Citation Style Guides

Producing great writing requires adherence to citation styles such as APA, MLA, CMS, and Turabian. Each citation style provides clear and comprehensive guidelines for how to produce different kinds of work. Mainly, the guides explain how to cite outside sources. When working with sources you must give credit to the author. How you give credit is determined by the formal rules set forth by each style publisher.

Ultius has robust and comprehensive style guides for each major style you will come across. The main ones are listed below.

Major citation styles

Modern Language Association (MLA) Style

The current version of MLA is the 8th edition and this style is mainly used for English, literature, and non-technical disciplines.

Read MLA Style Guide

American Psychological Association (APA) Style

The current version of APA guide is the 6th edition and this style is mainly used for the field of psychology. Most scientific subjects have also adopted APA as the standard style guide because of its flexibility with handling resources like table data and images.

Read APA Style Guide

Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)

CMS is the standard for many humanities subjects and is very similar to Turabian style. It's in the 16th edition and includes very specific guidelines for footer citations and the bibliography.

Read CMS Style Guide

Kate L. Turabian's Style

The Turabian style guide is similar to Chicago style, but with a few minor differences. It's currently in the 9th edition and is common for the subjects in the humanities. Humanities subjects include history, anthropology, and the like.

Read Turabian Style Guide

Citation style downloads, samples, and guides

Download free citation style resources. The original style manuals are useful for finding obscure and technical answers that aren't easily summarized. These manuals are long and subject to copyright by the publisher. Samples show you how the style guide works in real-time. The templates allow you to download your own copy so that you can start with a pre-formatted blank slate.

Before downloading and using the guides please read the copyright information to avoid infringing on the works of others.

Downloads for MLA, APA, CMS, and Turabian styles

* External works are subject to copyright by the respective owners. Please use these resources at your own risk.