Documenting sources used in research is called what?

• A. Bibliographic Citation
• B. Works Cited
• C. In-text Citation
• D. Chicago Manual of Style

Answer: (A)

Documenting sources used in research is the practice of giving precise information about each source so readers can locate it and give proper credit to the original authors. The best term for this general process is bibliographic citation. It refers to the formal reference that appears in a reference list or bibliography and includes the essential details—author, title, publication information—needed to identify the source.

Works Cited describes a specific MLA-style list of references, representing one format of bibliographic entries, not the act of documenting sources itself. In-text citation refers to the brief notes placed inside the text to indicate which sources support a claim and to point readers to the full entries, but that is only part of the overall documentation. The Chicago Manual of Style is a comprehensive guide that explains how to format citations and papers in Chicago style; it’s a resource for how to document sources, not the term for the act itself.