Footnotes are often used to explain text or to give a bibliographical source for a piece of text. If you are writing a research paper, you might want to know some footnote abbreviations. Following are lists of abbreviations and their respective explanations. This is useful not only when you are writing a paper yourself, but also as you read articles, books and other research material.
Many footnote abbreviations have a Latin origin and are still used widely today. You will find these abbreviations in bibliographies and references pages too, in addition to the footnotes you may find on the content pages directly.
Here is a list of the most common footnote abbreviations:
The format used for the footnote abbreviation depends on the style selected for the document. APA, the style provided by the American Psychological Association, is a commonly-used style for social science research papers; however, the preferred format may be different based on the instutution or company.
You may find that your teacher and class call for MLA format instead, or if you're partaking in a journalistic endeavor, the AP style by the Associated Press or the Chicago Manual of Style may prevail instead.
Before putting together your works cited page, and before adding footnotes to your research paper, confirm with your teacher or professor about the preferred format.
MLA Style
APA Style