Citation Guide

• Only include date accessed if the source material has no date.
• Never include a period at the end of the URL.
• Do not insert a hard or soft return within the URL string; doing so breaks the link.

Do not include honorifics (Dr., Col., Professor, etc.) when citing author names. Including these titles in the body of your document is acceptable.

For the National Security Strategy, cite the president as the author.

For other official documents, the author is the organization immediately responsible for creating the document. In the example below, the author is the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and the publisher is the Department of the Navy.

In the example above, the author is NOT an umbrella organization, signatory, or any of the following:

• Chief of Naval Operations
• Deputy Chief of Naval Operations
• W. F. Moran
• Department of Defense
• Navy Pentagon
• R. P. Burke
• United States of America​

Do not include acronyms for organizations listed as authors in the List of References or footnotes:

• YES: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
• NO: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO or OCNO).
• NO: CNO or OCNO.

What is the difference between them?

• A Bibliography lists all works cited and consulted
• A List of References includes all works cited in a text

The NPS Thesis Processing Office prefers a List of References for the following: 

• Thesis
• Capstone project report
• MBA report
• Dissertation

Note: Always format the information in your citations (titles, author names, etc.) according to the requirements of the citation style you are using, regardless of how it appears in the original source.

Every equation that is not field-specific common knowledge needs to be cited. You may weave the source into the narrative:

• The author applied the X method [4] to describe ...
• The derivation that follows is summarized from [4].

Here is an example of citing properly before the equation. Note the comma after the equation; the equation must function grammatically as part of the text:

And here is an example of how to cite an equation after it is presented:

A citation is required if you did not wholly create the figure—i.e., if you used someone else's image or data. A citation is not needed when all elements of the figure are your own creation.

See Figure 1 for placement of the title and the bracketed citation.

• Put a period and a space after the title.
• If you use the figure exactly as it appears in the source, use
  “Source: ___.”
• If you alter the original figure or use someone else's image or data to create the figure, use “Adapted from ___.”

Figure 1.    A Figure with a Citation in IEEE Style. Source: [7].

or

Figure 1.    A Figure with a Citation in IEEE Style. Adapted from [7].

For more details, see the Thesis Template.

• Remember: one citation at the end of a string of sentences or a paragraph cannot “cover” the entire section.
   
• Cite a source the first time it is used in each paragraph.
   
• Every sentence thereafter in the paragraph that uses information from this same source must contain either a signal phrase or a citation clearly indicating where the information came from.
   
  • Note: always use a citation (even if you also use a signal phrase) every time you quote material.

Citation Order
 

• IEEE strongly prefers that bracketed in-text citations appear sequentially, beginning with [1], within the body of the text; it does not matter in what order they appear in the List of Tables and the List of Figures.

Where in the sentence does my bracketed citation go?
 

• If you name your source(s) in a given sentence, a bracketed citation follows immediately after mentioning the source. Example: Rejecting Abbott and Costello’s method [1], Laurel and Hardy [2] propose an altogether different model for optimizing hat density.
   
• Bracketed citations can also be treated as source names themselves. Example: In contrast to [1], [2] proposes an altogether different model.
   
  • Note: Do not, however, begin a sentence with a bracketed citation.
     
• Otherwise, bracketed citations are placed at the end of the phrase [3] or sentence they cover [4], inside the punctuation, like this [5].
   
  • If the sentence ends with a quotation, "close the quote, then place the citation between the quotation marks and the punctuation, like this” [6].
     
• Do not insert spaces between a bracketed citation and the punctuation that follows it.

In the paragraph below, citations are highlighted in yellow and signal phrases are in blue. Note that the second sentence is common knowledge, whereas the final sentence is clearly the opinion of the author.

If any information is missing from a source (a journal with no volume number, for example), simply omit that information. For sources consulted in hardcopy, omit the URL and any additional verbiage that introduces it. Anything retrieved online, however, MUST have a link. The only exception is journals retrieved from a subscription database such as ProQuest. 

Rules for the MAE Department: 

• In the List of References, list all the authors.
• In the body of the text, use et al. when three or more names are given.

  Example: Ma et al. [19] extended the work …

Correct format: [23], [34], [77]

Correct format: [23]–[28]

Incorrect format: [23, 34, 77]

It is not necessary to include page numbers in bracketed citations.

For a portion in a book, journal, or other volume, include page-number range in List of References/Bibliography.

Example: [7] P. Haynes, “Al-Qaeda, oil dependence, and U.S. foreign policy,” in Energy Security and Global Politics: The Militarization of Resource Management, D. Moran and J. A. Russell, Eds. New York, NY, USA: Routledge, 2009, pp. 62–74.

When citing a source retrieved online, use the "online" format even when you or someone else printed out the material. For example, if you print out a thesis or your advisor provides you with a printed thesis, it is still categorized as an online document.

Only cite as a print source when the material has been produced by a publisher in hard copy. For example, if you obtain a print journal or book from the library stacks, it is categorized as a printed source.

An indirect source is a source that cites some other work that you discuss in your text.

Whenever possible, consult primary sources and your sources’ sources yourself. Upon investigating the primary source, you may find you disagree with the indirect source author’s analysis or methods.

How to Incorporate Indirect Sources

The following passage incorporates a properly credited indirect source. The indirect source information is highlighted in yellow; the primary source information is highlighted in blue.

Walker describes Miguel Roig’s 1999 experiment, which correlates inadequate paraphrasing in student writing with poor reading comprehension. Citing Roig’s data, Walker explains that “students do in fact possess skills necessary for paraphrasing but … may be impeded from applying those skills when dealing with rigorous text” [1].

Note: Include only the indirect source (the source you consulted) in your reference list. 

For more information

See the TPO's "Citing Your Sources’ Sources" handout.

A citation is required if you did not wholly create the table—i.e., if you used someone else's data. A citation is not needed when all elements of the table are your own creation.

See Table 1 for placement of the title and the bracketed citation.

• Put a period and a space after the title.
• If you use the table exactly as it appears in the source, use
  “Source: ___.”
• If you alter the original table or if you use someone else's data to create the table, use “Adapted from ___.”

Table 1.    A Table with a Citation in IEEE Style. Source: [7].

or

Table 1.     A Table with a Citation in IEEE Style. Adapted from [7].

For more details, including on table notes, see the Thesis Template.