Citation styles explained
Six systems, the disciplines that use each, and the same source formatted in all of them so you can see exactly what changes.
Referencing styles look like arbitrary rules about full stops. They are actually about what a reader in your discipline needs to see. Once you know what each system prioritises, the details stop feeling random.
The six you will meet in a UK university
| Style | Type | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Harvard | Author-date | Business, social sciences, and most general use |
| APA | Author-date | Psychology, education, health sciences |
| OSCOLA | Footnote | Law |
| Vancouver | Numeric | Medicine, nursing, biomedical sciences |
| MLA | Author-page | English, modern languages, cultural studies |
| Chicago | Footnote or author-date | History, arts, some humanities |
The same source in all six
One journal article, formatted six ways. The differences are easier to see than to describe.
Harvard
Ahmed, S. and Brown, T. (2024) 'Adherence and attrition in adolescent trials', Journal of Health Research, 18(3), pp. 210–228.
APA (7th edition)
Ahmed, S., & Brown, T. (2024). Adherence and attrition in adolescent trials. Journal of Health Research, 18(3), 210–228.
Vancouver
Ahmed S, Brown T. Adherence and attrition in adolescent trials. J Health Res. 2024;18(3):210-28.
MLA (9th edition)
Ahmed, Sara, and Tom Brown. "Adherence and Attrition in Adolescent Trials." Journal of Health Research, vol. 18, no. 3, 2024, pp. 210-28.
Chicago (notes)
Sara Ahmed and Tom Brown, "Adherence and Attrition in Adolescent Trials," Journal of Health Research 18, no. 3 (2024): 210-28.
OSCOLA
Sara Ahmed and Tom Brown, 'Adherence and Attrition in Adolescent Trials' (2024) 18(3) Journal of Health Research 210.
What each system is trying to do
Author-date: Harvard and APA
The source is visible while you read. (Ahmed, 2024) tells you immediately who said it and how recent it is, which matters in fields where a 1997 finding and a 2024 one carry different weight.
The trade-off is clutter. A sentence supported by four sources carries four brackets. Harvard and APA differ mainly in punctuation and capitalisation: APA uses an ampersand and sentence case for article titles, Harvard uses and and quotation marks.
Numeric: Vancouver
The text stays clean. A superscript or bracketed number points to a list ordered by first appearance rather than alphabetically. Medicine favours it because clinical writing cites heavily and author-date would make it unreadable.
The cost is that you cannot see what a source is without looking it up, and inserting a new source mid-document renumbers everything after it. Reference management software is close to essential.
Footnote: OSCOLA and Chicago notes
Full detail sits at the foot of the page. Law needs this because a citation carries jurisdiction, court and year, all of which change the authority of the point. Compressing that into brackets would lose meaning.
OSCOLA also has a distinctive habit: minimal punctuation, and no full stop at the end of a footnote unless it ends a sentence.
Author-page: MLA
Page rather than year, because in literary study the edition and the exact page matter more than when the criticism was published. A 1962 reading of Woolf is not superseded by a 2024 one in the way a 1962 clinical trial is.
What actually changes between styles
Five variables. Every style is a different set of answers to the same questions.
| Variable | Example of variation |
|---|---|
| Author names | Full first names (MLA, Chicago), initials (Harvard, APA), no punctuation (Vancouver) |
| Date position | Directly after the author (Harvard, APA) or near the end (MLA, Vancouver) |
| Title capitalisation | Sentence case (APA, Vancouver) or title case (MLA, Chicago) |
| What is italicised | Always the larger container: journal or book, never the article |
| Page abbreviation | pp. (Harvard, MLA), bare numbers (APA), colon-prefixed (Vancouver) |
That last row explains most of the marks lost. Getting pp. wrong is trivial in isolation and obvious when it varies across forty entries.
Choosing, and then sticking to it
- Module handbook. Almost always states it explicitly.
- Department style guide. Usually a PDF on the intranet, and more specific than any general guide.
- Ask your tutor. By email, so the answer is on record.
Never assume the style carries between modules. Departments within one university routinely differ, and joint-honours students are the most frequent casualties.
The rule that matters more than the style
Consistency beats correctness. A document formatted in a slightly non-standard Harvard, applied identically to every entry, reads as careful. A document mixing two variants reads as careless, even when half the entries are perfect.
If you find yourself uncertain mid-document, pick the pattern you have used most and normalise everything to it. Then check the department guide, and change all of them together.
Style-specific detail is in our guides toHarvard,APA,OSCOLA andVancouver.
Last updated: 30 July 2026 · Written by the AssignWise editorial team ·Spotted something wrong?
Frequently asked questions
Harvard dominates across most disciplines. APA is standard in psychology and education, OSCOLA in law, Vancouver in medicine and nursing, MLA in English and modern languages, and Chicago in history. Your department decides, not you.
Check your module handbook first, then your department style guide, then ask your tutor. Never assume it carries over from another module, because departments within the same university frequently differ.
Author-date styles such as Harvard and APA put the author surname and year in your text. Numeric styles such as Vancouver put a number that points to a list ordered by first appearance. Author-date keeps the source visible while reading; numeric keeps the text uncluttered.
No. One style, applied consistently, throughout. The exception is a discipline that requires a second system for a specific source type, such as legal citation inside a policy essay, and even then only if your department says so.
Often not. They routinely mishandle capitalisation, edition numbers, organisational authors and chapters in edited books. Use them for a first pass, then check every entry against your department guide.
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