College and Research Libraries


By WILLIAM DOSITE POSTELL 

Clarifying Bibliographical Citation 
Mr. Postell is librarian of the School of 
Medicine of the Louisiana State University~ 
.at New Orleans. 

T HE LITERATURE regarding the principles of bibliographical citation is quite ex­
tensive, and it is not the purpose of this paper 
to repeat what has already been stated but 
to make an attempt to clarify some of the 
precepts regarding this very important prob­
lem. 

It has been very puzzling at times to know 
how to advise students, internes, residents, 
and younger faculty members who come for 
advice on how to arrange references or bib­
liographies for papers they are preparing for 
publication. It is not always so simple to 
apply the often repeated maxim to follow 
the form required by the journal to which 
it is planned to submit the paper. In many 
cases the journals themselves are not too 
consistent in their bibliographical citations. 

Briefly, the purpose of bibliographical ci­
tation is to give authority for every state­
ment or fact quoted and also to provide a 
clear and concise description of the docu­
ment from which each statement it taken. 
The reasod for this is that a citation is an 
integral part of the logic. It is a link in 
the chain of evidence; and its source should 
be so clearly given that no one would have 
any trouble in verifying a statement. 

Undoubtedly the clearest explanation of 
the principles of bibliographical citation was 
outlined by J. F. Fulton1 in his excellent 

·paper on this very subject. Anyone who fol­

1 Fulton, J. F . "The Principles of Bibliographical
Citation." Bulletin of the Medical Library A ssocia­
tion 22:183-97, April 1934· 

lows the p;ecepts laid down by Dr. Fulton 
cannot go wrong, but generally medical ·and 
scientific journals have adopted modifica­
tions of these principles which have proved 
somewhat pqzzling. In many cases there 
seems to be a lack of clear understanding as 
to the meani_ng of "bibliography," "refer­

" " ·t i1 • ' ences, or hterature c1ted.' These terms 
are used interchangeably, wit~ litde regard 
as to their proper meaning. t 

A bibliography is generally recognized as 
a compilation of the literature of a given 
subject. It is comprehensive in scope and 
is arranged or should be arranged alphabeti­
cally by author and appended at the end . of 
the paper. On the other hand, the terms 
"literature cited" or "references" usually re­
fer to a specific statement or fact and are 
arranged in the order in which the references 
are cited. These citations may either be 
placed as footnotes or appended at the end 
of an article. 

For the sake of clarity and in order to have 
some basis or criteria for advising students 
as to the form and arrangement of their 
references or bibliographies, it was decided 
arbitrarily to divide medical and scientific 
publications into three . groups. To each 
group is assigned a recommended form for 
the arrangement of its citations. 

Group one includes those papers which 
as a rule are short and deal with one specific 
topic. In this type of article there is usually 
very little general information or what may 
be referred to as background material; the 
references generally are to one particular 
statement or fact. For these papers it is 

(Continued on page 288) 

JUNE~ 1945 249 



Manuscript Collections in the William L. 
·Clements Library, A Guide to the Manu­
script Collections in the Archives of theN orth 
Carolina Historical Commission, A Guide 
to the Personal Papers in the Manuscript 
Collections in the Minnesota Historical So­
ciety, and The American M anus·cript Collec­
tions in the Huntington Library. 

To historical students it is at times shocking 
to 'learn that material greatly needed has 
been .destroyed or is hidden away in some 
unappreciative persqn's storage spaces. For 
example, to the Western Reserve Historical 
Society there came not long ago the full 
records of an interesting but defunct uni-

Clarifying Bibliographical. Citation 
(Continued from page 249) 

recommended that the citations be arranged 
in the order in vvhich they are referred or 
quoted from and appended at the end of the 
paper. Each reference should be a complete 
bibliographical citation, e.g._, author, title, 
journal, volume, pagination, month, year. 
This is the form used by the journals pub­
lished by the American Medical Association. 

To group tvvo is assigned the papers of 
some length, including monographs and 
papers published in revievv journals. Such 
papers present a comprehensive study of a 
given subject, including its history and an 
outline of the experimental vvork accom­
plished. These articles contain a consider­
able amount of general information as vvell 
as references to a specific .statement. In 
these cases it is recommended that citations 
be label~d "bibliography," arranged alpha­

,. ,J. 

betically by author, and numbered and 
appended at the end of the article. Through­
out the paper, vvhenever it becomes necessary 

versity in Ohio for the years 1834-47. They · 
had been resting in a box of family relics all 
these years, a curiosity for the owner but 
unavailable for any serious uses. Whatever 
will help to enlighten the people of the 
United States on the usefulness · o£" the papers 
in private homes and. public archives is a 
national service of great value for the future. 
The librarians, curators, and directors of 
some eight hundred historical societies have 
an ever-present challenge. They have the 
chance for a mass attack on apathy and ignor­
ance which ought to bear good fruit.-Elbert 
J. Benton, director and secretary, Western 
Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland. 

· to refer to a citation, the number of the ref­
erence simply may be listed follovving the 
statement. In those cases where it becomes 
necessary to refer to a specific page in a cita­
tion, the number of the page may follovv the 
number of the reference. As an example of 
the use of this type of citation refer to the 
monograph bY. T. E. Keys. 2 

To the third group is assigned papers of 
such a general nature as to make reference 
to any one bibliographical item unnecessary. 
To these papers it is recommended that the 
bibliography be alphabetically arranged by 
author and appended at the end of the 
article. 

This classification has simplified the in­
terpretation of the principles of bibliographi­
cal citation to a marked degree and has also 
served as a logiCal explanation in explaining 
the different forms to the students. 

2 Keys, T. E. The Development of Anesthesia, n.d. 
78p. 

'288 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES