The type of reference to use within a Zettelkasten system is a personal preference; it is a file system that has to work. That being said, using what the school, industry publications, or publisher requires is recommended. The examples within this guide use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, more commonly referred to as the APA, because that is used for undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. programs within Liberty University’s School of Business.

Do not get pigeonholed with only one type of reference. A considerable amount of research can also involve legal court cases, which have an entirely different reference format – The Bluebook. Be aware that reformatting references may be modified to meet publication requirements. The following example cards show the same reference for the four main citation styles: APA, Chicago, MLA, and Turabian. Each example will display the in-text citation and the full-reference.

American Psychological Association (APA)

The social sciences use APA, such as psychology, sociology, and education.

Zhang, H. et al., 2023  Zhang, H., Wu, J., Wen, J., & Douglas, D. (2023). Ethical leadership in multinational companies’ control practices: Culture as a moderating factor. International Journal of Organizational Analysis (2005), 31(6), 2183-2208. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-10-2021-2998

The Chicago Manual of Style

History, literature, and the arts use the Chicago style for academic writing and publication. The APA is consistent in its formatting, while the Chicago has different guidelines for author-date and notes-bibliography citation styles. The example following uses the author-date citation, similar to the APA.

Zhang, H. et al., 2023, 2183  Zhang, Huayao, Junjie Wu, Jing Wen, and David Douglas. “Ethical Leadership in Multinational Companies’ Control Practices: Culture as a Moderating Factor.” International Journal of Organizational Analysis 31, no. 6 (2023): 2183-2208. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-10-2021-2998.

The Modern Language Association (MLA)

The MLA is a style guide for writing and citing sources in the humanities, specifically literature, languages, and cultural studies.

Zhang, H. et al., 2183  Zhang, Huayao, Junjie Wu, Jing Wen, and David Douglas. “Ethical Leadership in Multinational Companies’ Control Practices: Culture as a Moderating Factor.” International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 31, no. 6, 2023, pp. 2183-2208. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-10-2021-2998.

Turabian Style

The Turabian style is a simplified version of the Chicago style tailored for students and researchers. It also offers two versions: author-date and notes-bibliography. The Turabian is for academic writing at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Zhang, H. et al., 2023, 2183  Zhang, Huayao, Junjie Wu, Jing Wen, and David Douglas. 2023. “Ethical Leadership in Multinational Companies’ Control Practices: Culture as a Moderating Factor.” International Journal of Organizational Analysis 31 (6): 2183-2208. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-10-2021-2998.

Are you curious about the differences between the four types of references? If so, here is an exercise to do just for fun. Look at each of the four example cards carefully and try to find the differences in the complete reference. An APA reference with highlights and notes about the differences will be shared in our next post – just to keep it interesting!

Sources Matter

Consider sources carefully before even starting a Bib card! Most universities require sources that are peer-reviewed and published in the last three to five years. Some exceptions are allowed for books and textbooks. And, if the thesis or dissertation is on a topic in a rapidly changing industry, like artificial intelligence, identifying relevant and timely sources is even more critical.

Proof of Work

The news is full of issues debating the merits of students leveraging large language models (LLMs) like Copilot, ChatGPT, or Meta AI, to name a few, to assist them with crafting their assignments, theses, and dissertations. To curtail this practice, universities have partnered with various software providers promising an ability to identify students using artificial intelligence to write papers. These tools have an industry-acknowledged problem – false positives.[1]

It is easy to think, “That will never happen to me; I don’t even know how to use one of those programs.” Think again. It happened to me, even though I do not use AI to do any writing for me (other than in testing scenarios in my professional capacity). Fortunately, I was able to explain why I scored so high in comparison to my peers (such as knowing how to cite a court case properly and having uploaded 20 years of writing – including all of my essays, papers, discussion posts, and proposals to test various AI platforms).

Using the Zettelkasten system creates a record of research, notes, drafts, and so forth that could, should the worst case happen, aid in defending your reputation as an authentic writer. Failure in defense could result in expulsion or the retraction of published works. In summary, take time to create a Bib card for every reference! Bib cards are proof of research, literature review, and processes for assembling ideas that support the final document, regardless of its name or type.

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[1] Coffey, L. (2024, February 9). Professors proceed with caution using AI-detection tools. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2024/02/09/professors-proceed-caution-using-ai.