7.1. Using (Bibliographical) Sources

When writing a research paper (and not only that kind of paper) you are supposed to survey a lot of materials - books, specialized magazines, broadcasts, museum and art gallery publications, the Internet,a.s.o. All the pieces of information belonging to those sources that you may want to use in your own paper must be correctly acknowledged. This can be done in several ways; there are many models you can use. First, ask your teacher/publisher-editor which style to adopt. If you do not have to stick to one requirement  you may consider the following two most widely used styles:

The MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

also called "in-text"/parenthetical documentation - the bibliographical information is supplied in the text, in brackets, where that piece of information is used; however, the bibliography ("works cited") is yet to be given at the end of the paper.

• Peter Johnson claims that Raphael's works are ......(21), where 21 is the number of the page in the book you had previously mentioned, written by Peter Johnson.
• Raphael's works are ... (Johnson: 21)
• Turner's magnificent brushwork style can be considered a precursor of Impressionism (Johnson, Turner's Art: 38) -- this is another book by the same author, so you have to mention this other title.
• Pratt mentions that Picasso met Matisse in Paris,1906...(qt. in Johnson: 99) -- this is to acknowledge the fact that you used an indirect piece of information; you didn't actually read Pratt, but you found him quoted in Johnson; apud is another term for this)

IDEM / IBIDEM: there are different opinions about how to use these Latin terms when acknowledging sources; mainly, idem (id.) means "the same person who had been cited before", while ibidem (ibid.) means "at the same place" as cited before; some people use "op cit" (Latin opere citato) for "in the work cited before"

Works Cited (the bibliography in the MLA style)

• Johnson, Peter. Raphael's Art. Washington, Thomson University Press, c. 2006. (a book published by a university publishing house)
• Johnson, Peter. "Turner's Art." Art of the World Monthly, September 2008: 29-41. (an article in a monthly magazine)
• Johnson, Peter. "Impressions." 21 Apr. 2010, http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogeu#3456_top>. (Internet, blog post)
• Johnson, Peter. "The Book Illustration Art." The Art Bulletin 98 (2005): 201-203 (volume no. 98 of an art journal, pages 201-203)
• Johnson, Peter et al. "The New Realism", Ann Arbor UP, 2010 (there are other authors, besides Johnson)

The Chicago Style

- the bibliographical information appearing in the text is documented as numbered footnotes (at the bottom of the page) or as endnotes (a numbered list at the end of the paper; their content is more or less the same as in MLA style; use p. or pp. for the number/s of the page(s) where you took information from); notes are not exclusively used for bibliographical information; you may also add some extra information on your own, or personal interpretations and comments on the cited/mentioned ideas.


1. Johnson, Peter.Raphael's Art (Washington, Thomson University Press, c. 2006), 21 (this can be a footnote or an endnoWorks Cited (Chicago)

Johnson, Peter.Raphael's Art. Washington, Thomson University Press, c. 2006

Johnson, Peter. "Turner's Art." Art of the World Monthly, September 2008, 29-41

Johnson, Peter."Impressions" [21 Apr. 2010]. Available from http://www.bloger.com-post-create.g/?blogeu#3456_top.

Johnson, Peter. "The Book Illustration Art". The Art Bulletin 98 (2005), 201-203



Note 1: All the above names and titles are construed. They cannot be found in reality. They were meant only as examples.

Some publishers have very strict rules as to how the documentation should be given. Personally, I consider only the correct, truthful acknowledgment of the sources to be important, and not so much the style, which should be the writer's choice. Either way, do not forget to always mention where you have taken your information from, no matter if you quote it exactly or you paraphrase it, you summarize it, e.t.c.

Note 2: However, notice that such "works cited" entries as the following cannot be accepted at all:

• album arta 'Mari personalitati- Leonardo da Vinci (quoted exactly)
• Sabrina Laurnt, "Was Dali a Genius" (quoted exactly)    

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM