Indications for bibliographic citations

The bibliography is the list of all the sources cited, consulted and generally used in the research and writing phases of the thesis work. Drawing up a well-structured bibliography at the end of the work gives the thesis professionalism and prestige, therefore it is important to follow two main rules: the list should be drawn up in alphabetical order and, once you choose a citational style you must apply it consistently throughout the entire work. Depending on the individual case, it is possible to include the page numbers of consulted sources either in the footnotes throughout the text, or directly in the final bibliography: ask your supervisor for advice and establish with him the most appropriate strategy for your research.

We talked about cited sources, but what is meant by quote? In writing a text, especially if aimed at proving or disproving a thesis, arguments acquire greater credibility when they are supported by reliable and, if possible, authoritative sources within the relevant field. When you cite a source, you allow the reader to trace the original source on which the thesis statements are based, placing your work within the broader context of the scientific community to which it belongs. Any source can be cited, from traditional books and magazines to audiovisual materials. Clearly indicating all quotes is extremely important, both to give credit to the authors and to demonstrate that you have not committed plagiarism.

After quoting a citation in the text, it is therefore necessary to indicate the author and the source from which it comes, but there is not just one way to do so. There are indeed many different citation styles, depending mainly on the discipline related to the thesis, but also on the chosen topic and the preferences of the supervisors; some universities specify the citation style to be used within the editorial guidelines. The most common and used citation styles are listed below:

Nomenclature	Citation system	Disciplinary area	Examples
APA STYLE	• Surname of author(s), date in the body of the text • Full surname and dotted name of author(s), date, title, publishing house in bibliography • Full surname and dotted name of author(s), date, article title. Periodical title, publication number, pages in the bibliography for the journals	Social sciences and psychology	• Alessi (2022) underlines that «all young designers want to work with him to learn» • Alessi, E. (2022), Stories (that never go out of fashion)., Rizzoli • Miller, S. (2023), Cities with no limits. Monocle, 165, 45-46
CHICAGO	• Surname of author(s), Title, pages in note • Surname of author(s), “Article title”, pages in notes for periodicals • Author(s) in full, Title, city of publication: publishing house, date in bibliography • Author(s) in full, “Article title”.Periodical title, publication number (date): pages for periodicals in the bibliography	Humanistics	• 1. Bruni, mirabilia, 81 • 2. Scruggs, “On a new urban politics,” 77 • Bruni Renato, mirabilia, Turin: Codice Edizioni, 2018 • Scruggs Gregory, “On a new urban politics”. Monocle, 165 (2023): 77
VANCOUVER	The source is not mentioned in the text, but only in the final bibliography, in which they will be numbered progressively in the order of citation in the text (which will simply report the number) • Full surname and dotted name of author(s). Title. City of publication: Publishing house; date. • Full surname and dotted name of author(s). Article title. Periodical title. Article date [if online, date of consultation]; publication volume(number): pages. DOI if online, for periodicals	Medical sciences	• Williamson B., Guffey E., eds. Making disability modern. London: Bloomsbury Publishing; 2020 • Voskamp PWM, Dekker FW, Rookmaaker MB, Verhaar MC, Bos WJW, van Diepen M., Ocak G. Vitamin K antagonist use and renal function in pre-dialysis patients. Clinical Epidemiology. May 2018[last visit: 05/09/2023]; 10:623-630. Available here.
IEEE	• A progressive reference number is inserted in the text in square brackets, which refers to the final bibliography • [n] Dotted name and full surname of author(s), Title, city of publication: publishing house, year in bibliography • [n] Dotted name and full surname of author(s), "Article title", periodical title, volume, number, pages, publication date in the case of periodicals in the bibliography	Computer science, Natural sciences	• To generate content dynamically, placeholders contained in template files are used [1] • [1] Q. Zervaas, Develop web 2.0 applications with PHP, Lavis (TN): Apogeo, 2008 • IG Galàn, “Unlearning Ableism: Design Knowledge, Contested Models, and the Experience of Disability in 1970s Berkeley”, Journal of Design History, vol.36, n.1, 73-92, 2023

A quote can be direct, indirect or paraphrased: in the first case, the exact words of the source are quoted, either by copying them or transcribing them in the case of audio and video, separating them from the body of your text and using low quotation marks (little tip: if you want to type low quotation marks o your keyboard, simply activate the NUM LOCK on the numeric keypad and use the key combinations ALT+0171 and ALT+0187); paraphrased quotes are precisely paraphrases or re-elaborations of the concepts expressed in the source, they may or may not be separated from the text and it is good practice to indicate the author; An indirect citation refers to quoting an author who is themselves cited in the source you are consulting: for example, if you are using an essay as your source, which in turn cites other works and you want to use that phrase or sentence, you need to specify that the author of the essay is the one who originally included it. In the case of a direct quotation, you may sometimes want to omit some lines or sentences from a particularly rich text: simply insert the notation"[...]" between the parts of the text you have selected for transcription, and the reader will know that, by consulting the source they will also find the text you omitted. In both cases, depending on the agreements made with your supervisor, you could include footnotes immediately after the citation which, depending on the citation style chosen, will list the author, title, year of publication and/or pages of the work.

Naturally, it is possible to insert the 4 points in a different order, perhaps moving the last one to the third position so as to provide the user with an explanation on the topic by narrowing the focus step by step (bibliography in general > cite in the text > indicate author and work>how to do it).