The UPs and Downs of Citation Titles: What Librarians Should Know When Helping Students

Abstract

Whether you are an academic librarian, school librarian, or public librarian, if you work in Reference you probably get asked about how to cite a book or article in a particular style. One of the thorniest parts about helping someone with a citation is knowing how that style capitalizes words in the title. It is not obvious. The three primary citation styles (MLA, APA, and Chicago) have all published updated citation style manuals in the last couple of years and there have been some changes even in how titles are capitalized. This article describes the changes and breaks down the differences between each of the citation styles.