A citation style is the pattern or format your instructor or editor expects you to use when citing your works. It determines the order you list them in, whether numbered or alphabetical, whether you put them in a footnote or parenthesis in the text, and how you format and punctuate titles, authors, dates, and other information.
For example, below are two citations for the same article.
- The author is Albert Bandura.
- The title is "Self-Efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change."
- It was published in 1977 in a journal called Psychological Review.
Here's how it looks if you choose to cite it using APA style
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
Here is how the same article would look in your source list if you were to use IEEE style
A. Bandura, "Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change." Psychological Review, vol. 84, issue 2, pp. 191–215, 1977. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
Note the differences in how each one is ordered and puctuated, and what information is included and excluded. There are more details and links to the most popularly used style guides on our Citations and Bibliographies guide.