Revision as of 19:53, March 12, 2009

A caution before citing Our Story

As with any source, especially one of unknown authorship, you should be wary and independently verify the accuracy of information if possible. We do verify accounts, but for many purposes, particularly in academia, Our Story may not be an acceptable source; indeed, some professors and teachers may reject wiki-sourced material completely. This is especially true when it is used uncorroborated.

We advise special caution when using Our Story as a source for research projects. Normal academic usage of a wiki and other encyclopedias is for getting the general facts of a problem and to gather keywords, references and bibliographical pointers, but not as a source in itself.

A wiki is an unusual medium, and as such doesn't conform well to the usual book-citation formats. You will need to use an electronic-citation format instead. The exact format will depend upon the citation guide that you are following, but here are a few general principles to consider:

• You can cite a particular author or authors for an Our Story article, in general. However, Our Story articles may be edited by someone else. If you do need to find the list of authors of a particular article, you can check the page history. Authors are listed only by IP address or chosen user name; you normally cannot verify and often cannot even guess at their identities.

• Your citation should normally list both the article title and Our Story, Washington State University, much as you would for an article in a paper publication. Every article should be a separate citation.

• Most citation styles will likely require the full article URL. You can click "Permanent link" in the toolbox at the left of this page. This lets the URL include a unique identifier such that you can tie your reference back to the exact version of the article you are referencing. It may or may not be desirable to adopt this approach, depending upon the context of your reference. This lets you show what you saw and ignore any changes made after you accessed the page. If greater brevity is desired, you can use the regular URL, or optionally just the site URL (e.g. http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory), because an article URL can be inferred from an article title.

• The citation style may request the full date and time of the article revision you are using. If you use the permanent link feature, this may not be necessary. However, the date and time of the last revision can be found at the bottom of every page (above the copyright notice).

Examples

The following examples assume you are citing the Our Story article Notes of WSC 1940, using the version that was submitted on February 9, 2009 at 17:37 UTC, and that you retrieved the article on March 12, 2009, except as otherwise noted.

APA style

Citation in APA style, as recommended by the American Psychological Association: [1]

• Notes of WSC 1940. (2009, February 9). In Our Story, Washington State University. Retrieved March 12, 2009, from http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940

Note that in APA 5th Edition style, the following rules apply for the reference:

• For reference books, which includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, and glossaries, the book title is preceded by the word In. It is not italicized, but the book title following it is.
• The book title appears in sentence case. You capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.
• The URL must go to the exact page that you reference.
• No punctuation follows the URL.
• The term or article title appears in the author position. Use sentence case for multiple-word terms or titles, where you capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.

The proper in-text citation is ("Notes of WSC 1940," 2009) for a paraphrased passage or ("Notes of WSC 1940," 2009, para. #) if you directly quote the material. Note that para. # represents the paragraph number in the page where the information appears. If there are multiple headings on the page, it is also acceptable to place the subheading and then a paragraph number within that heading.

If the quoted material is more than 40 words, use the block quote format instead.

APA Style requires that you provide a separate reference entry for each term you are citing in your paper because 1) you must provide a URL for each term that goes directly to the term, and 2) you must provide the publication date for each term separately. However, if you are discussing the "online encyclopedia" itself, not a term in the encyclopedia, you might need to reference the site itself. The proper citation of Our Story, the site, as referenced in APA 5th Edition Style is:

• Our Story, Washington State University. (2009, February 9). WA: Washington State University. Retrieved March 12, 2009, from http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory

The in-text citation formation would be (Our Story, 2009).

MLA style

Citation in MLA style, as recommended by the Modern Language Association:

• "Notes of WSC 1940." Our Story, Washington State University. 9 February 2009, 17:37 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Aug. 2004. <http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940>.

Note that MLA style calls for both the date of publication (or its latest update) and the date on which the information was retrieved. According to the most recent edition of the MLA Handbook, there is now information required about any foundation involved. Also note that many schools/institutions slightly change the syntax. Another example:

• "Notes of WSC 1940." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 22 July 2004 <http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940>.

Be sure to double check the exact syntax your institution requires.

For citation of Wikipedia as a site, use:

• Our Story, Washington State University. 9 Feb. 2009. Washington State University. 12 Mar. 2009 <http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory>.

MHRA style

Citation in MHRA style, as recommended by the Modern Humanities Research Association:

• Our Story contributors, 'Notes of WSC 1940', Our Story, Washington State University, 9 February 2009, 17:37 UTC, <http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940> [accessed 10 August 2004]

Chicago style

Citation in Chicago style:

• Our Story contributors, "Notes of WSC 1940," Our Story, Washington State University, http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940 (accessed March 12, 2009).

Note that the Chicago Manual of Style states that "Well-known reference books, such as major dictionaries and encyclopedias, are normally cited in notes rather than bibliographies."

CBE/CSE Style

Citation in CBE/CSE style, as recommended by the Council of Science Editors:

• Our Story contributors. Notes of WSC 1940 [Internet]. Our Story, Washington State University; 2009 Feb 9, 17:37 UTC [cited 2009 Mar 12]. Available from: http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940.

Turabian style

The following are examples of how to cite Wikipedia articles according to A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th edition, by Kate L. Turabian (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). ISBN 0226816265 (cloth), ISBN 0226816273 (paper).

Note on Turabian style: Please understand that Turabian does not have rules that cover anything like a wiki. These examples are based on "reading between the lines" and assimilating rules from various not-so-similar cases that Turabian does cover. If the party to which you are submitting your paper is particularly strict, you might want to find out if they have their own adaptation of Turabian that would apply in this case. Alternately, you could always consult with the party before the deadline to make sure it's acceptable.

Notes

¹"Notes of WSC 1940," in Our Story, Washington State University; (Washington State University, updated 9 February 2009, 17:37 UTC) [encyclopedia on-line]; available from http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940; Internet; retrieved 12 March 2009.

²Our Story contributors, "Notes of WSC 1940."Our Story, Washington State University, http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940 (Accessed March 12, 2009)

Bibliography

Our Story, Washington State University. Washington State University. Updated 9 February 2009, 17:37 UTC. Encyclopedia on-line. Available from http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940. Internet. Retrieved 12 March 2009.

(According to Turabian 6th edition, ¶9.8, for entries in the bibliography, "the first line of each entry is flush left, and any run over lines are indented five spaces". This presentation does not follow that rule.)

Parenthetical reference

("Notes of WSC 1940," Our Story, Washington State University)

or

(Our Story, Washington State University, s.v. "Notes of WSC 1940")

Reference list

Notes of WSC 1940. 9 February 2009, 17:37 UTC. In Our Story, Washington State University. Washington State University. Encyclopedia on-line. Available from http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940. Internet. Retrieved 12 March 2009.

(Indenting is like that of the bibliography.)

[2] entry

 @misc{ wiki:###,
   author = "Our Story, Washington State University",
   title = "Notes of WSC 1940 --- {O}ur Story{,} Washington State University",
   year = "2004",
   url = "http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940",
   note = "[Online; accessed 12-March-2009]"
 }

When using the [3] package url (\usepackage{url} somewhere in the preamble) which tends to give much more nicely formatted web addresses, the following may be preferred:

 @misc{ wiki:###,
   author = "Our Story, Washington State University",
   title = "Notes of WSC 1940 --- {O}ur Story{,} Washington State University",
   year = "2009",
   url = "\url{http://wsm.wsu.edu/ourstory/index.php?title=Notes_of_WSC_1940}",
   note = "[Online; accessed 12-March-2009]"
 }