A citation is an official summons, often calling for an appearance in court. It is often issued for failure to comply with an order by an official or court, such as in a divorce case, or when a party fails to follow the directives of the court to disclose assets.
Citation also refers to quoting words of another. In general writing, when quoting the words of another, it is proper to enclose the words in quotation marks and include a notation documenting the source. When quoting previously decided legal cases, there is a lengthy explanation of citation rules in the Harvard Blue Book, the standard uniform legal citation guide for law reviews and federal courts.
The following is an example of a text citation:
Smith D. 1995. The Characterisitics of a Healthy Body. Physical Health 1:11-21 (where 1 is the volume number, and 11-21 is pages)
