For research papers, there are many ways to do citations. There are many formats and if one is not specified by a professor, the writer and the researcher (if they are not just the same person) should settle on a citation style that he or she understands and finds easy to work with. The Turabian Citation Style is one of the styles that academics prefer to use. It is easy to understand once it is on paper and it appears cleaner than the other citation styles, although some editors may have a bit of difficulty with this.

This is a common format that is used in most college papers. This was developed by Kate L. Turabian and is discussed in detail in her book for writing theses, research papers and dissertations. There are basically two methods in this style, for documentation, one may use either the bibliography style of citation or the reference list style of citation. One can choose to use either one for as long as it is used consistently throughout the paper.

Having foot notes all thoughout the paper can be convenient for the reader but this may also prove to be a bit messier in formatting especially if the notes are not all of the same length and editing the content may affect the placement as well as the numbering of the foot notes. In this case, patience is a virtue for the editor who undertakes the particular task of cleaning up a paper.

The Turabian Citation Style has formats for work that has one author, more than one author, and even takes into account formats for which there are translators, editors, and even directors. One may cite not only books and magazines, but also sources from the world wide web as well as radio, and even movies. Just be sure to follow the format and credit all the ideas to the proper sources. As much as possible, avoid second hand information and always go for the first source. And while most people are smart enough not to make this mistake, be reminded never to cite Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a trustworthy source of information and any professor worth his or her profession will be sure to point this out (albeit not so subtly) to any student who may make this grave error. There are sources available on the Internet and these should be the ones cited in the paper or in the dissertation.