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Citing Sources Guide

Iona University Libraries Research Guide on Citing Source

Research Paper

Formatting Guidelines

  • Include a Header with your last name and page number on all pages in the upper right-hand corner 
  • Do not include a title page unless it is a group project
    • Your name, instructor name, course, and date (day month year, i.e., 6 June 2019) are in the upper left-hand corner of the first page, skipping a line between each entry
  • Center the paper's title. Do not use bold; use italics or quotations
  • Double-space the paper
  • Use 12-point font
  • Insert one space after all punctuation
  • Use 1-inch margins
  • Use a 0.5-inch indent of the first line of paragraphs

Works Cited

The Works Cited list provides all bibliographic information on all sources cited in your work.

  • Works Cited list is located at the end of the paper
  • The list should be double-spaced with no space between entries
  • Use hanging indent to indent the second and subsequent entry lines .5 inches from the left margin
  • Arrange entries in alphabetical order by the first element, usually the author. If there is no author, use the title
  • Alphabetize letter by letter of the author's name before the comma. Letters after the comma are used only when authors have the same last name
  • For multiple works by the same author, alphabetize by title. Also, replace the author's name with three hyphens on the second and subsequent entries
  • Alphabetize titles letter by letter ignoring initial articles (A, An, The, and foreign equivalents)
  • The location of an online work should include a URL
    • Omitting the http:// or https:// protocols
  • End all citations with a period

Pagination
  • When noting page numbers on the Works Cited page, use one p. for a single page and double pp. for multiple pages
    • p. 92
    • pp. 198-208
  • When the pages have a hundred or thousand pages, you may omit the number if it is the same as the preceding number
    • pp. 208 - 32
  • "When noting page numbers in parenthetical citations, omit the "p." or "pp."
    • (Walsh 22)
    • (Walsh 122-23)