There are official rules on how to construct or format a citation. These rules are referred to as style guides. A style guide will tell you how to format your paper and citations correctly. When formatting your references according to a style guide, you have two options:
Option 1: Manually write out your citations in the style you need for your assignment or publication. The official style guide will help you know how to accomplish this task, but there are helpful online tools too.
Option 2: Use bibliographic management software. This type of software stores all your references for you and then with handy add ons to Microsoft Word, formats your citations for you in whatever style you need.
DMU Library. (n.d.). Do I need to cite? [Infographic].