Key takeaways
- Your discipline usually decides the style; check your department before choosing.
- APA and Chicago author-date use the year prominently; MLA emphasises the page.
- Switching styles is mechanical but error-prone; verify after any conversion.
APA, MLA, and Chicago are the three citation styles most students encounter, and the difference is not arbitrary. Each evolved to serve a particular kind of scholarship, which is why your field, not your preference, usually dictates which one you use.
APA: the social sciences
APA is standard in psychology, education, business, and the social sciences. It uses author-date in-text citations, for example (Patel, 2023), and emphasises the year because recency matters in empirical research. The reference list is titled References.
MLA: the humanities
MLA is common in literature, languages, and cultural studies. It uses author-page in-text citations, for example (Patel 47), because close reading of specific passages is central to the work. The list of sources is titled Works Cited.
Chicago: history and the humanities, with two systems
Chicago offers two systems. The notes-bibliography system uses footnotes and is favoured in history and the arts. The author-date system resembles APA and is used in some sciences. Always confirm which Chicago system your department expects.
How to switch between styles
Converting between styles is mechanical but full of small traps: punctuation, italics, the order of elements, and how multiple authors are handled all change. A reference manager can do the bulk of the work, but always proofread the converted list, because automated conversions routinely misplace details. If you need a document moved cleanly from one style to another, our formatting team handles the conversion and verifies every entry.