| Citation Style |
Field / Discipline |
Definition |
| APA |
Social Sciences |
APA style is commonly used in psychology, education, and social sciences. It uses an author–date citation format and a reference list. |
| MLA |
Humanities |
MLA style is widely used in literature and language studies. It uses author–page in-text citations and a Works Cited page. |
| Chicago |
History / Publishing |
Chicago style offers two documentation systems: notes-and-bibliography and author-date, commonly used in historical research. |
| Harvard |
General Academic |
Harvard referencing uses the author-date system and is widely used in universities across the world. |
| IEEE |
Engineering |
IEEE style uses numbered references in square brackets and is popular in engineering and computer science publications. |
| AMA |
Medicine |
AMA style is used in medical and health sciences and follows a numbered citation format. |
| Vancouver |
Medicine |
Vancouver referencing uses numbered citations and is widely used in biomedical journals. |
| Turabian |
Students / Humanities |
Turabian style is based on Chicago style and is designed for student research papers. |
| ACS |
Chemistry |
ACS style is used in chemistry research and includes multiple citation systems. |
| OSCOLA |
Law |
OSCOLA is a citation style used for legal writing and law journals. |
| CSE |
Biology |
CSE style is used in life sciences and supports name-year or citation-sequence systems. |
| ASA |
Sociology |
ASA referencing is used in sociology research and uses an author-date format. |
| APS |
Physics |
APS style is used by the American Physical Society for physics publications. |
| AGLC |
Law |
AGLC is a legal citation style used in Australia for law research. |
| NLM |
Medical Research |
NLM style is used by the National Library of Medicine for biomedical literature. |
| Bluebook |
Law |
Bluebook style is a widely used legal citation system in the United States. |
| MHRA |
Humanities |
MHRA style uses footnotes and bibliographies for humanities research. |
| RIS |
Research Databases |
RIS is a standardized citation format used for sharing bibliographic data. |
| BibTeX |
Academic Publishing |
BibTeX is used with LaTeX documents to manage references and bibliographies. |
| AMA Vancouver Hybrid |
Medical Journals |
Some medical journals combine AMA and Vancouver citation rules. |
| ISO 690 |
International Standard |
ISO 690 is an international citation standard used for bibliographic references. |
| Citation Style |
Discipline / Field |
| APA |
Social sciences and psychology |
| MLA |
Literature and humanities |
| Chicago |
History and publishing |
| Harvard |
General academic research |
| IEEE |
Engineering and technology |
| AMA |
Medical and health sciences |
| Vancouver |
Biomedical research |
| Turabian |
Student research papers |
| ACS |
Chemistry research |
| OSCOLA |
Law and legal writing |
| CSE |
Biology and life sciences |
| ASA |
Sociology research |
| APS |
Physics publications |
| AGLC |
Australian legal research |
| MHRA |
Humanities research |
| NLM |
Biomedical publications |
| Bluebook |
US legal writing |
| ISO 690 |
International citation standard |
| ABNT |
Brazilian academic research |
| BibTeX |
LaTeX academic writing |
| Nature |
Scientific journals |
| Science |
Scientific publications |
| APA 7 |
Latest APA edition |
| MLA 9 |
Latest MLA edition |
| Chicago Author-Date |
Scientific Chicago format |
| Chicago Notes |
Footnote-based citations |
| Harvard Anglia |
University referencing system |
| Harvard CiteThemRight |
UK referencing standard |
| AMA Vancouver Hybrid |
Medical journals |
| RIS |
Research databases |
| Citation Style |
Field / Discipline |
Citation System |
Key Difference |
| APA |
Social sciences |
Author-date |
Focuses on publication year and research recency. |
| MLA |
Humanities |
Author-page |
Uses page numbers instead of publication year. |
| Chicago |
History |
Footnotes |
Uses detailed footnotes and bibliography. |
| Harvard |
General academic |
Author-date |
Widely used university referencing system. |
| IEEE |
Engineering |
Numeric |
Uses numbered citations in brackets. |
| Vancouver |
Medical research |
Numeric |
References listed in order of appearance. |
| AMA |
Medicine |
Numeric |
Commonly used in clinical journals. |
| Turabian |
Student research |
Notes/Bibliography |
Simplified Chicago style for students. |
| ACS |
Chemistry |
Numeric / Author-date |
Allows multiple citation systems. |
| OSCOLA |
Law |
Footnotes |
Legal citations with detailed case references. |
| CSE |
Biology |
Name-year / Numeric |
Supports three different citation systems. |
| ASA |
Sociology |
Author-date |
Very similar to APA but used in sociology. |
| APS |
Physics |
Numeric |
Used in American Physical Society journals. |
| AGLC |
Law |
Footnotes |
Legal referencing system used in Australia. |
| MHRA |
Humanities |
Footnotes |
Common in arts and humanities research. |
| NLM |
Medical literature |
Numeric |
Used by the National Library of Medicine. |
| Bluebook |
Law |
Footnotes |
Standard legal citation style in the US. |
| ISO 690 |
International standard |
Flexible |
International referencing guideline. |
| BibTeX |
LaTeX research |
Structured data |
Automated citations in LaTeX documents. |
| Nature |
Science journals |
Numeric |
Used in Nature publications. |
| Science |
Scientific publishing |
Numeric |
Used by Science journal. |
| APSA |
Political science |
Author-date |
Standard political science referencing. |
| AAA |
Anthropology |
Author-date |
Anthropological research citations. |
| SBL |
Biblical studies |
Footnotes |
Used in theological research. |
| GSA |
Geology |
Author-date |
Geological Society referencing. |
| AIP |
Physics |
Numeric |
American Institute of Physics style. |