- Is There an Official IB Citation Format?
- What Happens If Your Referencing Is Weak
- Choosing a Citation Style for Your Subject
- How to Add a Citation in Your Essay
- Citation Templates for Common Sources
- What You Must Cite
- Citations, Footnotes and the Word Count
- How to Reference Websites and Online Sources
- Reference List or Bibliography?
- Citing AI Tools Such as ChatGPT
- A Practical Referencing Workflow
- Common EE Referencing Mistakes
Quick Answer
The IB does not prescribe one citation format. Your school chooses a standard style, commonly MLA, APA, Chicago or Harvard, and you must use it consistently. Every quotation, paraphrase, image and data set needs an in-text citation or footnote linked to a full entry in your reference list or bibliography, and every online source must include the date you accessed it.
What You'll Learn
- The IB accepts any standard referencing style, as long as you use it consistently
- Every reference needs at least the author, date, title and page numbers where relevant, plus the URL and access date for online sources
- Citations, references and the bibliography do not count towards the 4,000 words; explanatory footnotes do
- Paraphrased ideas, data, images and AI-generated material must be cited, not just direct quotations
- Failing to acknowledge a source can be investigated as academic misconduct, which puts your diploma at risk
Is There an Official IB Citation Format?
No. The IB leaves the choice of referencing style to your school, because the range of EE subjects and languages makes a single format impractical. What the IB does require, in both the 2018 guide and the new guide used from May 2027, is that you use a standard, recognised style, apply it consistently, and acknowledge every source you use, including material you have paraphrased or summarised. Your supervisor or school librarian can tell you which style your school expects, and the IB publication Effective citing and referencing sets out the detail. Whatever the style, each reference must contain a minimum set of information.
- Name of the author (or the organisation responsible)
- Date of publication
- Title of the source
- Page numbers, where applicable, for example for a quotation from a book or an article in a journal
- Date you accessed it, for electronic sources
- The URL, for web-based sources (listed explicitly in the new guide)
Pro Tip
The IB's requirement to give an access date for online sources applies even if your chosen style treats it as optional. The 2018 guide stated that this IB requirement takes priority over the style's own rules.
What Happens If Your Referencing Is Weak
Referencing is not a separate criterion, but it affects your essay in two ways. The first is credibility: clear sources let the examiner trust your evidence and see how widely you have researched, which supports your knowledge and understanding mark. The second is integrity. Under the new guide, examiners must alert the IB when the minimum referencing requirements are not met, and the work is then investigated. Failing to acknowledge a source can be treated as academic misconduct, which puts your diploma at risk. You are not expected to reference faultlessly, but you must show that every source has been acknowledged.
Pro Tip
If a fact, idea, interpretation, image or phrase did not originate with you, cite it.
Choosing a Citation Style for Your Subject
Most schools steer you towards a style that is standard in your subject. Choose it before you start taking notes and use it for every citation and every entry. These are the styles EE students most often use; the examples show the in-text format with a placeholder author.
- MLA: common for language and literature essays. Author and page in brackets in the text, for example (Surname 45), and an alphabetical Works Cited list.
- APA: common in psychology and other social sciences. Author, year and page in the text, for example (Surname, 2021, p. 45), and an alphabetical reference list.
- Chicago notes and bibliography: common in history. A numbered footnote for each citation, giving the source details and page, and a bibliography at the end.
- Harvard: a general author-date style used across many subjects, for example (Surname 2021, p. 45), with an alphabetical reference list.
- Numbered styles such as Vancouver or IEEE: used in some science and computer science writing. A number in the text links to a numbered reference list.
Watch Out
Mixing elements of two styles, such as MLA citations with an APA reference list, breaks the one rule the IB insists on: consistency.
How to Add a Citation in Your Essay
A citation is the short marker in your text; the reference is the full entry at the end. Each citation must point clearly to one entry in your reference list or bibliography. Place it as close as possible to the borrowed material, usually at the end of the sentence or clause that uses it.
- 1Decide whether you are quoting, paraphrasing or summarising. Word-for-word quotations must be in quotation marks or set out as an indented paragraph.
- 2Add the citation straight after the borrowed material: author and page in brackets for author-page styles, author and year for author-date styles, or a footnote number for note styles.
- 3Give the page number for every direct quotation from a printed source.
- 4Add the full entry to your reference list or bibliography at the same moment, so the two never drift apart.
- 5Where it helps, introduce the source in your own words, for example by noting the author's expertise, so the reader can judge its authority.
Pro Tip
Cite as you write. Both guides recommend adding citations while drafting rather than trying to find and add them once the essay is finished.
Citation Templates for Common Sources
These simplified templates show the order of elements in two common styles. Titles that appear in plain text here would be in italics in your essay. Always check the full rules of the style your school uses, because details such as capitalisation and punctuation vary.
- Book, MLA: Surname, First name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
- Book, APA: Surname, A. (Year). Title of book. Publisher.
- Journal article, APA: Surname, A. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name, volume(issue), first page to last page. DOI or URL.
- Web page, MLA: Surname, First name, or Organisation. "Title of Page." Website Name, publication date, URL. Accessed day month year.
- Web page, APA: Surname, A., or Organisation. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL.
- Interview you conducted: the 2018 guide asked for the name of the interviewer, the name of the interviewee, and the date and place of the interview. Lay these out as your style directs.
What You Must Cite
Citations are not only for direct quotations. The rule in both guides is simple: if words, ideas, data or images came from someone else, the reader must be able to see where. That includes paraphrased and summarised material, and any audio-visual material, text, graph, image or data that is crucial to your work and not your own.
- Direct quotations
- Paraphrased and summarised ideas, arguments and interpretations
- Statistics, data sets and results from other studies, including graphs or tables you reproduce
- Images, diagrams, maps and audio-visual material you did not create
- Material generated by AI tools, if you use it as a source
- Interviews, surveys or correspondence with experts
- Translations: under the new guide, quote the translation in the body and give the original-language quotation in a footnote
Pro Tip
Basic facts that are common knowledge in your subject do not usually need a citation, but specific figures, interpretations and arguments always do. If you are unsure, cite.
Citations, Footnotes and the Word Count
In both guides, citations and references do not count towards the 4,000-word limit, whether they are in brackets, numbered, or in footnotes or endnotes, and nor does the bibliography or reference list. Footnotes that add information or commentary are different: they do count. Under the new guide, if you use any, the word count on your title page must include them, with an explicit statement that the stated word count includes explanatory footnotes. Examiners are not required to read footnotes, so keep every important point in the body.
- Reference footnote (not counted): source details only.
- Explanatory footnote (counted): background or commentary. Best avoided.
- Original-language quotation in a footnote (not counted under the new guide): the original wording when you quote a translation in the body.
How to Reference Websites and Online Sources
Online sources follow the same rules as print sources, with two IB-specific essentials: the web address and the date you accessed the page. Both guides say a reference to online material should include the title of the extract, the website address, the access date and, if possible, the author. Be cautious with websites that do not give their own sources or whose claims cannot be cross-checked; if in doubt, find a more reliable source.
- Prefer academic journals, books, official statistics and reputable organisations to blogs, forums and anonymous pages.
- Record the URL and access date the moment you use a page, because pages change or disappear.
- Use a DOI for journal articles where your style asks for one.
- Where a page has no named author, use the organisation as the author if your style allows.
Reference List or Bibliography?
The new guide draws a clear distinction. A reference list contains only the sources you cite in the essay. A bibliography lists every source you consulted, cited or not. The required part of the essay is a reference list or bibliography, so either is acceptable if it follows the same style as your citations. The 2018 guide used the word bibliography but said it must list only the sources cited, with important uncited sources acknowledged in the introduction or an acknowledgement.
- 1Keep a running source list from your first day of research.
- 2Check that every citation in the text has a matching entry, and that every entry in a reference list is actually cited.
- 3Order entries as your style requires, usually alphabetically by author surname.
- 4Make author names, dates, titles and punctuation consistent across every entry.
- 5Check that every online entry has a URL and an access date.
- 6For a source not in your language of submission, cite it in its original language. Under the new guide, if there is no official published translation, add a brief summary in your language of submission giving the title, author, focus and any other relevant details.
Citing AI Tools Such as ChatGPT
Using AI to write your essay and presenting it as your own is dishonest and a breach of academic integrity. The new guide does allow AI to support research: material generated by AI can be one of your sources, as long as it is acknowledged and cited like any other. It also warns that AI can invent information, so you should check AI output against other sources and use conventional search engines to find human-produced sources. Appendix 6 of the IB Academic integrity policy gives further guidance.
- Cite any AI output you quote or paraphrase in the text and in your reference list, following your style's guidance on generative AI, which usually asks for the tool, its developer and the date.
- Keep a record of the prompts you used and the responses, for example in your researcher's reflection space.
- Never rely on an AI tool as the only evidence for a fact, figure or quotation; verify it in a reliable source and cite that source.
A Practical Referencing Workflow
Good referencing is mostly a note-taking habit. The new guide recommends classifying every entry in your researcher's reflection space (RRS) so you always know what is yours and what is borrowed.
- 1For every note, record whether it is your own thought or someone else's work.
- 2If it is someone else's, mark whether it is a copied quotation, a paraphrase or a summary.
- 3Record full details straight away: author, title, page, URL and site name, publication date and access date. Formatting can wait.
- 4If you take several notes from one source, copy the source details into each note.
- 5Insert citations in every draft, then do a final pass purely for consistency.
- 6If you use reference management software, check every entry it generates against your style.
Common EE Referencing Mistakes
These problems appear in otherwise strong essays, and all of them are avoidable with a final, focused check. Our Extended Essay support can show you how your citation style works on practice sources; checking the references in your own essay stays with you and your supervisor.
- Citing quotations but not paraphrased ideas, data or images
- Missing page numbers for direct quotations
- Online sources without an access date or URL
- Citations with no matching entry, or reference list entries that are never cited
- Mixing two referencing styles
- Relying on websites that cannot be cross-checked
- Dropping quotations in without introducing or analysing them