Titles and Containers | 1 min

Standalone titles

If the source is self-contained and is not part of a bigger work, put the title in italics. This is most common when citing a book. All major words are capitalized. There is then no container, so what follows is the rest of the publication information.

Example

George, Mary W. The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know.

Titles of smaller works inside a container

If you're citing an article from a journal, a chapter in a book, a song from an album, a page from a website, or any work that is a smaller part of a bigger whole, put the title of the smaller part in quotation marks. The container's information will come after the title. Notice again the capitalization.

Examples

Sun, Fengchun, et al. "Effects of Music Therapy on the Negative Emotions of Bed-Ridden Patients." Intensive & Critical Care Nursing,

John, Elton. "Funeral for a Friend." Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,

Using a citation generator?

If you are citing a chapter out of a collected edition (or a book with a different author for each chapter), be sure to use the chapter title as the title in quotation marks and the title of the book as the container.

A common problem to watch out for is extra information from the record that doesn't make sense in the citation.

Example

You would need to delete the slash and repeated author name from this auto-generated citation.

George, Mary W. The Elements of Library Research : What Every Student Needs to Know / Mary W. George.