Simple Citation Handbook
The Simple Citation System requires 3 pieces of information: author, title of work, and locator to find work.
Author
If there is one author, write the author’s name down in an easily recognizable format. If there are two authors, write down “[first author] and [second author]”. If there are more than two authors, write down “[first author] et al.”. The author field should be followed by a comma.
Name of Source
If the source is a large work (e.g. book, film), put the title in italics if possible. If this is not possible, underline the title. If the source is not large, put the title in quotation marks. In both cases, place a comma after the title.
Locator
If the source is available on the World Wide Web, write down the full URL of the source. Otherwise, if the source is in a book, write down the ISBN. Otherwise, don’t bother and remove the comma after the title.
Simple Extended Citations
All of the following elements are optional and not required for an official Simple citation. They are only required for Simple Extended Citations. If you would like to include additional information in your citation, include a comma after the locator, then add the date (all formats allowed) that the source was published. Next, include the name of the container if there is one (e.g. journal, book, larger website). The name of the container should be italicized; if this is not possible, then underline the name of the container. Make sure there is a comma between the date and the name of the container.
I’m Still Confused
The official implementation of Simple is in citation_maker.py. The HTML output file is the official citation. Be warned: it is slower than reading this handbook and doing the citations yourself. There are also some examples below.
Examples
Simple Citations
Bryson, Bill, A Really Short History of Nearly Everything, ISBN 978-0-385-73810-1
Jones, Tim, “Pirate Song”, http://www.alliancemusic.com/images/products/PirateSong_web.pdf
Pausch, Randy, “Time Management”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blaK_tB_KQA
Purdue Writing Lab, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide”, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
Srinivasan Keshav, “How to Read a Paper”, http://www.sigcomm.org/sites/default/files/ccr/papers/2007/July/1273445-1273458.pdf
Wirth, Eric, “The Capitalization of Web | The MLA Style Center”, https://style.mla.org/the-capitalization-of-web/
Simple Extended Citations
Bryson, Bill, A Really Short History of Nearly Everything, ISBN 978-0-385-73810-1, 2008
Jones, Tim, “Pirate Song”, http://www.alliancemusic.com/images/products/PirateSong_web.pdf, 2008, Alliance Music Publications Inc.
Pausch, Randy, “Time Management”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blaK_tB_KQA, 2011 May 2, YouTube
Purdue Writing Lab, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide”, https://web.archive.org/web/20201119184203/https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html, 2020 November 19, Purdue Writing Lab
Srinivasan Keshav, “How to Read a Paper”, http://www.sigcomm.org/sites/default/files/ccr/papers/2007/July/1273445-1273458.pdf, July 2007, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review