1. The principle behind citation is at the root of all modern scientific and academic inquiry: that each individual has the right of full credit and ownership of their intellectual property and their academic production.  To base one's research or arguments on the work of another without giving credit, or worse, to intentionally take credit for the work of another, is the worst sin in the academic universe, and has ended many promising careers. On the other hand, in order to contribute to the scholarship in your field, you MUST build upon the established body of research already existing. Therefore, you MUST learn the rules and formats of correct citation.

2. The function of a citation is not only to give credit where credit is due, but also to allow interested readers to quickly go to the original source, following in the footsteps of the author. The items that need citations includes quotations and specific textual references.  Although formatting may differ (and indeed can be quite specific according to field, discipline and even institution), the basic elements are almost always the same:

• Author's name (Last name, comma, First name, Middle initial)
• Title of the work 
• Publication name (if journal or periodical) 
• Publishing company
• Date of publication
• Place of publication (City and country only)
• Edition, volume, issue (if periodical)
• Specific pages cited or quoted (in parentheses, if this is a footnote or specific reference)

In addition, if you are citing a web page, you must include the URL (http://) and the exact date and time that you extracted the information (because web resources, unlike printed resources, can change at any time).

3. There are two general styles for citation:         In-line           and          Footnotes

4. The three formatting styles used in the Harvard Graduate School of Design are MLA Style, APA Style and the Chicago Style

Here is the Anatomy of a Chicago-style citation

APA vs. MLA: This show the basic differences between APA and MLA in a citation for a book

5.  Here are some links that will help you navigate the formatting you will be using this year

• Harvard Libraries HGSD Writing page (many links require Harvard log-on)
• Harvard Libraries Guide to Using Sources
• Official On-line Chicago Style Guide
• Chicago Style Guide Quick Guide
• PDF of the Chicago Manual of Style 
• OWL Chicago Manual of Style Page

Citation Machine (Automatic citation generator - use with caution)

6. Here are some resources you can use in the research for your Capstone Projects. Remember that top University libraries like BU and Harvard subscribe to many academic Journals and Databases which are NOT available on Google Search or Google Scholar!

• Main BU Libraries Research Page
• Main BU Library Search Page  
• Research Guide on Architecture
• The Art and Architecture Thesaurus online - A structured vocabulary of more than 133,000 terms, descriptions, bibliographic citations, and other information relating to fine art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, and material culture.

Following or subscribing to journals in your academic specialty is a vital aspect of scholarly communication. In many disciplines, the journal remains the primary vehicle for exchanging the latest research. All of our journals, in print or electronic form, can be found through BU Libraries Search.  Just enter search terms, get some results, and then set the limiter in the left column to “Journals”.

For example, when I used the Main Library Search Page to search for Architecture and selected articles from "Peer-reviewed Journals" (the most reliable kind) it returned about 130,000 items. However, when I logged in with my BU I.D. and password, it accessed additional resources and returned over 500,000 results. Try putting in the topic of your capstone, and see what comes up.  Use the filters to narrow down your results.