Why Citations?

Citing our sources is beneficial to our blog. By citing the sources we use, we add to our credibility by including information from primary sources and experts in the health fields.  Increasing the credibility of our blog is very important so our readers know that we are providing them with good, valid information about their personal health.  Citing sources is also important because claiming another’s work as one’s own is stealing.  The act of stealing violates copyright laws and undermines the integrity of our blog.

Citations will be implemented into our blog in MLA format.  We expect to utilize online sources such as articles published in scholarly journals, blog postings, and images.  To cite an online article published in a scholarly journal, it is necessary to include the author’s name, the title of the article, the journal title, the journal’s edition, its year, the page numbers used (if available), and the date.  An example of this is: Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal 6.2 (2008): n. pag. Web. 20 May 2009.  To cite a blog post, it is necessary to provide the author of the work, the title of the posting in quotation marks, the Web site name in italics, the publisher, the posting date with the medium of publication and the dates of access.  It is important to include screen names when the author’s name is not known.  An example of a citation for a blog posting is: Editor, screen name, author, or compiler name (if available). “Posting Title.” Name of Site. Version number (if available). Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher). Medium of publication. Date of access. To cite an image acquired from the internet, it is necessary to provide the artist’s name, the work of art italicized, the date of creation, the institution and city where the work is housed.  This should be followed with the name of the Website in italics, the publication, and the date of access.  An example of this type of citation is: Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Museo National del Prado. Web. 22 May 2006.  While we are utilizing parenthetical citations for information in our post, we will simply provide the link for any pictures that are used to capture the reader’s attention at the beginning of the posts.  While we will include our formal citations at the end of each posting, there will not be a traditional works cited page.  This means that each post will end with “Citations:” and then a simple list of the sources without the fancy hanging indent.

We chose to use MLA because everyone is already familiar with this citation style and most comfortable with using this type of citation. Science and social science are APA formatted and MLA is English/Lit formatted. Because or blog will be science based but presented in a literary fashion, MLA is the best to use.  The MLA format will also allow readers to see that the information used in our blog posts are not only valid, but up to date.  They will be able to navigate directly to any articles in our blog by using the information given to them in our citations.