Documenting Research for Your Book:
The
Tip of the Iceberg
You’ve done a great deal of research for your
book. You’ve read books, searched the Internet, read periodicals
and even interviewed experts. Whether you’ve written an
historical novel or a non-fiction how-to book, you’ll want to
format your references in line with standard publication
guidelines.
When citing references in your manuscript, your
responsibility as an author requires you to give the exact source
of your material: either in a note or internal reference in the
text. Taking good notes initially is the best way to guarantee
you will have the right source information on hand when you
complete your manuscript. Before you begin reading an article or
book, write down the information you’ll need for the citation.
In personal conversations and interviews when you can’t go back,
take extra care with your notes.
Specialty areas such as law, medicine and branches
of science and mathematics have entire codes for citations.
These codes are not within the scope of this brief introduction.
Citing Sources in the Text
The following five citations illustrate the basic
format for citing the most common types of research sources. The
examples are illustrated as though they are part of the text.
Otherwise, the source of a direct quotation is usually given in a
note (either footnote or endnote). Especially if you cite the
source only once, it may appear parenthetically in the text as in
these examples. Notice that no period follows the closing
parenthesis.
Book
“Every purely aesthetic work of art is a triptych
whose panels open up to show the artist, the work itself, and the
person who looks at the work.” (Paul Evdokimov, The Art of the
Icon: a theology of beauty (Redondo Beach: Oakwood Publications,
1990), 179)
Article
If the color red is present in a composition and
at first sight appears to be unrelated to the subject matter, it
is important to understand that because of these red signs there
is a well-founded meaning. So, for example, numerical and color
symbolisms are seemingly rather different concepts, but in some
images they are…indissolubly connected… (Adolf Nikolaevich
Ovchinnikov, “Symbolism of the Color Red,” Iconofile I (2003):
7-8)
Internet
“The tone of the basic sanguir (proplasmos) will
be chosen according to the school and the century to which is
attach [sic] the icon you want to interpret.” (Atelier Saint
Andre, “Painting a Face,”
Technique
Unpublished Work
“L’œil, par sa texture même, fait songer à la plus
grande précision, complexité, intégration serrée de la matière,
en même temps qu’à sa porosité majeure à une autre lumière.”
(Olivier Clément, “L’icône, visage transfiguré” [unpublished
paper received in email correspondence with Atelier Saint Andre
April 28, 2001])
Conversations and Interviews
“These icons are a window into another world.”
(Farris Wahbeh, art historian and icon collector, in conversation
with author March 12, 1992)
Footnotes and Endnotes
To transform internal citations into notes drop
the parenthetical enclosures. Turn on your word processing
footnote/endnote function so that the notes are numbered
sequentially and placed correctly in the manuscript. Your word
processor will give you a choice to set up footnotes (at the
bottom of the page) or endnotes (at the end of the chapter).
Either way is acceptable. Readers, and publishers, don’t want a
good deal of the page taken up with notes, so if you have
numerous and long notes, use endnotes. Within a book, the
footnotes are numbered sequentially within each chapter. When
you start the next chapter, you begin again with note number
one. The Book citation would look like this (and see bottom of
page):
“Every purely aesthetic work…”1
In the footnote the parenthetical marks are gone
and the reference citation is closed with a period. If you want
to make comments about the citation or the source you should
include them in the note rather than in the ongoing manuscript
text.
Long and Short Quotes
Use quotation marks to set off quotes of up to
seven lines. For longer quotes, the standard submission
guideline is to set the quote off in indented blocks as in the
Article example. Each publisher sets long quotes in a slightly
different manner, so just set the quote in a block and let the
editor and publisher take it from there.
Internet
Be sure to include the entire URL when citing. In
addition, if the online source updates or changes material
frequently you may want to include the access date, e.g. accessed
1/28/90, in parenthesis at the end.
Foreign Language Citations
If your word processing software automatically
switches among languages you may have to set the space where you
will insert a quotation mark to English; otherwise you may have a
mark that is not recognized in English language publications.
It’s up to you and your sense of your readers
whether or not to translate. The translation is either set as a
footnote on the page or immediately follows the citation in the
text. Don’t forget to credit the translator, whether it is you
or someone else.
Unpublished Work
The title of an unpublished work is set in
quotation marks not italics even if the manuscript is book
length.
Personal Conversations and Interviews
Make sure that in your conversation you receive
permission to quote from your session. Unlike written sources
where you can go back to check, make sure that you either record
the session or take highly accurate notes to use for direct
quotes. Before submission, check again with your source to make
sure you have not misquoted and that the individual is still
comfortable with being used as a source.
Putting it Together
Your research citations should be as accurate and
detailed as possible. Basically, the sequence is: author,
article title (set in quotes), book or journal title (in
italics), place of publication (followed by colon), publisher
(followed by comma), date (followed by comma) and page number(s).
There are as many exceptions as rules. So, if you are uncertain
check The Chicago Manual of Style or ask your editor for help.
1 Paul Evdokimov, The Art of the Icon: a theology
of beauty (Redondo Beach: Oakwood Publications, 1990), 179.
