In-House Citations Style Guide for Manuscripts, LLC
Excerpt from internal documentation (Manuscripts, LLC) and intended for writers in Manuscripts’ programs
Why do I need to cite my sources?
Citations are necessary for any published work that uses ideas, research, quotes, etc. from another work because it is considered plagiarism if those citations are not present. Let’s think about a scenario. You just published your first book, and it’s all your own creation. All of it came directly from your own mind. It gets released into the world, and people read it. A few months go by, and you see a book titled identically to yours. You read through and see this author used your book as a template for their own, and they never gave you any credit for it. Now people think this other person had these ideas when it’s clearly a rip-off of your work. You’d be pretty upset. Right?
In the best-case scenario, angry emails and threats of legal action are mentioned. In the worst case, legal action is taken without any warning. It is crucial to include citations to avoid opening the door for legal issues.
In addition, it's important to cite sources you used in your research for several other reasons:
● To give yourself and your idea credibility
● To allow readers confidence in your idea and research
● To show other writers and publishers you can be trusted with work that is not yours
● To give readers access to the sources you used in case they want to do research on their own
What do I need to cite?
● Books
● Secondary Interviews
● Secondary Research
● Articles
● Studies
● TED Talks
● YouTube videos
● Podcasts
● Etc.
TIP: For web sources, be sure to check for an FAQ on how material can be used. Many podcasts, web articles, etc. have special permission rules, and those need to be checked to ensure the material you include is actually allowed to be in your book.
Here are some other definitions for less common words noted in the examples below:
DOI: “Digital object identifier,” can be found on the website itself, or at the top of a source originally in print and accessed online. If you cannot easily find it, do a CTRL + F search on the page and type “DOI” in the search box.
0) Titles
Before getting into examples, titles need to be discussed. CMOS 17 has specific rules for how titles appear in a citation. These are for the Notes section and the body of your text.
You must use the title rules for each citation. You will likely see the default for titles are italicized in the examples further on in this guide. You must adhere to these title rules OVER the italicized title placeholder in the examples.
Here is how to format titles in CMOS 17:
● Books, periodicals, poetry collections, plays/musicals, pamphlets, reports, movies, television shows, podcasts, radio shows, video games, albums, whole blogs: Italicized, capitalize all words EXCEPT the, a, an, as, to, and, but, for, or, and nor as well as prepositions that are not used as adverbs or adjectives. Additionally, names that include lowercase text (such as de León) maintain their lowercase status.
● Articles, chapters, short stories, individual poems, single episodes of a television/podcast/radio show, songs, blog posts: In quotation marks (not italicized, bolded, or underlined), with all of the capitalization rules mentioned above.
● Titles of websites and web pages: Not italicized, bolded, or underlined, and does not appear in quotation marks. The should not be capitalized unless at the beginning of a sentence. Individual articles, blog posts, etc. on a website should be in quotation marks.
● Languages other than English: Capitalize words as you normally would in a proper sentence. Italicize or include in quotation marks in the appropriate fashion for the media type.
● Businesses, companies, and names of universities: They are NOT treated as titles, and are NOT supposed to be italicized, in quotation marks, etc.
Book with One Author or Editor
Pamphlets, corporate reports, brochures, and other freestanding publications are essentially treated as books and would use the below formats. Data on author and publisher may not fit the normal pattern, but sufficient information should be given to identify the document.
When Author: Template
● Superscript: This is a sentence with a quote from Source A written by Author A. Here is that quote: “Quoted material.”1
● Note: 1. First Name Last Name, Title (Publisher’s Location: Publisher, Publication Year), Page Numbers.
From CMOS
● Superscript: “Crushed thirty feet upwards, the waters flashed for an instant like heaps of fountains, then brokenly sank in a shower of flakes, leaving the circling surface creamed like new milk round the marble trunk of the whale.”1
● Note: 1. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851), 627.
When Editor: Template
● Superscript: No change to note in-text, same as the Author example above.
● Note: 1. First Name Last Name, Title, ed. Editor First Name Editor Last Name (Publisher’s Location: Publisher, Publication Year), Page Numbers.
From CMOS
● Superscript: No change to note in-text, same as the Author example above.
● Note: 1. Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” in The Making of the American Essay, ed. John D’Agata (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016), 177–178.
Common Citation Questions
Author initials?
If the author is listed with initials instead of a full name, use the initials as you would the first name. Sometimes, the initials will have periods between the first and middle name, and other times they will not. Use initials as they appear in each specific source.
Author unknown or anonymous?
Sources occasionally do not have a known author. In those cases, use the title where you would usually use the author name.
● Stanze in lode della donna brutta. 1547. Florence.
Unless the author is specifically stated as “Anonymous,” do not use anonymous in place of an unknown author name. If there is a suspected author widely recognized as the true author, follow this format:
● [Samuel Horsley], On the Prosodies of the Greek and Latin Languages (London, 1796).
Pseudonym?
Pseudonyms are treated in the same way as a regular author name. The only difference is the addition of pseud. in brackets, as shown in the example below:
● Centinel [pseud.]... Then the rest of the citation as normal.
Not every pseudonym citation will need “edited by.” For works that are not edited or translated, you may remove that part of the citation and follow the citation protocol for the type of source you are using.
Additionally, if the pseudonym is more widely known than the author’s real name, use the pseudonym as you would any other name. For example, you would opt to use Mark Twain instead of Samuel Clemens.
Lastly, you may also include a real name in brackets after the pseudonym if you would like. This is not necessary, though.
● Jay-Z [Shawn Carter]... then the rest of the citation as normal.
Username or screen name in the Notes section?
According to CMOS, this would not need to appear in the notes section.
This does NOT mean you do not need to include any social media in Notes section. You MUST still cite the social media you referenced, just not the username (though it is suggested).
Organizations instead of authors?
You will occasionally need to use the name of an organization rather than someone’s given name. In those instances, use the organization name where you would the author/creator’s name. In the Notes section, type out the whole organization name and do not include the acronym. That would look like this:
● Note (from West Sound Academy Library): 1. World Health Organization, WHO Editorial Style Manual (Geneva: World Health Organization, 1993), 34.
Other elements of the citation (publication year, title, etc.) should follow the format of the source used.
