |
| Science (FS) | APA / Harvard | Guides for Science |
| School of Design (SD) | APA | Guide for Design |
| School of Fashion & Textiles (SFT) | APA / Harvard | Guides for Fashion & Textiles |
| School of Hotel & Tourism Management (SHTM) | APA | Guide for Hotel & Tourism Management |
For information on how to cite GenAI content, please refer to this page here.
PolyU ELC Reference Guides
APA Style
IEEE Style
MLA Style
Harvard Style
Chicago Style
This section instructs you with suggested resources on how to cite Chinese Language sources when you are writing English and Chinese papers. In general, citing Chinese Language sources follows the same principles as citing English Language sources in that consistency in the citing format has to be maintained in the writing. The major difference lies in that Chinese Language sources are written in a non-Latin script.
1) Citing Chinese Language Sources in English papers
You should still follow the conventions of the citation styles required for your paper (e.g.: MLA or APA styles). However it would help if you took note of some common practices when citing Chinese Language Sources in English papers.
A common practice is to give the original title in the reference and give the English translation in square brackets. For journal articles, only the article title has to be translated, not the journal title.
If the source is in a non-Latin script (e.g. Chinese), transliterate the original title into the English alphabet. Generally, the best way to do the transliteration is using pinyin romanization. No tone marks have to be included.
Example - Book in Chinese
The bibliographic details of the source material are:
Author: 郝春文
Book title: 唐後期五代宋初敦煌儈尼的社會生活
Publisher: 北京：中國社會科學出版社
Year of publication: 1998
An APA Style reference would be constructed as follows:
Example - Journal article in Chinese
The bibliographic details of the source material are:
Author: 華林甫
Article title: 清代以來三峽地區水旱災害的初步研究
Journal title: 中國社會科學
Volume and issue number: 1999(1)
Pages: 168-76
An APA Style reference would be constructed as follows:
2) Citing Chinese Language Sources in Chinese papers
While there are no standardized Chinese citation styles, you should use the citation style required for your assignments and/or journals. Check with your professor or journal editor if you are not sure which style you should use.
The key is to be consistent in the citing format in the paper. For example, if you use a particular punctuation mark for a certain resource type (e.g.《》for book title and〈〉for journal article title), do it consistently in your writing. Or if you italicize the book title and journal title, do it consistently in your writing.
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