Which Citation Style to Follow for your Next Dissertation
Choosing the right citation style can be a major source of headaches for students. Writing a dissertation is a daunting task for students. In many fields a dissertation is necessary to graduate and must also be defended in front of subject matter experts. Students don’t just have to worry about the content of their dissertations and getting dissertation help with chapters, but also the citation style.
The many Different Citation Styles
The most confusing part of picking the right citation style is the fact that there are many different styles, without any clear indication of any being better than the others. There are many institutes with their own citation styles, but sometimes different domains also have different citation styles. Some of the most common citation styles are:
MLA
The Modern Language Association (MLA) style guide is one of the most commonly used styles in academia, especially when it comes to humanities.
APA
The American Psychological Association citation style is another very commonly used style. It is used in many different fields such as social sciences and psychology.
Chicago
The Chicago style guide is not as popular as MLA or APA, but it overlaps in use with both of them - it is used in social sciences, history, and a lot more.
Harvard
The Harvard citation style is more common in economics and other business related fields
Finding the Right Citation Style for you
The first thing you should check when it comes to citation styles is what style your university or college recommends. Most institutions have their own style guide which specifies the citation style to use. These instructions are not mandatory - do not be surprised if your dissertation is not accepted because you used the wrong citation style. Thus, it is always important to look for citation style prescribed by your institute.
The easiest way to do this is simply going on Google and type ‘’university name citation style’ - you will find the information within the first few search results. Most universities have their style guide on their official website but even if they don’t you don’t have to worry - you will find that senior students have shared the information on many different websites.
If it is truly up to you to choose the citation style then you should pick a citation style which is commonly used in your field. Look at some of the famous dissertations and see which style they have. To see what citation style they use look at the way they format inline references - the easiest way to detect the citation style, because this is where most of the variations occur. Are the inline references just a number? Or maybe there is an author name and year in parenthesis? Maybe the inline sources list both, author name and year the study was published? These questions will help you quickly see which citation style is being used.
Once you know which citation style is preferred in the domain you are writing on, you can simply select the citation style in Microsoft Word to automatically cite all references in the chosen format.