Citation vs Reference
Citation and reference are two essential terms in research methodology that need to be clearly understood. A citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source, typically an abbreviated alphanumeric expression found in the pages of a thesis or dissertation. Its primary purpose is to demonstrate your intellectual honesty. On the other hand, a reference involves the act of referring and can appear at the bottom of a page as a footnote or as a list at the end of the thesis or paper you are writing.
What is Citation?
A citation is how you quote the source of ideas within the body of the research paper. Citations are included wherever you quote from different authors. Typically, you place the citation at the end of the sentence within brackets. Inside the bracket, the author’s name, the year the book was published, or the page on which this particular extraction appeared are included. The specific content within the bracket is determined by the format you follow when writing the paper. Different formats have different citation styles, as seen in the following examples:
APA – ‘Her blood warmed the earth (Martin, 2014).’
MLA – ‘Her blood warmed the earth (Martin 263).’
The primary purpose of citation is to willingly acknowledge the author of the work from which you have borrowed a quotation.
What is Reference?
A reference involves the act of referring. As a researcher, you refer to some books and journals while writing the thesis or dissertation. You usually include some references in the pages of your thesis in the form of footnotes. These footnotes contain the reference passages taken from relevant books and journals from which you quote them. At the end of each chapter, you provide the corresponding books and journals from which you have picked the quotations mentioned in the footnotes. These constitute references. However, in APA style, you do not have footnotes; you only have a list called ‘References’ at the end. When it comes to the end list that provides references, there are minor differences between these lists in different styles. This list of references is commonly known as the Bibliography. In APA, this list is called ‘References,’ while in MLA, it is named ‘Works Cited.’ Also, the APA reference list only contains the sources you have actually cited in the text. In other lists of reference, usually, the sources consulted are also included. Here are some examples of how reference appears in these end lists:
APA:
MLA:
References are typically included at the end of every chapter of a thesis or towards the end of the thesis. The purpose of a reference is to inform the reader of the various books from which you have quoted, either from the list at the end or footnotes.
Key Takeaways
- A citation is how you quote the source of ideas within the body of the research paper, while a reference is the sources you have used to write the paper. These sources can include both included and consulted sources. However, in APA, only included sources appear in the reference list.
- The list of reference that appears at the end of an APA paper is known as References. The list of reference that appears at the end of an MLA paper is known as Works Cited. Citation is known as citation in any format.
- References are usually included at the end of every chapter of a thesis or towards the end of the thesis. On the other hand, citations are included wherever you quote from different authors. The primary purpose of citation is to willingly acknowledge the author of the work from which you have borrowed a quotation, while the purpose of reference is to inform the reader of the various books from which you have quoted, either from the list at the end or footnotes.
