APA vs MLA, Chicago, Turabian IEEE. A Comprehensive Guideline of the Key Differences in Format and Citation

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

Focus:

The writing style that needs to be followed while presenting scientific data has to be clear and also should be consistent.

Disciplines:

Applied Sciences such as Psychology, Sociology, Education, Nursing and many others.

Description:

The APA style is a manual used primarily in the social sciences to reference items in the text and format the paper. It focuses on clear and concise writing along with fragment and source consistency, so the papers are not confusing and the sources are not difficult to find.

Key Features:

Author-Date Citation System:

In-text Citations:

This system requires that in the text, the author’s first and surname along with the year of publication, should be put into parenthesis. This simplifies the process of guiding the readers on how to find the source in the reference list as well as the measure of update of the information.

Example: (Smith, 2020)

Emphasis on Publication Date:

The year of publication is assigned the highest priority in APA style, in view of the fact that research information in such fields as psychology and education must be contemporary.

Structured Format:

Title Page:

Comprises identifying information necessary when submitting the paper and encompasses the title of the paper, the author’s name and the institution s/he is affiliated to. It also may contain a running head, which is a shortened version of the title of the work, and the page number.

Abstract:

The summary of the paper’s findings, ideally in a range of 150-250 words, is also included after the title page.

Main Body:

Having headings and subheadings to make it easy for the reader to flow through the content and make sense of it.

References:

A list of all the sources that were used in writing the paper inclusive of full details in order to locate such sources.

Bias-Free Language:

The APA style explains that the use of gendered language is discouraged and that all references should be specifically non-sexist. There are codes of conduct on the use of gender-deterministic language and the portrayal of diverse groups and communities.

Detailed References:

As it is seen, APA focuses on disclosing precise information about each source such as names of the author, year of publication, title of the work and other details about its publication. For electronic sources, DV (Digital Object Identifier) is primarily used to assign a permanent URL address to the source.

Example:

Books: Author, B. A. (Year). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher.

Example: Smith, J. (2020). Understanding psychology. Wiley.

Journal Articles: Author, B. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number (issue number), pages. DOI

Example: Smith, J. (2020). Psychological development in children. Journal of Psychology, 35(2), 123-145. https://doi.org/10.1037/0002-9432.35.2.123

Format for Quotations:

Quotations of 40 words or less are integrated into the text and are followed by quotation marks.

Quotes that are 40 words or more are done in block quotes and considered too long for quotation marks.

Guidelines for Figures and Tables:

Figures and tables are used in order to convey information, and these are clearly understood by the reader due to the presence of clear labels and titles. Every table and figure is mentioned in the text, and the tables must be comprehensible when read independently of the text.

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

Focus:

Documentation and citation in the humanities

Disciplines:

It includes humanities such as literature, philosophy, arts, language among others.

Description:

LA style is widely used when writing or citing sources in the humanities fields and for English studies. It makes citing of sources easier and simpler, as it establishes clear and reasonable patterns in scholarly communication.

Key Features:

Author-Page Citation System:

In-text Citations: The MLA style employs the author’s last name and the number of a page containing the stipulated information or quotation, in brackets. It directly informs the readers where to look for the particular entry in the Works Cited list and where the cited source can be found.
Example: (Smith 23)

Flexibility in Sources:

It is important to note that MLA can be used to format a number of sources such as books, articles, essays , and digital media. Thus it assists students in how to cite both print and electronic sources of information.

Minimalistic References:

MLA citations offer basic information required to find the source in the case that one wants to without so much particulars. It keeps citations brief and relevant by only highlighting certain facts.

Example:

Books: Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
Craig, John Understanding Literature. Realpress, 2020.

Articles: Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal, vol. number, no. number, Year, pages.

Journal :Craig, John. "The Art of Language in Literature." Literary Analysis Journal, vol. 5, no. 2, 2020, pp. 45-60.

Format for Quotations:

Short Quotations: Any quotation which is less than four lines of prose or three lines of verse is integrated in the text and inserted in between double inverted commas.

Example: Craig states, "The symbolism in the novel is multifaceted" (23).

Block Quotations: Quotations that are four or more lines of prose are indented ½ inches from the left margin from the document’s top down to the bottom. The involved source material is embedded word-for-word between double inverted commas but has no quotation marks around it, and the source citation follows the concluding punctuation mark.

Example:
Craig explains the significance of the novel's symbolism: Meaning, as in symbolism for a purpose is to present not only the psychological battles of personalities, but also the social ones. Perhaps, this multiple level of faceting helps readers achieve several types of encounters with the text and, consequently, enhances the readers’ engagement, or appreciation, of the literary work (23).

Works Cited List:

Alphabetical Order:

Any source that has been used in the creation of the paper is listed in the Works Cited list in alphabetical order based on the author or the first major word of the title, whichever is longer.

Hanging Indent:

All the entries are written in the manner that comply with the hanging indent, while the first line in each entry is aligned to the left margin.

Works Cited Examples

Doe, Jane. "The Evolution of Literary Criticism." Journal of Modern Criticism, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 115-132.
Craig, John. Understanding Literature. Penguin, 2020.

Formatting:

Title Page:

It is also important to know that MLA usually does not call for creating a special title page. However, data related to the student’s name, instructor’s name, course, date is inserted on the first page, in the left aligned format.

Headers:

Author’s last name and the page number are put in the header area, the right side of the page.

Margins and Spacing:

On the format, the rule followed is one inch margin on all sides, the spacing should be double, and the font used is Times New Roman, 12 point.

Chicago style

Focus:

Excellent documentation that could be used in relation to virtually any subject.

Disciplines:

History, Business, Fine Arts, and humanities and social sciences collective courses

Description:

Chicago is used in humanities, education and social sciences mainly when it is needed to cite sources with much precision. This gives so many rules for citing both the primary and the secondary sources, Thus there is a solution that enables one to properly and comprehensively cite ideas and information.

Key Features:

Two Citation Systems:

Notes and Bibliography:

This system is frequently applied in humanitarian subjects. It incorporates the incorporation of endnotes or footnotes to provide references in the papers and a Bibliography section at the end of the paper.

Author-Date:

Like APA format, this format is used in the sciences and the social sciences because of the way in-text citations and reference lists are formatted.

Extensive Bibliographic Details:

Under Notes and Bibliography system, publication details should be provided in the notes as author, title, publisher, and the date of publication. Where do I put the reference list? Occurs after the conclusion; it is a complete list of sources that was used in preparing the paper.

Example of a footnote citation:
John Smith, History of the World (New York: Penguin, 2020), 45.

Flexibility:

Chicago style also has authorization for books, journal articles, archival materials, and online resource materials. It gives direction on how to format each of the types of source and guarantee that they are well formatted.

Guidelines for Tables and Figures:

Place tables and figures close to where they are introduced in the paper. If necessary, these should be presented after the paragraph which for description of the particular aspect of the strategy.
In textual features, in the case of figures, typed legends are provided directly after the figure number with a brief explanation about the figure or illustration found in the text.

Dissertation and Thesis Formatting:

Chicago style provides detailed instructions concerning paper formatting among other things and is a way of ensuring that academic works meet the generally accepted standards as well as a means of helping scholars to do their work effectively by providing the right channels.

Format for Quotations:

Short Quotations:

A quotation is a direct speech, and quotations of short texts (not more than 4 lines) are placed in quotations marks within the text.

Example: According to smith in the History of the World, “Get it the revolution was caused by more than mere events” (Smith, History of the World, 45).

Block Quotations:

Quotations of four or more lines are placed in block form and indented from the left-hand margin of the page and do not use quotation marks, unless there is a new line of thought or a change of speaker, the quotation is separated by an additional space from the rest of the text.

Example:
The historical context of the revolution is elaborated by Smith: The histories which predate the revolution were many and multi-faceted in the social and economic contexts. This period well characterized the changes in the political state of affairs and the structure of the society (Smith, History of the World, 45).

Overall Formatting:

For the traditional layout of the Chicago style, the margins must be one inch on all sides of the page and there must be double line spacing and a clear font, for instance, Times New Roman font 12. Titles must be stylized in accordance to the publication’s Objective-Subtitle Format as well.

Turabian Style

Focus:

Guidelines which are implemented in research papers, theses and dissertations

Disciplines:

Preferred by college students across disciplines.

Description:

Turabian style is one of the branches of Chicago Manual of Style created for the use of the academic papers by Kate L. Turabian. It is commonly used in academic related activities, particularly among students involved in research work, writing research papers, theses, and dissertations. It is a shortened version of the rather voluminous Chicago Manual of Style, but it is rather rigorous when it comes to citation and formatting.

Key Features:

Adaptation of Chicago Style:

Turabian style is a subset of the Chicago Manual of Style that has guidelines for writing; however, the most relevant one when it comes to students’ research papers is Notes and Bibliography.

Two Citation Systems:

Notes and Bibliography: This system involves the use of endnotes or footnotes in the text with the use of a bibliography at the end of the paper, just like the Chicago style.

Author-Date: Recommended for social and natural sciences, similar to APA referencing because of its quite simple rules concerning in-text citations and reference list.

Guidelines for Academic Writing:

Turabian style is specific in terms of the instructions given for writing, formatting, and citing-which makes it a helpful resource for students regarding academic writing expectations.

Dissertation and Thesis Formatting:

Specific instructions are given in relation to the proper way of presenting graduate level research papers, theses, as well as dissertations mastered according to the established scholarly norms and practices.

Format for Quotations:

Short Quotations:

Minor quotations which are defined as those that are less than four lines long are kept embedded in the sentence with a double inverted comma

Example: Smith argues, "The implications of this theory are profound" (Smith, Theory and Practice, 78).

Block Quotations:

Quotations of four or more lines are set off by being indented from the left-hand margin, but neither are they enclosed in quotation marks; they are usually assigned a line space below them.

H7 Example:
Smith explores the historical context: Smith explores the historical context:
The theory turned into the foundation of culture, which focalizes on postmodernism and reinterpreting history, thus replacing all conventional forms of history (Smith, Theory and Practice, 78).

Works Cited/Bibliography:

The entries in the bibliography resemble the Chicago style with the information submitted by the authors such as the author’s name, the title of the work, the publisher and the year of publication.

Every entry has to be aligned in such a way on the left side, while the first line of each subsequent source is indented.

Overall Formatting:

Most formatting rules in Turabian style are similar to that of Chicago style for instance they include the implementation of margins, that is one inch on each side of the paper, spacing, that is double space for the entire paper, and font, for instance the Times New Roman 12 point font.

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Style

Focus:

Technical and scientific journals involving engineering and computer science.

Disciplines:

Civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics and Telecommunications.

Description:

IIEEE is used in Electronics and technical fields; to write and document the research papers, Conference papers, Journal papers etc. The most crucial aspect that it is encompassing is simplicity in writing, accurate referencing, and technical clarity with particular emphasis on consistency.

Key Features:

Numbered Citation System:

When using the IEEE citation style, the numbers given to the sources are consecutive and are assigned according to the references’ order, with no missing numbers. Additional notes include numbers in the brackets preceding the line of the number of the source in section references.

Example of an in-text citation: [1]

Concise References:

IEEE citations require authors to provide simple information of electronic articles by sticking to the IEEE style. In general, references are given minimally adequate information so that the reader can easily trace the source, such as author, title, and serial details.

Example of a reference entry:

[1] J. Smith, "Fundamentals of Robotics," IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 45-56, 2020.

Standardized Formatting for Papers:

IEEE has laid down certain standard templates for writing research papers so that there would be uniformity in terms of structure and style. This needs formatting standards for the title page, title of the case, sub-title, major sections sub-sections and other such classifications.

Detailed Instructions for Figures and Tables:

Regarding the presentation of data in figures and tables, IEEE provides very specific and easy to follow rules. All the figures and tables must be numbered with whole numbers and should have a brief title of what they depict. They are normally used in the text hence when referring to some issues they act as guidelines to explaining them.

Example of a figure citation:

Figure 1. Block diagram of the proposed system [2].

IEEE Journal and Conference Paper Standards:

the IEEE style offers certain requirements for submissions to the IEEE journals and conferences. These guidelines are normally mandatory for the authors to follow so as to ensure that all the submitted papers have some level of professionalism.

Example of a conference paper citation:

[3] J. Doe et al., "Efficient Algorithms for Signal Processing," presented at the IEEE International Conference on Signal Processing, Chicago, IL, 2023.

Format for Quotations:

In IEEE style, quotation marks are sparingly used as the primary style is technical, and administrators prefer paraphrasing or paraphrasings what is said concerning a certain topic than using the exact of the words of the source.

Overall Formatting:

In the case of papers using IEEE style, they are typified by single-column text, margins of one inch on every side, and a readable typeface such as Arial, Times New Roman or any other font that is, at most, 10-12 points. Headers and footers may contain the paper title or author’s name, which may agreed to by the specific guidelines of the paper.

APA

APA (American Psychological Association) style is widely used in the social sciences and education fields. It emphasizes clarity and conciseness in citing sources.

• APA style is used mostly in education disciplines and social sciences. This one is basically about how to cite sources and how to ensure that one has cited only necessary sources.
• Uses “References” for the list of the cited work.
• Uses the format of last name first, then the initials of the first name.
• Use quotation marks to titles of shorter works and italicize the titles of longer ones.
• Don’t italicize or underline or place quotation marks around titles of shorter works: articles include items in journals as separate issues, and issues as parts of book volumes, sections of books, and essays in collections.
• All the major words in the title of journals should be capitalized. Understanding that this is different from the instruction that has been given for titling other common sources such as books, reports, webpages, etc.
  • This differentiation is done depending on the source that is being cited. The titles of the academic journals are written in the title case where all the major words are capitalized; other sources do not have this format.
• Titles of works that appear in a series are in sentence case unless it is a journal, magazine, or a newspaper title
• Entries on the reference list should be arranged in alphabetical order of the first author’s family name.
• Usually, databases do not need to be included unless the format of the source is unclear.

APA Style example :

Johnson, E. (2022). The impact of renewable energy on global markets. Chicago University Press.

MLA

MLA or Modern Language Association is the stylistic method generally used in humanities. It focuses on the name of the author and also on the style of referencing.

• Provide a title “Works Cited” on the last page of the research paper in MLA format.
• Covers the first names and last names of all authors of published works.
• Titles are in title case, meaning that the first letter of each major word, together with the first letter of the last word, is capitalized.
• It is also pertinent to note that all works cited entries are preceded by a period.
• All citations should be double-spaced, but there should be no space between entries.
• Offset the numeral of the second and further lines of citations to the right by 0. Now, the hanging indent would be five inches from the left margin.
• Should contain a reference to the database if the source is located in a library database.
• The first letter of each word of titles of the articles, books, etc., should be capitalized, but the articles (the, an), the prepositions and the conjunctions are not capitalized unless the first letter of the title or subtitle is a conjunction.

MLA Style example:

Gerald, Johannes. Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin, 1987

Chicago

Chicago style offers two citation systems: and notes and bibliography and author-date. Notes and bibliography style is also known as the humanities style and is applied in such academic fields as arts and history.

• Uses “Bibliography” or “References” for the list of cited works.
• The name of the author is written in the bibliography with the last name first followed by the first name but separated by a comma.
• There must be two blanks between the word “Bibliography” or “References” and the first source cited/
• Put the space between the remaining entries – one line blank.
• Arrange with letter-by-letter alphabetical order based on the first word of the entry, whether it is the author’s name or the piece’s title.
• When it comes to records by multiple authors, use the word “and” instead of the ampersand symbol “&”.
• For two to three authors, list all the names in the publication order, separated by commas.
• For four to ten authors, include all the names in the bibliography, the first author’s name followed by et al. in the notes and parenthetical citations.
• It is always best to fully spell out the names of the publishers.
• Book titles are italicized and journals’ names are also in italic form. Titles of articles, chapters, poems, etc. are put in quotation marks.
• The year of publication is provided either after the name of the publisher or the name of the journal.
• Does not refer to the database as a factor that needs to be pointed out

Chicago Style example :

Kevin, Reliegh. The Dusk till Dawn. New York: Viking Press, 1959.

Turabian

Turabian style is based on Chicago style, which is preferred in history, art history, and humanities field. It breaks the traditional rigid style of citation and is suitable for students’ works and other research activities.

• Similar to Chicago style, also uses “Bibliography” for the list of cited works.
• Closely connected to the Chicago style, it includes full names of authors (first name and the last name).
• Titles are in title case (capitalize major words) that is quite close to Chicago style.
• Does not necessarily demand references to the database be made.

Turabian Style example:

Bill, Jon C. 1998. Native Americans in children's literature. Springfield, MA: Oryx Press.

IEEE

It is mainly used in technical areas, more specifically in engineering as well as computer area following the IEEE manual for authors.

• Whereas, it uses “References” for the list of the works cited.
• Gives authors’ last names first, then their initial.
• Titles are in title case i. e. major words in the titles are capitalized.
• Does not necessarily have to introduce the database.

IEEE Style example:

E. Johnson, "The Impact of Renewable Energy on Global Markets," Journal of Renewable Energy, 2022.