Using Citation Styles

In a publication, the citations in the text, in footnotes, and in the bibliography must be formatted consistently according to a citation style. With Citavi, you don't have to write the citations and bibliography yourself. Just put Citavi placeholders in your manuscript as you write, and Citavi takes care of the rest.

Of course, this demands that the bibliographic information you have added to Citavi is correct. Let's look at an example:

A book was edited by three authors: Maria Garcia, Susan Miller, and Peter Thomas Smith. In Citavi, you enter the names like this: Garcia, Maria; Miller, Susan; Smith, Peter Thomas. (The Quick Help texts for each field tell you how to correctly enter information.)

In your manuscript, when you need to cite the book, you enter its placeholder using the Publication Assistant (you can do it by hand, too). It inserts: {Garcia 2004 #34}.

When you've finished writing your manuscript, you use Citavi's Format publication feature. Citavi searches the manuscript for the placeholders and replaces them with the correct citations in the selected citation style. For example, a sentence might read "This line of reasoning is also present in Garcia et al. 2004."

Finally, Citavi also compiles the citations and adds a bibliography to the end of the document. Again, the selected citation style is used, so the entry in the bibliography might read: Garcia, M., S. Miller & P.T. Smith(eds.).

It's important to always type in the full editor names but to leave out supplementary information such as "editor", since these additions are controlled by the citation style you choose.

Unfortunately, there is no standard format for citations. Each discipline has its own needs and traditions, and departments and institutions often have their own variations. Many publishers and periodicals have "house styles" that you must follow in order for your work to be published.

Citavi has its own citation style, the Citavi Default Style which is adequate for work in many disciplines. Citavi also includes hundreds of citation styles, including common styles like APA, MLA, and Chicago as well as the styles of many publishers and periodicals. We are constantly expanding the list of styles, which you can load right from within Citavi. And if you need a different style, you can edit an existing style or create your own.

URL for this page: http://manual.citavi.com/en/?using_citation_styles.htm (Last updated: 18.08.2011 14:16:50)
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