There are various methods that an author can use to cite his or her sources. The most commonly used methods are those developed by the Modern Language Association, the American Psychological Association and the University of Chicago, respectively known as MLA, APA and CMS formatting. While these methods include much of the same information, each style places emphasis on different attributes of a source, which can contribute to making one style more suitable than another. Various disciplines have adapted one of these three styles as their preferred method of notation.
The CMS style is the most flexible of notation methods, as it allows writers to choose between footnotes or in‐text citations. Furthermore, the author‐ date system highlights a source’s publication date, which is imperative information to know when analyzing real estate data. In real estate research and reporting, it is recommended to use the CMS formatting because of the combination of footnotes and the emphasis on dates. The Chicago Manual of Style can be accessed through the following link: