ECS

Essential Citation System

Footnotes

Use footnotes at the end of paraphrased or quoted information to cite the source. The ECS citation includes the following information, punctuated and formatted as shown.

Type: Principal. Title, edition. Publisher, date. Location.[1]

• Not all sources will have every piece of information. Use judgement in skipping pieces.
• Do you have enough information to evaluate the source?
• Will you reader be able to locate the source with this information?
• Cross-Reference: When citing a source multiple times (with the same location) on the same page, use the word processor’s cross-reference feature.
• Alternatively, insert the number of the original citation in superscript font (the number will not automatically change if you move or insert new citations).
• Use a complete citation the first time; on subsequent pages, use a short form containing:

Type: Principal. Title. Location

Type: The source type reflects the quality of work and is stated up front, cluing readers in to the quality and currentness of the information from the beginning of the citation.

The type categories are based on the quality of the information process rather than the medium of the information. Any source can have both a print and online version of the information. The ECS does not differentiate based on how the information is accessed.

Type can be general (in bold) or specific, based on desired preference. The types are laid out in descending order of level of review—which reflects the reliability and quality of a source.

Book	Periodical	Media	Agency	Personal
Book	Journal	Video	Wiki	Recording
Reference	Government	Audio	Composite	Email
Literature	Newspaper	Artifact	Organization	Blog
Sacred	Magazine	Performance	Business	Social
	Conference			Self-pub

Source Identification

            In order to determine the source type, essential citations rely on researchers making informed decisions about their sources. Information is created through a process, and its quality depends on the quality of that process. Evaluate a source (see the guide on evaluating sources for more on how to do this) and select a source type that reflects the quality of that process. For example, here are three articles, belonging to three different types.

• An article in a scholarly journal is a Periodical type (peer- and editorially- reviewed).
• An article on Wikipedia is an Agency type (internally- and crowd- reviewed).
• An article on NASA’s blog is a Personal type (not reviewed).

Principal (plain text): A single person primarily responsible for the final version of information.

• Last name, first name. Titles (Dr., etc.) or suffixes (Jr., III) come after.
• Multiple authors[2]: List the first author, followed by & to indicate more authors.
• Quoting another source[3]: Source author first “quoting” second author.
• Media Productions: The final version produced differs from the written script/copy.
• Cite by director (coordinator, tv/radio news producer, conductor, etc.).
• Agency[4] sources: If there’s no author, skip it and list the agency as the publisher.

Title (italics): The title of the work using standard capitalization rules for titles (No ALL CAPS).

• Collections[5] (anthology, collected series, television series, online collection, etc.): title of the specific work in the collection name (television Video[6]: episode of).
• Social media[7]: Put the first sentence of the post (Tweet, etc.) as the title.

Edition (plain text): The specific version of the information (which can change).

• Applies to the issue, volume, or number of magazines, newspapers, and journals or even television news programs (evening edition, 10 o’clock news, etc.).

Publisher (plain text): The one responsible for publishing the information in its current form.

• Periodicals: Use the name of the periodical as the publisher.
• Social media: Use platform instead of publisher: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc.
• Artifacts: establishment (museum, library, etc.)/owner name of where it’s displayed.

Date (plain text): Identifies the source by time as some publications publish throughout the year.

• Always put the most precise time information you can locate for the date.
• Format: dd, mmm. yyyy (5 Mar. 1999).

Location (plain text): Where, specifically, the information came from.

• Print sources: The page number (line number for short poems).
• Online sources: The URL (web address) or the DOI (digital object identifier).
• Always use a URL shortener website such as https://goo.gl or https://bit.ly/.
• Multiple web pages: use the specific page you are citing information from.
• Works with internal divisions: These are usually literary works such as plays (Hamlet,5 Spanish Tragedy), sacred books (Bible[8], Qu’ran), and long poems (Odyssey, Inferno).
• Divisions can be books, chapters, acts, scenes, parts, verses, line numbers, etc.)
• Use a combination of divisions, separated by periods, to locate sources.
• Artifacts[9]: City, State abbreviation, Country where the artifact can be viewed.

Source Types

Warning!

            The description of sources below are generalized guidelines, only. Many types of sources crossover or fit in-between the descriptions below. Researchers must examine sources and use their best judgement to select the type of source on their own.

            Information in print, in databases, on microform, or online do not affect the type or quality of the information. These forms are merely how researchers access the information. Each type of source described below can be accessed in any number of ways.

Book

            Books are the long-term, long-form storage of the information world. Book subjects are always detailed, and go into far more depth than any other source type. Books are as diverse as periodicals in terms of audience and authorship, so take care in their evaluation.

Prior to the internet, book publishers carefully controlled who would be published, but internet publishing firms and e-books have made it so anyone can publish. The book type refers to books published by an actual publishing company which reviews and edits the information.

Any book can also be an anthology, a collection of shorter works such as essays, short stories, or poems. These follow the title rules for a collection.

• Book: All non-fiction books. However, non-fiction does not mean they’re reliable as these also include commercial works such as tell-alls, self-help, and other popular books.
• Reference: Encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. for quickly referencing information.
• Literature: Novels, stories, plays, poems, and other constructed fiction that are not subject to any kind of review. These can be translated from original language sources.
• Sacred: Works considered sacred to certain religions. These are often translated from original language or syntax, but, like literature, are unchanged and will not be reviewed.

Periodicals

            Periodicals are published multiple times a year, ranging from daily to yearly to inform specific audiences about subjects—such as The Wall Street Journal’s focus on financial news. The articles in periodicals are shorter and less in-depth than those found in books.

            Periodicals have a wide and diverse audience and authorship, ranging from ordinary people to accomplished experts. Some are scholarly or scientific, while others are for entertainment only.

• Journal (few times a year): Written by and intended for experts, and have the most rigorous review process.
• Government (when needed): Documents published by and reviewed by individual agencies within the government (dept. of Agriculture, Interior, Education, etc.).
• Newspaper (most frequent): The focus on speed can cause slips made in editorial review, and articles tend to lack depth of other sources.
• Magazine (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.): Magazines take the time to get more information, and their articles are frequently more in-depth than a newspaper.
• Conference (varies): Conference presentations are usually based on journal articles or scholarly books, but these are live with Q&A session, which can go “off-script.”

Media Source types

            The audio, visual, and tangible sources produced by organizations, not individuals. Media creators process their work according to their organization’s standards (studio, co., editors, etc.).

• Video and Audio: These are the primary forms of recorded, produced media.
• Artifact: These are any physical objects, most commonly works of art, examined by the researcher, whether crafted (a sword) to naturally occurring (moon rocks).
• Organizations review and authenticate the artifacts, but seldom produce them.
• Performance: These are live instead of a processed recording. Material is often rehearsed, but cannot be edited afterwards.
• Recordings of live performances are still performances.

Agency Source types

            Agency sources are created by groups of people for their own purposes and, usually, to target specific audiences. The information review process is not formalized or made public, so you must question the quality of the information.

• Wikis: Crowd-sourced information hubs edited by users. Wikis do not require users to demonstrate expertise or provide sources for information.
• Wikipedia now asks for citations of sources in reference sections and wants credentialed editors. They’ve also instituted review prior to edits taking effect.
• Composite: These sources will republish information from other sources and contribute its own articles (often unreviewed), usually to a theme to target a specific audience.
• Organization: Information from groups with a cause or political agenda. The information is mostly persuasive, and isn’t independently reviewed.
• Business: Information put out by companies to sell goods and services to consumers. The information is largely persuasive, and not subjected to independent verification.

Personal Source types

            Personal source types generally do not undergo any kind of formalized review process. There is no step between a person getting the information and immediately distributing it to the public in some manner. While this kind of information guarantees immediacy—such as tweets during the Boston Marathon bombing—people can post false information. The person may even believe the information, but it has not been verified.

• Recording: Recordings are audio, video, photographs, or other media taken by a person.
• Email: electronic correspondence between two or more people.
• Blog: Short for weblog, an informal platform for posting information.
• Social: Social media. Posts are most often, short, pieces of personal information.
• Self-pub: Everything else, including live speeches, presentations, books, etc.
• Print-on-demand (POD), vanity presses, or digital distributors (such as Amazon).

---

[1] Journal: Stevens, Christy. Citation Generators, OWL, and the Persistence of Error-Ridden References, vol. 42, issue 6. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. https://goo.gl/SdcTfZ

[2] Newspaper: Cloos, Kossandra &. Hundreds of Nude Photos Jolt Colorado School. The New York Times, 6 Nov. 2015. https://goo.gl/BLk6JG. 25. Jan 2017.

[3] Literature: Bradbury, Ray quoting Latimer, Hugh. Fahrenheit 451. 70.

[4] Wiki: Space Elevator. Wikipedia, 24, Dec. 2017. https://goo.gl/mfB94f.

[5] Literature: Shakespeare, William. Hamlet in The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Viking Press, 1977. 3.3.57.

[6] Video: Bole, Cliff. Hollow Pursuits episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Paramount Television, 1990.

[7] deGrasse Tyson, Neil. If you never make mistakes then you are not on the frontier of discovery, for there is where mistakes are made all the time. Twitter, 10 Feb. 2016. https://goo.gl/EuoNNZ 

[8] Sacred: Attridge, Harold. The Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV. Harper One, 2006. Gen.19.20-25.

[9] Artifact: Schomburt, A. Thomas. Rocky. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981. Philadelphia, PA, USA.