A modern, simplified citation style and student response

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to see if there is a need for and an interest in a modernized and simplified citation style (SCS).

Design/methodology/approach

Students in two sections of English 1010 were given a brief training in SCS and asked to use SCS and MLA citation styles, respectively, in their next two assignments. Students were surveyed afterwards about their preferences.

Findings

Students preferred using the presented SCS over MLA by a large margin. This was not a surprise. Citation styles are difficult to master.

Research limitations/implications

This is a small qualitative study, and the result are not generalizable to a larger population, but the implications suggest that a larger study is warranted.

Practical implications

This paper shows that there is a need for a more modern citation style, one that embraces technology and moves forward from the print bibliographic tradition.

Originality/value

There are many articles in the literature about citations, but few address modernizing and simplifying citation styles, and none make a proposal for such a style.

Citation

Lanning, S. (2016), "A modern, simplified citation style and student response", Reference Services Review, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 21-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-10-2015-0045