The information you provide in your citations should answer the following three questions for your readers:
To fully answer these three questions there are nine general elements of information that you should collect about each of your sources. While you should try to find as much of this information as you can, not all elements will be available or relevant to every single source.
Many databases and article collections, plus many e-books, will automatically create citations for whichever article or chapter you are viewing. Always proofread and double check database created citations.
Look for a Cite, CiteNow, or Cite This Item button on the database record for the specific article or chapter. (Not all databases have this feature.)
Different areas of study use different citation styles. Check out this USU Libraries Citations Research Guide for information about other citation styles.