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Citation Guide

Last modified Apr 15, 2024 03:09 PM

Guidance and examples for the citation of books, articles, websites, and primary sources in the "references" sections of Pleiades place, name, location, and connection resources.

References in Pleiades

In Pleiades, a "reference" is any citation of an external source, either on-line or in print. The editors have a preference for clear, well-structured citation data that facilitates the ready finding of cited material, rather than adherence to a particular citation style. The Pleiades community uses the Zotero citation management system to control citation information for bibliographic works, including monographs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, journal articles, articles in collections, web sites, web pages, datasets, digital gazetteers, primary sources, and the like. The Pleiades Zotero Library is publicly browseable, but can only be modified by community members authorized by the managing editor. Individual citations (to whole works or sections thereof) are stored as "references" on the relevant place, name, location, or connection resource in the Pleiades application itself. Several data fields are included in each reference (including a link to the corresponding Zotero record).

Pleiades contributors receive automated assistance in linking to and retrieving information from the Zotero library through the reference widget on the website forms used to add and edit Pleiades resources. See How to Add a New Reference for step-by-step instructions. Please email pleiades.admin@nyu.edu if you need to add new works to the Pleiades Zotero Library or correct its content.

Digital vs. Print Resources

The Pleiades editorial college prefers to see the citation of digital versions of resources, rather than their print analogues unless there is a strong reason to cite the paper version. Rationale for citing the print version of an encyclopedia or journal article when an online version is available include:

an older edition available only in print contains superior information
a digitized version of print resource is so poorly digitized as to lead potentially to an erroneous understanding
an online version is hosted by an unreliable or illegal service provider or appears to have been posted in violation of copyright

For primary sources, the Pleiades editorial college prefers to see the citation of online, open-access editions unless a paywalled digital or print-only edition has superior readings or presentation of the section of the work being cited. Separate bibliographic records for many editions, both digital and print, are included in the Zotero library for this reason.

General Rules for Reference Fields

NB: Older content in Pleiades (i.e., that which predates publication or revision of this guide) or that which has been imported from other datasets may exhibit other variations in citation practice. Efforts are on-going to update these legacy references.

The following guidance pertains to the content of individual fields on the add/edit references form used throughout Pleiades:

Citation Type: See our separate "Citation Types" documentation page.
Bibliographic URI: A link to the record in the Pleiades Zotero library that documents the overall work being cited. Quick lookup or Zotero search via the Short Title field is the fastest way to get a Bibliographic URI (see How to Add a New Reference). Alternatively, the link can be copied from the web version of an individual reference in the Pleiades Zotero library, or the Zutilo plugin can be used to "copy the Zotero URI" from the Zotero client interface to the clipboard.
Short Title: Loaded automatically from the corresponding Zotero record by clicking the "Fetch Zotero" button. Do not manually change this value.
Citation Detail: Manually entered when needed: appropriate additional information if a subsection of the work is being cited (e.g., page range, section title, item number, headword, web page title in a larger site). Contributors are encouraged to spell out, rather than abbreviate, components of the citation detail, especially when they are not readily apparent to an average reader. Avoid using old-school Latin abbreviations. See Guidance for Particular Types of Work, below.
Formatted Citation: Loaded automatically from the corresponding Zotero record by clicking the "Fetch Zotero" button. Do not manually change this value.
Access URI: If the Zotero record contains a link to an online resource, that value will be autofilled when clicking the "Fetch Zotero" button. Contributors should modify or replace it with a more specific link if an individual page from a multipage site is being cited. For print books that are not available digitally, the editors prefer that a WorldCat "permalink" be used in order to facilitate users' access to a local copy.
Alternate URI: Optional: If the contributor is aware of a digital mirror or archival copy of the item being cited (especially, in the Internet Archive), its address may be entered here.
Other Identifiers: Optional: If known, ISBNs, ISSNs, DOIs, and other work identifiers may be added in this field, separated by commas.

Guidance for Particular Types of Works

Articles in Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

The Pleiades Zotero library contains work-level bibliographic data for dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works made up of multiple articles or entries each of which are usually cited by a lemma, title, or other alphanumeric rubric. We do not add analytic bibliographic records to the Zotero library for the individual articles; therefore, the following field-specific conventions apply:

Use quick lookup, enter-to-search, or paste to enter the Zotero URI for the entire encyclopedia or dictionary in the Bibliographic URI text box.
Use the Fetch Zotero button to retrieve the standard short title, formatted citation, and work-level access URI from Zotero. NB: the formatted citation will already include the page range for the article.
Manually enter in the Citation Detail text box the article title or work, followed in parentheses by the author's initials and surname. Separate multiple author names with a comma. Omit corporate authors' names. Omit author names on massively multi-authored works like Wikipedia articles.
Manually enter in the Access URI text box the link to the article, including the initial protocol portion (http/https). When the target work identifies a DOI URI or "canonical" or "stable" URI in the page, this should be used instead of what one finds in the browser location text box.

Consult examples below for Brill's New Pauly, the Oxford Classical Dictionary Online, and Wikipedia.

Articles in Journals, Collections, and Conference Proceedings

The Pleiades Zotero library contains analytic bibliographic data for each separately-titled and -authored article or chapter in a journal, edited collection, or conference proceedings. Contact pleiades.admin@nyu.edu if you wish to cite an article or book section that is not yet in the Zotero library. To add a reference to an article that is in the Zotero library:

Use quick lookup, enter-to-search, or paste to enter the Zotero URI for the entire encyclopedia or dictionary in the Bibliographic URI text box.
Use the Fetch Zotero button to retrieve the standard short title, formatted citation, and work-level access URI from Zotero.
If you wish to draw attention to a subsection of the article (e.g., a short page range, note/item/figure/plate number), manually enter just this information in the Citation Detail text box.
Check the Access URI text box, which should contain a link to the article drawn from the Zotero record. If you are aware of an online version, but the Zotero record did not provide the URI, go ahead and enter the information manually, but also please email pleiades.admin@nyu.edu to report the omission.

Individual Entries and Records in Gazetteers and Databases

In general, practice for works such as these should follow that outlined herein for Articles in Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Where the cited record is assigned a reference number in the work, that number must appear in the Citation Detail field, along with any human-readable title. If the title as displayed on the source page includes the number (e.g., Wikidata titles like "Ktimene (Q1790786)"), then that title should be copied and pasted into the Pleiades reference Citation Detail field. If the numeric ID appears elsewhere in the record (e.g., iDAI.gazetteer, MANTO), prefix the number to the record title, separating the two values with a colon (e.g., "2281803: Pergamon"). If the source has separate sections or types of record (e.g., Trismegistos), incorporate a short designation for the section/type into the prefix (e.g., "Geo 3189: Puteoli (Pozzuoli)").

Monographic or Jointly Authored Works

to be added

Primary Sources Available in Modern Editions