How Should Citations Be Placed Within Academic Reports?

[luitzen]

I'm not sure where to put this question, so I'll try it here. I'm currently writing a report and I'm asking for advice on citations. I know that when you write down a fact or an idea which is not original, you add a citation which explains where you got it from (e.g. bananas are yellow [1]). However, when I write a paragraph explaining something I have the feeling that it's maybe better to start it with the citation instead of ending it, so that the reader knows that the citation covers the entirety of the paragraph and not merely the last sentence or fact (e.g. [1]Through the process of photosynthesis, banana trees acquire energy which they then use to... ... That's why bananas are yellow).

What do you think is the best way to go?

P.S. I'm not writing a report on bananas.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Use the standard format; don't make up your own.

 

[luitzen]

What is the standard format?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

What is the standard format?

Here are the accepted citation formats
http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm

 

[luitzen]

That link was not really helpful. It details how you should write entries in a list of references for which I use Bibtex and it explains how you should use parenthetical references (which I don't, I use [#ID], which is regularly seen in the natural sciences). It doesn't explain where citations should be put. Hell, it does not even mention a format for the natural sciences, though I suppose AMA is pretty close.

 

[dipole]

Put it at the end.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Many journals and professional scientific societies have style guides for formatting papers specific to their fields. For example, in chemistry, many follow the American Chemical Society style guide.