Skip to Main Content
  • Hampton: (757) 825-2877 | Historic Triangle: (757) 258-6500

    • Notes/Bibliography Encyclopedia

    Footnotes: 

    Footnote and endnote citations for encyclopedias differ from book citations.  Here is the general construction of an encyclopedia citation in a footnote or endnote:

    •  The elements of the citation are separated by commas.
    •  If the entries in the encyclopedia you are citing have signed authors, you can include the name of the author in your citation, though doing so is not necessary (in fact the Manual seems to discourage this, as they do not provide a good example of an authored entry as a footnote or endnote).  If you do include an author's name, treat the title of the entry as you would an article title or book chapter title -- put it in quotation marks.
    •  The title of the encyclopedia is italicized
    • The edition of the encyclopedia must be specified following the title
    •  The title of the encyclopedia entry follows the letters "s.v."   The title of the encyclopedia entry is "put in quotation marks."
    •  Publication information beyond the name of the encyclopedia, its edition number, and the title of the entry is not necessary.  You can include this information (in parentheses, similar to a regular book citation) if you believe it useful for identifying the enecyclopedia you are citing, but it is not necessary.
    • A publication date or last revision date is necessary if you are citing an online encyclopedia (either through the library's digital resources or from the free Internet).  If there is no publication date or last revision date, include the date you accessed the encyclopedia entry.
    • If available, include a Web address or Digital Object Identifier for the encyclopedia entry.

    For further info, see sections 14.247 and 14.248 of the Manual.

     

    Encyclopedia Article:
    Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. "Gillespie, Dizzy."

    Encyclopedia Article with author and publication information:
    Mogens Herman Hansen, "Athenian Democracy," The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Oxford, U.K: Oxford University
         Press, 1996).

    Article from an Online Encyclopedia through the Meriam Library website:
    The Oxford Companion to Western Art, s.v. "O'Keefe, Georgia," accessed June 14, 2011, http://www.oxfordreference.com/
         views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t118.e1909.

    Article from an Encyclopedia on the free Web:
    Wikipedia, s.v. "Wilt Chamberlain," last modified June 12, 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilt_Chamberlin.

    Bibliography: 

    Citations in a bibliography are formulated in a similar way to a footnote or endnote, but do have slight variations from the way a footnote or endnote is formulated.

    Encyclopedia Article:
    Dictionary of American Biography.  24 vols.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1999.

    • In this example, the entry is taken from the first and only edition of the Dictionary of American Biography.  Thus there is no edition number.  If there were, it would fall between the title of the encyclopedia and the number of volumes.

    Encyclopedia Article with author:
    Hansen, Mogens Herman.  "Athenian Democracy."  In The Oxford Classical Dictionary.  3rd ed. Oxford, U.K: Oxford University
         Press, 1996.

    Article from an Online Encyclopedia through the Meriam Library website:
    "O'Keefe, Georgia."      In The Oxford Companion to Western Art.  Oxford, U.K: Oxford University Press, 2001-.  Accessed June 14,
         2011.  http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t118.e1909.

    Article from an Encyclopedia on the free Web:
    "Wilt Chamberlain."  Wikipedia.  Last modified June 12, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilt_Chamberlin.