Citing Your Readings and Hypertext Links

Copyright "fair use" guidelines specify that accurate and complete citations including "a notice of copyright" must appear on materials when original copies are not used. Following the "standard" style guide for your discipline (e.g. ACS, APA, MLA) for this purpose is acceptable and enables library staff to quickly determine if print materials or electronic resources comply with licensing agreements, copyright law and "fair use" guidelines.

Citations for electronic resources generally are modeled after those used for printed works but include important additional elements intended to allow readers to be able to "get back to" the original item. Electronic resources typically fall into one of two categories:

A - resources that are accessed via an intermediary service, e.g. full-text journal articles available from one of the Libraries' Research Databases; or,

B - resources, such as personally authored HTML files, professional society or company web sites, etc., that are generally accessible over the Internet.

To help your Teaching Assistants prepare class reserve lists, the minimum elements needed to identify print and electronic resources accurately are summarized below. The Libraries also provide more specific information via their online guide, Selected Style Guides and Writing Resources.