University Institute of Legal Studies

Panjab University, Chandigarh

METHODS OF CITATION
Research Methodology

A project report submitted as a part of curriculum of B .Com LLB. (Hons.) in the

subject of Research Methodology.

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Dr. Gulshan Kumar CHAHAT
ROLL NUMBER 155/18
B.COM LLB. (Hons.)
SEMESTER-6
SESSION - 2020-21

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 Acknowledgment

The completion of this project required a lot of guidance and assistance from many
people and I am extremely privileged to have got this along while completing this
project.

I am grateful to Dr. Gulshan Kumar for providing this opportunity to do this

project and giving me all support and guidance which made me complete the
project duly.

Also I would like to thank my peers for their useful inputs towards completing this
project and their constant support and encouragement is cherished.

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 Certificate

This is to certify that Ms. CHAHAT, roll no-155/18 of B.COM LLB. (Hons.)
(Semester 6) of University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University,
Chandigarh has completed this project by taking proper care and showing utmost
sincerity in completion of this project.

Also the project has been completed along the guidelines issued in curriculum of
B.COM LLB (Hons.) by Panjab University, Chandigarh.

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 INDEX

Content Page No.

What is Citation 04

Importance of Citation 04
In-text citations and full references 05

08
APA Style

MLA Style 09

Other Styles:
1. Harvard style
2. Vancouver
11
3. Chicago
4. IEEE

1. Footnotes

2. Endnotes

3. References

4. Bibliography 12-17
5. Webliography

Legal Citation
17

ILI (Indian Law Institute)

18
References
22

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What Is Citation?

A "citation" is the manner in which you tell the readers that specific material in your work
came from another source. It likewise gives them the data important to find that source
once more, including:

Information about the original author, the title of the work, the name and the page number
of the material you are acquiring.

Citations are a significant piece of research paper or any academic writing. At whatever
point you use data or thoughts from a source (like a book, article, or website), you need to
incorporate a citation that offers credit to the first writer.

Importance of Citing Sources

Citations document for your readers where you obtained your material, provide a means of
critiquing your study based on the sources you used, and create an opportunity to obtain
information about prior studies of the research problem under investigation. The act of
citing sources is also your best defense against allegations of plagiarism.

Citing the works of others is important because:

1. Proper citation allows readers to locate the materials you used: Citations to sources
helps readers expand their knowledge on a topic. One of the most effective
strategies for locating authoritative, relevant sources about a topic is to review
footnotes or references from known sources.

2. Citing other people's words and ideas demonstrates that you have conducted a
thorough review of the literature on your topic and, therefore, you are reporting
your research from an informed and critically engaged perspective. The list of
sources used increases your credibility as the author of the work.

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 3. Other researcher's ideas can be used to reinforce your arguments. In many cases,
another researcher's arguments can act as the primary context from which you can
emphasize the significance of your study and to provide supporting evidence about
how you addressed the "So what?" question.

4. The ideas of other researchers can be used to explain reasons for alternative
approaches. If you disagree with a researcher's ideas or you believe there is a gap in
understanding the research problem, your citations can serve as sources from which
to argue an alternative viewpoint or the need to pursue a different course of action.

5. Just as the ideas of other researchers can bolster your arguments, they can also
detract from your credibility if their research is challenged. Properly citing sources
prevents your reputation from being tarnished if the facts or ideas of those cited are
proven to be inaccurate or off-base. It prevents readers from concluding that you
ignored or dismissed the findings of others, even if they are disputed.

6. Ideas are considered intellectual property and there can be serious repercussions if
you fail to cite where you got an idea from. In academe and the professional world,
failure to cite other people's intellectual property ruins careers and reputations and
can result in legal action. Citing sources as a student in college will help you get in
the habit of acknowledging and properly citing the work of others.

In-text citations and full references

A citation is a formal reference to a published or unpublished source that you consulted

and obtained information from while writing your research paper. A source citation always
includes two main components:

1. A brief in-text citation next to the relevant information.

2. A full reference containing all the information required to find the original source.

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In-text citations: In-text citations often appear in parentheses, specifying the author’s
last name and sometimes (depending on the citation style) a year or page number. Some
styles cite using footnotes, endnotes, or bracketed numbers that match reference entries.

 Parenthetical citation: You put the source reference in parentheses directly in

your text. This usually includes the author’s last name along with the publication
date and/or the page number.

 Note citation: You put the source reference in a footnote or endnote.

 Numeric citation: You number each of your sources in the reference list and use
the correct number when you want to cite a source. 1

Full references: References are usually listed at the end of the paper on a page
called References, Works Cited, or Bibliography.

Full references always include the author, title, and publication date of the source. They
also include other information that helps identify the source.

The exact format of a reference depends on the type of source. For example, a book
reference includes the publisher and sometimes the edition, while a journal article
reference includes volume and issue numbers and the page range where the article
appears.

Citation Styles
The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to
use. A citation style is a set of rules on how to cite sources in academic writing.

Citation style guidelines are often published in an official handbook containing

explanations, examples, and instructions. Different citation styles have different rules
for in-text citations, reference list entries, and (sometimes) the formatting of your paper.

1
https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/citation-styles/

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The differences can be very subtle, so it’s important to carefully check the rules of the style
you are using. Notably that some disciplines have their own citation method [e.g., law].

 APA Style
1. APA stands for American Psychological Association, the scientific organization that
assembles the publishing manual of the APA format. The style was developed in 1929
by a group of scientists to standardize scientific writing. It was created in the hopes
that it would provide a coherent and professional manner of citing sources for students
and researchers in the fields of social and behavioral sciences.

2. The first publication manual of the APA format was published in pursuit of a neat and
efficient research formatting style, mainly for editorial purposes. Although some
contemporary scientists argued that having such strict regulations restricted personal
writing styles, the format has since become one of the most popular referencing styles.
Today it is adopted in term papers, research reports, literature reviews, theoretical
articles, case studies etc.

3. These disciplines place emphasis on the date of creation or publication, in an effort to

track currency and relevancy. The date is listed immediately following the author's
name in the "References" list.

4. The APA format consists of in-text citations and a reference list.

5. The APA citation style is a parenthetical author-date style, meaning that you need to
put the author’s last name and the publishing date into parentheses wherever another
source is used in the narrative.

6. To cite sources in APA style, you need:

i. In-text citations that give the author’s last name and date.
{E.g. Smith, date (particularly year)}
ii. A reference list that gives full details of every source which you cited in the
research.

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 For the reference lists located at the end, you need to cite four major elements:

i. Author: includes the individual author names format and group author names format
ii. Date: includes the date format and how to include retrieval dates
iii. Title: includes the title format and how to include bracketed descriptions
iv. Source: includes the source format and how to include database information

Author’s last name, Initials (Year or date). Title. Publisher or website if

unpublished

 MLA Style
1. The Modern Language Association (MLA) is an organization responsible for developing
MLA format. It was developed as a means for researchers, students, and scholars in the
literature and language fields to use a uniform way to format their papers and
assignments.

2. In 1951, the Modern Language Association published the first MLA Style Sheet. The
ninth edition of the MLA Handbook, published in spring 2021, builds on the MLA's
unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements - facts
common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date that allow writers to
cite any type of work.

3. The humanities place emphasis on authorship and interpreting primary sources in a

historical context.

4. To cite sources in MLA style, you need:

i. In-text citations that give the author’s last name and a page number.

{E.g. Smith 239}

ii. A list of Works Cited that gives full details of every source.

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 There are 9 components of Citation source in MLA Style which are as follows:

Author. "Title of the Source." Title of Container ,Other Contributors, Version

Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location.

i. Author:
1 author Johnson, David.

2 authors Johnson, David, and Valerie Smith

3+ authors Johnson, David, et al.

ii. Title of Source:

Italics when the source is self-contained (e.g. a whole
book, movie or website).
Quotation marks when the source is part of a larger whole (e.g. a chapter of
a book, a page on a website, or an article in a journal).

No styling when describing a source without a title.

iii. Container is the larger work that the source you’re citing appears in. For example, a
chapter is part of a book, a page is part of a website, and an article is part of a journal.

iv. Contributors are added right after the container title and always end with a comma.

v. When there is more than one version of a source, you should include the version you
used. For example, a second edition book

vi. Sources such as journal articles (vol. 18), magazines (no. 25) and TV shows (season 3,
episode 5) are often numbered.

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vii. Sometimes the publisher is already included elsewhere in the source entry, such as in
the container title or author element. For example, the publisher of a website is often
the same as the website name. In this case, omit the publisher element.

viii. When a source does not state a publication date, add the date on which you accessed
the information. For example: Accessed 22 Sep. 2018.

ix. What you include in the location element depends on the type of source you are citing:

 Book chapter: page range on which the chapter appears (e.g. pp. 164–180.)

 Web page: URL, without ‘https://’ (e.g. www.scribbr.com/mla-style/quick-guide/.)

 Journal article: DOI or stable url

(e.g. doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2018.1560449. or www.jstor.org/stable/43832354.)

 Physical object or live event: name of the location and city (e.g. Moscone Center, San

Francisco. or The Museum of Modern Art, New York.)

 Other Styles:

Other than APA and MLA there are other style which are as follows:

1. Harvard Style
Harvard referencing style is often used in the field of economics. There is no official style
guide, which means there are a few variations. Like APA Style, Harvard style is based on an
author-date system.

2. Vancouver Style
Vancouver style was developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
(ICMJE) and is mostly used in medical disciplines.

Vancouver style works with a numeric system. In the text, the source is indicated by a
number, and the full source details appear next to that number in the reference list

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3. Chicago Style
Chicago style is published by The Chicago Manual of Style. This style is generally used when
citing sources for humanities papers, and is best known for its requirement that writers
place bibliographic citations at the bottom of a page or at the end of a paper.

Therefore it provides guidelines for two styles of citation: author-date and notes and
bibliography:

 In notes and bibliography style (mostly used in the humanities), you use footnotes
or endnotes to cite sources.
 In author-date style (mostly used in the sciences), you use brief parenthetical
references to cite sources in the text.

4. IEEE Style
The IEEE citation style is mainly used for reports in electronics, engineering, computer
science, telecommunications, and information technology. IEEE is the official style of the
eponymous Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The IEEE style has both in-text
(numbered in square brackets) and reference list citations.

Based on this come up the different methods of citation which are as listed and then
discussed further:-

6. Footnotes
7. Endnotes
8. References
9. Bibliography
10. Webliography

FOOTNOTES:-
Footnotes (sometimes just called ‘notes’) are what they sound like—a note (or a reference
to a source of information) which appears at the foot (bottom) of a page.

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Long explanatory notes can be difficult for readers to trudge through when they occur in
the middle of a paper. Providing this information is necessary, but doing so in the main text
can disrupt the flow of the writing. Footnotes are notes placed at the bottom of a page.

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines footnote as:

‘a note of reference, explanation, or comment usually placed below the text on a printed
page’

Footnotes are used most commonly to provide:

 references (bibliographic citations) to reliable sources,

 explanatory information or
 source information for tables and other elements.

 How they are used:

1. Using footnotes involves placing a superscript number at the end of a sentence with
information (paraphrase, quotation or data) that you wish to cite. The superscript
numbers should generally be placed at the end of the sentence to which they refer.
They should be placed after any punctuation marks except for the dash.

It looks like this.1

2. Footnotes begin with 1 and are numbered consecutively throughout the entire
essay. Putting the same number, followed by a citation of your source, at the bottom of
the page. Footnoting should be numerical and chronological: the first reference is 1; the
second is 2, and so on. The advantage of footnoting is that the reader can simply cast
their eyes down the page to discover the source of a reference which interests them.

The footnotes can be of two types:

[1] Content: Supplements or simplifies substantive information; not detailed.

[2] Copyright permission: Cites quoted text and any reprinted materials used in the text.

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Advantages of Using Footnotes

1) Readers interested in identifying the source or note can quickly glance down the

page to find what they are looking for.

2) It allows the reader to immediately link the footnote to the subject of the text

without having to take the time to find the note at the back of the paper.

3) Footnotes are automatically included when printing off specific pages.

Disadvantages of Using Footnotes

1) Footnotes can clutter up the page and, thus, negatively impact the overall look of the

page.

2) If there are multiple columns, charts, or tables below only a small segment of text

that includes a footnote, then you must decide where the footnotes should appear.

3) If the footnotes are lengthy, there's a risk they could dominate the page, although

this issue is considered acceptable in legal scholarship.

ENDNOTES
Endnotes are much the same as footnotes except that they are placed at the end your
research paper instead of at the bottom of a page. In books, they can be placed after each
chapter or at the end of the book.

In many cases, the book publisher decides the best placement. Endnotes, as footnotes, are
numerically noted in superscript. The format is the same as that for footnotes.

Advantages of Using Endnotes

1) Endnotes are less distracting to the reader and allow the narrative to flow better.

2) Endnotes don't clutter up the page.

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 3) As a separate section of a research paper, endnotes allow the reader to read and

contemplate all the notes at once.

Disadvantages of Using Endnotes

1) If you want to look at the text of a particular endnote, you have to flip to the end of

the research paper to find the information.

2) Depending on how they are created [i.e., continuous numbering or numbers that

start over for each chapter], you may have to remember the chapter number as well
as the endnote number in order to find the correct one.

3) Endnotes may carry a negative connotation much like the proverbial "fine print" or

hidden disclaimers in advertising. A reader may believe you are trying to hide
something by burying it in a hard-to-find endnote.

REFERENCES
A reference list is a list of the publication information for the sources you’ve cited in your
paper and is intended to give your readers all the information they need to find those
sources.

In other publication styles, this list may be called a bibliography or a works cited page, but
APA uses the term reference list. A references page is the last page of an essay or research
paper that's been written in APA style. Thus a references page format is unique to the APA
style.

Here are a few things to keep in mind about reference lists:

 Only list sources you cite in your text. Do not include sources you read but did not
cite.

 Organize your references alphabetically by the author's last name.

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  Do note bold the title of the list.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
A bibliography is a list of all of the sources you have used (whether referenced or not) in
the process of researching your work. The purpose of bibliography is to provide with a fair
chance to estimate the thoroughness and exhaustiveness of the report. In general, a
bibliography usually includes:

1) The authors' names: Each entry of the bibliography should start with the author's

last name at the left hand margin. If the author is a woman, her first name is given in
full. When two or more authors' names are to be reported for the same article or book,
then except for the first author's name, the other authors' names are to be given with
the first names occurring first and then the second name.) When there are two or more
works by the same author, the author's name must be replaced by a series of eight
dashes in the second and subsequent entries. If the book is edited by a person or
persons, his or their name is written and 'ed.' or 'eds' is added within the brackets at
the end of his or their name(s). A comma is placed after the name of the author.

2) The titles of the works: The name of the author is followed by the title of the book.

The title of the book is usually given in single inverted commas and is followed by the
edition number, if any. In the bibliography, a capital letter is used to begin all the key
words in the title of the book and journals for articles, manuscripts, thesis and
unpublished papers; the procedure is to use a capital only to begin proper nouns and
the first word of the title. A fullstop mark or comma is placed at the end of the title of
the book. If the article is quoted, its title is also given in single or double inverted
commas and is followed by the following information : (i) the title of the
journal/magazine, (ii) volume number in Roman Numbers followed by the date of
publication; and (iii) the numbers of the pages of the journal in parenthesis.

3) Publisher’s address: The name of the publishers of the book/journal will be given,

followed by its place of publication and if possible the full address of the publishers. A

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 colon mark is placed after the place of publication and a comma is placed at the end of
the publisher's address.

4) Year of Publication: The year of publication may be given in parenthesis at the end of

the references. A fullstop mark is placed at the end

5) Page numbers of your sources (if they are part of multi-source volumes): Wherever

possible, the page numbers referred to are given.

WEBLIOGRAPHY
The term Webliography is commonly used when discussing online resources. It is referred
to as “Web bibliography”. Accordingly, a Webliography is a list of resources relating to a
particular topic that can be accessed on the World Wide Web, and can be referred to in a
scholarly work.

A webliography is much like a bibliography, but is limited to a collection of online

resources rather than books and academic journals.

LEGAL CITATION

A citation (or cite) in legal terminology is a reference to a specific legal source, such as a
constitution, a statute, a reported case, a treatise, or a law review article. Then legal citation
is the practice of crediting and referring to authoritative documents and sources and most
common sources of authority cited being court cases, statutes, regulations, government
documents, and scholarly writing.

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ILI (Indian Law Institute)

1. Indian Law Institute (ILI) was founded in 1956 primarily with the objective of
promoting and conducting legal research. The objectives of the Institute as laid down
are to cultivate the science of law, to promote advanced studies and research in law so
as to meet the social, economic and other needs of the Indian people, to promote
systematization of law, to encourage and conduct investigations in legal and allied
fields, to improve legal education, to impart instructions in law, and to publish studies,
books, periodicals, etc.
2. The Institute has formulated a set pattern of citation (i.e., ILI Rules of Footnoting),
which is followed in The Journal of Indian Law Institute, Annual Survey of Indian Law
and various other publications of the Institute. Contributors of articles, notes and
comments are required to follow this pattern.

MODE OF CITING DIFFERENT SOURCE TYPES

• Books

Name of the author, Title of the book p.no. (if referring to specific page or pages)
(Publisher, Place of publication, edition/year of publication).
E.g. M.P. Jain, Indian Constitutional Law 98 (Kamal Law House, Calcutta, 5th edn., 1998).

• Journal Article

Name of author of the article, title of the essay within inverted commas, volume number of
journal Name of the journal page number (year).

E.g. Upendra Baxi, “On how not to judge the judges: Notes towards evaluation of the
Judicial Role” 25 Journal of Indian Law Institute 211 (1983).

• Unpublished Work

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Unpublished Research Work (E. g., Dissertation/Thesis):

Name of the Researcher, Title of the dissertation/thesis (Year) (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis,
Name of the University/organization).

E.g. Sahil Kumar, Corporate Governance: Regulatory Mechanism With Special Emphasis On
Corporate Social Responsibility (2017) (Unpublished LL.M dissertation, Indian Law
Institute).

• Reports

Institution/Author, “title of the Report within inverted commas” page number (Year of
publication).

E.g. Law Commission of India, “144th Report on Conflicting Judicial Decisions Pertaining to
the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908” (April, 1992).

• Statutes
1. Acts

The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Act 21 of 2000).

2. Reports

(i) Law Commission of India, 144th Report on Conflicting Judicial Decisions Pertaining to
the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (April, 1992).

(ii) Government of India, Report: Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System

(Ministry of Home Affairs, 2003)

• Constituent Assembly Debates and Parliamentary Debates

1. Volume no. , Constituent Assembly Debates, page number

E.g. VIII, Constituent Assembly Debates, 31,32.

2. Constituent assembly debates available online

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E.g. Constituent Assembly Debates on April 29, 1947 available at:
http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol3p2.html (last visited on May 30, 2008).

3. Parliamentary Debates

E.g. Lok Sabha Debates on July 06, 2019 available at:

http://164.100.47.194/Loksabha/Debates/debatelok.aspx(last visited on Aug. 01, 2019).

CITATION OF A CASE LAW

Citing a Case – Case title consists of the name of the plaintiff followed by space, the letters v.
or vs. and a space and the name of the respondent/ defendant.

In speech ‘v.’ is pronounced between the parties as ‘vee’ or ‘versus’ in the U.S.A. But in
England and Australia, ‘v’ is referred as ‘and’ if the case is a civil action, and as ‘against’ if
the action is criminal.

Then to separate the case title from the reporter citations, a comma and space is used,
followed by the volume number of the official reporter, the proper abbreviations of the
official reporter, and the page number of the first page of case report in the official
reporter. After the last reporter citation, put a space, then the year of decision in
parentheses.

In India, citing a case is as follows:

Muniappan V/S State of Tamil Nadu 1981 AIR 1220

Case Title
Year of Publication
Name of the Journal
Page Number

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1. All India Reporter (AIR)

(a) If the case name and citation together are to be written in the text of the article itself
[Note: This format is not allowed in JILI):

Case Name (Reporter Citation)

Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (AIR 1962 SC 933).

(b) If the name and citation are to be written in the footnote itself:

Case Name, Reporter Citation

Kesavnanda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1962 SC 933.

(c) Where the case title is written in the body of the text, only the name of the case shall
be in the text

e.g. Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala and the citation is written in the footnote as AIR
1973 SC 1461.

(d) If the name and citation are to be written in the footnote itself

Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1962 SC 933.

2. Supreme Court Cases (SCC)

(i) If the name and citation are to be written in the footnote itself:

Jassa Singh v. State of Haryana (2002) 2 SCC 481.

(ii) If the case title is to be written in the body of the research paper, only the name of
the case shall be written

Jassa Singh v. State of Haryana then the citation would be written in the footnote as (2002)
2 SCC 481.

3. Criminal Law Journal (Cr.L.J)

 Lakhwinder Singh & Ors. v. State of Punjab, 2003 Cri LJ 3058 (SC).
 Ujjagar Singh v. State of Haryana, 2003 Cri LJ 1691 (P&H).

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 References
[1] Base, K., & edition, A. (2021). Quick Guide to APA Citation (6th ed.) | In-Text Citation &
Reference List. Scribbr. Retrieved 23 May 2021, from
https://www.scribbr.com/category/apa-style/6th-edition/.

[2] Base, K., & Style, M. (2021). Student's Guide to MLA Style (2020) | Works Cited + In-text
Citation. Scribbr. Retrieved 23 May 2021, from https://www.scribbr.com/category/mla/.

[3] How To Cite a Research Paper: Citation Styles Guide « Guide 2 Research.
Guide2research.com. (2021). Retrieved 23 May 2021, from
https://www.guide2research.com/research/how-to-cite-a-research-paper.

[4] How to Cite Sources | Citation Examples for APA, MLA & Chicago | EasyBib. Easybib.com.
(2021). Retrieved 25 May 2021, from https://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/how-
do-i-cite-a/.

[5] LibGuides: Tools for Effective Writing: Help!. Stmary.libguides.com. (2021). Retrieved 24
May 2021, from https://stmary.libguides.com/c.php?g=437282&p=3006730.

[6] Library Guides: Citation Styles & Tools: Which citation style should I use?.
Guides.lib.uw.edu. (2021). Retrieved 23 May 2021, from
https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/citations/citationwhich.

[7] Save Time and Improve your Marks with CiteThisForMe, The No. 1 Citation Tool. Cite This
For Me. (2021). Retrieved 25 May 2021, from https://www.citethisforme.com/.

[8] Standard Citation Styles - Free Online NTA UGC NET Guide Book December 2020.
Netugc.com. (2021). Retrieved 23 May 2021, from http://www.netugc.com/standard-
citation-styles.

[9] What Are Footnotes and How Do You Use Them? | Scribendi. Scribendi.com. (2021).
Retrieved 25 May 2021, from
https://www.scribendi.com/academy/articles/what_are_footnotes.en.html.

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