These guidelines follow the general style for MLA citations. MLA, however, does not give rules for citing an entire printed index or an entire subscription database, so some slight adaptations have been made. In MLA format, titles are underlined. The form of MLA-style citation for a periodical index* in printed form is:
Title of Index. Place of Publication: Publisher, date- .
The date with the dash and space after it is an "open entry," meaning that the abstract was first published on a certain date and is still being published at regular intervals. For the present purpose, you can cite the "beginning" year as either the first year of publication, or the first year you would actually use. Examples of citations for periodical indexes* in print are:
Sociological Abstracts. San Diego: Sociological Abstracts, 1953- .
Readers' Guide To Periodical Literature. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1900- .
New York Times Index. New York: New York Times, 1999- .
The form of MLA-style citation for online periodical index* database is:
Title of Periodical Database. Version [if available]. Last update [if
available]. Publisher of database. Date accessed by you <URL>.
An example of a citation for online periodical index* database is:
NCJRS Abstracts Database. National Criminal Justice Reference Center. 12
May 2001 <http://abstractsdb.ncjrs.org/>.
Note: MLA's web site (www.mla.org) states: "For a work from a subscription service, the name of the service and--if a library is the subscriber--the name and city (and state abbreviation, if necessary) of the library." This applies to individual articles, however, rather than to an entire database, so whether to include the library name and location in citing the entire database is a judgment call. MLA gives no guidance on this specific instance.
This means that databases such as those in EBSCOhost could have an additional element:
Newspaper Source. EBSCO. Chemeketa Community College Lib.,
Salem, OR. 19 November 2001 <http:search.epnet.com>.
Sources: Based on Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook For Writers Of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
More information on citing resources using MLA style can be found at MLA Documentation Style.
These guidelines follow the general style for APA citations. APA, however, does not give rules for citing an entire printed index or an entire subscription database, so slight adaptations have been made. In APA format, titles are italicized. The form of APA-style citation for a periodical index* database in printed form is:
Title. (date- ). Place of publication: publisher.
The date with the dash and space after it is an "open entry," meaning that the abstract was first published on a certain date and is still being published at regular intervals. For the present purpose, you can cite the "beginning" year as the first year you would use. Examples of APA-style citation for a periodical index* database in printed form are:
Sociological abstracts. (1953- ). San Diego: Sociological
Abstracts.
Readers' guide to periodical literature. (1900- ). New York: H.W. Wilson.
New York Times index. (1999- ). New York: New York Times.
The form of citation for online periodical index* database is:
Title. Publisher. Accessed [date] at [URL]
An example of a citation for an online periodical index* database is:
NCJRS Abstracts Database. National Criminal Justice
Reference Center. Accessed March 18, 2004, at
http://abstractsdb.ncjrs.org/
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Accessed March 18, 2004 at
http://search.epnet.com
Sources: Based on
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the
American Psychological Association (5th ed). Washington, D.C.:
Author. ·See also http://www.apastyle.org/index.html.
More information on citing resources using APA style can be found at APA Reference Page.
*an index for articles in magazines, newspapers, or journals
Updated: 14 March 2006
Comments: reference@chemeketa.edu
or call (503)399-5231.
Address for this
web page: http://newterra.chemeketa.edu/library/instruction/WR123citing_index.htm