GEOL 102-6 Section 20: Geological Impacts on Civilizations

Citation Formats


Within the text of the paper, you would cite sources by author and date. For example, you might write the following: ``... a recent report (Adler, 1996) ...''; ``... a recent study (Allen et al., 1992) ...''; ``... recent articles (Anonymous, 1996a, 1996b) ...''; or ``... a recent book (Potter and Johns, 1992) ...''. On the other hand, you may occasionally wish to refer to the author explicitly by name in a sentence, in which case you might write the following instead: ``... as noted by Gore (1992) ...''.

At the end of the paper, the details of these citations would be spelled out in a reference list, alphabetized by the last names of the authors. Sample formats for the entries in such a reference list are given below.

Articles in Periodicals

Adler, Tina. Healing Waters. Science News, vol. 150, pp. 188-189, September 21, 1996.

Allen, Ralph O., Hany Hamroush, and Daniel Jean Stanley. Impact of the Environment on Egyptian Civilization Before the Pharaohs. Analytical Chemistry, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 32A-43A, 1992.

Anonymous. The Fire This Time. The Economist, vol. 340, no. 7983, p. 31, September 14, 1996a.

Anonymous. The Invisible Man. The Economist, vol. 341, no. 7988, pp. 84-85, October 19, 1996b.

Wilford, John Noble. Trade or Colonialism? Ruins May Give Answer. New York Times, pp. B5, B8, May 25, 1993.

Entire Books

Alarcão, A. Moutinho, Françoise Mayet, and Jeannette S. Nolen. Ruinas de Conimbriga. 84 pp. Minerva Comercial: Sintra, Portugal, 1989.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. 480 pp. W. W. Norton & Company: New York, 1997.

Potter, T. W., and C. Johns. Roman Britain. 239 pp. University of California Press: Berkeley, California, 1992.

Articles in Books

Gore, Al. Climate and Civilization: A Short History. Chapter 3 in Earth in the Balance, pp. 57-80. Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, 1992.

Groenman-van Waateringe, W. Interaction Between the Environment and Social Subsystems. In Conceptual Issues in Environmental Archaeology, edited by John L. Bintliff, Donald A. Davidson, and Eric G. Grant, pp. 278-282. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 1988.

Wire Reports from Subscription NewsGroups

NewsWire, Reuters. Archeology Follows Copper Trail in Mexico. ClariNet E-News: Science-Archeology, September 26, 1996.

NewsWire, Reuters. First Century Water-Mill Discovered in Central Portugal. ClariNet E-News: Portugal-Archeology, August 21, 1997.

Reports from Authoritative Web Pages

CDC. Plague Fact Sheet. <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plagfact.htm>. Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Fort Collins, Colorado, July, 1998.

Dobbins, John J. Pompeii Forum Project. <http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pompeii/page-1.html>. University of Virginia: Charlottesville, Virginia, 1994.

(Beware! If you feel that you really must cite a web page, be cautious. Be certain that you can identify the source of the information you are citing. Is it the result of research by, for example, a university or a government agency? Is it simply some hearsay casually placed on-line by a poorly informed individual or, worse, a mischievous prankster? Do not base your arguments on information that is clearly unreliable! In addition to citing the source and (if possible) actual author of the web page, cite also the publication date. If no publication date is given, then cite the date of last modification. If that, too, is not given, you should be suspicious of the source, but you could still at least cite the date on which you viewed it.)

Copyright © 1999-2006 Craig R. Bina.