Beyond The Bluebook: More Citation Manuals

While The Bluebook remains the style manual of choice for most law reviews and legal journals, there are times when it does not answer a particular citation question. Often, journals and law reviews will designate a non-legal citation manual, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, to control citation of document types (or other matters) not covered by Bluebook. Other, more interdisciplinary, journals may use a non-legal manual exclusively, such as the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

This means that academics who are preparing manuscripts for publications (as well as the student research assistants or journal editors who are helping to format citations correctly) need to be aware of citation manuals beyond The Bluebook. The Goodson Law Library maintains a collection of selected non-legal citation manuals in its Reference Collection (Level 3). Their locations, as well as electronic access through the University, are noted below:

• Chicago Manual of Style: Law Ref Z253 .U69 2003
Online version at http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK03481 (searchable and browseable)

• MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing: Law Ref PN147 .G444 2008
(Note that the MLA also publishes the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, which is available elsewhere on Duke’s campus, but is intended for use in high school and undergraduate writing. The MLA Style Manual is intended for “graduate students, scholars, and professional writers.”)

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ("APA Manual"): Law Ref BF76.7 .P83 2001
Updated chapter on electronic references (2007) at http://library.duke.edu/catalog/search/recordid/DUKE003892736

How do these citation manuals compare? Check out the Duke University Libraries’ guide to Assembling a List of Works Cited (http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/workscited/index.html), which provides sample document citations from each major non-legal citation manual in an easy-to-read comparison chart.

Of course, sometimes you just need a Bluebook. We’ve previously written about the online version of the Bluebook, which you can purchase at http://www.legalbluebook.com. You can also always borrow a Bluebook (for up to 4 hours at a time) from the Goodson Law Library. Just ask at the Circulation/Reserve Desk.