Citation styles supported in HarvardSites Drupal

About citation styles

Citation styles help your publications list feel familiar to the people who use it. Different academic fields have different conventions for how publications should be formatted, what information should be emphasized, and how readers expect to scan a citation.

Choose the citation style that best matches your discipline, department, or publication standards. For example, medical and biomedical audiences may expect AMA, National Library of Medicine, or Vancouver formatting. Humanities audiences may prefer Chicago, MLA, or MHRA. Social science audiences may use APA, APSA, or ASA. Engineering and technical audiences may prefer IEEE.

Changing the citation style updates how the publications list displays on the page. It doesn’t change the publication records themselves.

When to use different citation styles

Research area or audience	Citation styles to consider	Why you might choose it
Chemistry and related fields	American Chemical Society	Commonly used for chemistry publications and related scientific research.
Medicine, public health, and biomedical research	American Medical Association 10th edition; National Library of Medicine; Vancouver	These styles are often used for clinical, medical, and biomedical publications where journal details and author order are especially important.
Political science and public policy	American Political Science Association	A good fit for political science, government, policy, and related research areas.
Sociology and related social sciences	American Sociological Association	Often used for sociology and fields that follow similar social science citation conventions.
Psychology, education, and many social sciences	American Psychological Association 6th edition; American Psychological Association 7th edition	APA styles are common in psychology, education, behavioral sciences, and many interdisciplinary social science contexts. Use the 7th edition unless your unit specifically requires the 6th edition.
Humanities and interdisciplinary scholarship	Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition (author-date); Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (full note); Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (note); Harvard Chicago Author-Date	Chicago styles are flexible and widely used across the humanities and interdisciplinary research. Author-date formats are useful when the publication year is important to readers. Note-based formats are helpful when fuller citation detail is expected.
Literature, language, and cultural studies	Modern Language Association 7th edition; Modern Language Association 8th edition; Modern Humanities Research Association 3rd edition (note with bibliography)	These styles are often used in literature, languages, and humanities research where books, chapters, edited volumes, and notes may be common. Use the newer edition unless your unit has a specific requirement.
Engineering, computer science, and technical fields	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)	IEEE is commonly used for engineering, applied sciences, computer science, and technical research.
Science and multidisciplinary research	Council of Science Editors, Citation-Sequence (numeric); Nature	These styles can work well for scientific publication lists, especially when readers expect compact citations or numeric citation formats.