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Citation Guide

Creators: Tom Elliott Copyright © The Contributors. Sharing and remixing permitted under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (cc-by).
Last modified May 30, 2020 10:18 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. A complete bibliographic collection of works cited is being built in the Zotero citation management systemthe Pleiades Zotero Library may be browsed separately there. 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). You can read more about the structure of, and requirements for, Pleiades references in the Editorial Guidelines. Textual components of references (e.g., the short titles) are searchable via the "Search Text" box on the Advanced Search form.

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. A reference may be added to a place, name, location, or connection resource either manually or by first importing work-related information from Zotero and then manually adding or adjusting specific citation details. The editors strongly recommend the latter approach. 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.

General Rules for References

NB: Older content in Pleiades (i.e., that which predates publication 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: 

Choice of citation type varies by citation intent and by context (i.e., the sort of Pleiades resource to which it is attached). See the relevant sections of the Editorial Guidelines for instructions.

Short Title:

An abbreviation or short title composed of the first author's surname and the first year of publication. If Zotero import is used, the standard Pleiades short title is auto-filled. Examples:

Common errors include listing more than one author/editor names and including a date range instead of the first year of publication. Use of the Zotero import function limits the likelihood of such mistakes.

Citation Detail:

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. Some examples of clear citation detail values include:

  • page 243
  • pages 77-99
  • page 14, see "Monuments"
  • numbers 17-44
  • page 99 note 7
  • HD000839

For some works, we have more specific preferences. See further, under "Guidance for Specific Works" below.

Formatted Citation:

A clear, complete, and human-readable bibliographic citation for the work and section cited as one might expect to find in a traditional, printed scholarly bibliography. When importing from Zotero, an automatically generated citation will be auto-filled. Contributors should modify this citation, if necessary, for clarity. Auto-generation presently uses one of the default style provided by Zotero (Modern Humanities Research Association, 3rd edition), but any unambiguous and complete style is acceptable.

Bibliographic URI: 

A link to the Zotero record describing the overall work being cited. 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 for pasting into the Pleiades references form.

Access URI:

If the Zotero record contains a link to an online resource, that value will be autofilled into this field on import. 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:

 If the contributor is aware of a digital mirror or archival copy of the item being cited (especially, in the Internet Archive), its address should be entered here.

Other Identifiers:

 If known, ISBNs, ISSNs, DOIs, and other work identifiers can be added in this field, separated by commas.

Guidance for Specific Works

Caesar's Gallic Wars by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 08, 2017 07:10 PM
How to cite Caesar's "Gallic War" in Pleiades references.
DARMC: The Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 07, 2017 02:03 PM
How to cite the Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilization.
EDCS: Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby by Jeffrey Becker — last modified Sep 25, 2019 05:59 PM
How to cite individual epigraphic records in the Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby in Pleiades references.
EDH: Epigraphic Database Heidelberg by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 18, 2017 11:03 AM
How to cite individual epigraphic records in the Epigraphic Database Heidelberg in Pleiades references.
FormIt: Forma Italiae by Tom Elliott — last modified Sep 26, 2019 06:37 AM
How to cite the Forma Italiae in Pleiades references.
Herodotus by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 08, 2017 07:11 PM
How to cite Herodotus' "Histories" in Pleiades references.
Homer's Iliad by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 10, 2017 07:51 AM
How to cite Homer's "Iliad" in Pleiades references.
Horace's Odes by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 10, 2017 08:00 AM
How to cite Horace's "Odes" (Latin: Carmina) in Pleiades references.
ItAnt: The so-called "Antonine Itinerary" by Tom Elliott — last modified Jan 12, 2018 06:31 PM
How to cite the Antonine Itinerary in Pleiades references.
Pausanias by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 07, 2017 04:21 PM
How to cite Pausanias' "Description of Greece" in Pleiades references.
PECS: Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 18, 2017 06:46 AM
How to cite articles in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites in Pleiades references.
Pliny the Elder by Tom Elliott — last modified Mar 14, 2018 06:11 PM
How to cite Pliny's "Natural History" in Pleiades references.
Strabo by Tom Elliott — last modified Feb 23, 2018 05:09 AM
How to cite Strabo's "Geography" in Pleiades references.
The Peutinger Map by Tom Elliott — last modified Dec 08, 2017 04:53 PM
How to cite the so-called "Peutinger Map" (Tabula Peutingeriana) in Pleiades references.
TM: Trismegistos by Jeffrey Becker — last modified Sep 26, 2019 06:30 AM
How to cite Trismegistos resources in Pleiades references.
Wikipedia by Tom Elliott — last modified Mar 09, 2018 11:17 AM
How to cite articles in Wikipedia in Pleiades references.
World Heritage List by Tom Elliott — last modified Oct 02, 2019 06:25 AM
How to cite entries in the UNESCO World Heritage List in Pleiades references.