To cite a non-English source correctly, you must provide the original title in its native language followed by an English translation in square brackets, formatted according to your specific style guide like APA, MLA, or Chicago.
When conducting a literature review, you will likely encounter valuable foreign language references that need to be incorporated into your research. While the exact formatting depends on the citation style your university or journal requires, the fundamental goal remains the same: ensure your readers can locate the original document while understanding what the source is about.
The Golden Rule: Translate the Title
For most major academic style guides, you should keep the author's name and publication details in the original language. The title of the article or book should be presented in the original language, immediately followed by your English translation enclosed in square brackets.
How to Format Non-English Citations by Style
1. APA Style
In APA format, provide the original title, followed by the translated title in brackets. Do not translate the name of the journal or the publisher.
Example: Piaget, J. (1966). La psychologie de l'enfant [The psychology of the child]. Presses Universitaires de France.
2. MLA Style
MLA style is slightly more flexible. If your paper is written in English, you typically provide the translated title in brackets. However, if your audience is bilingual, you might only need to provide the original title.
Example: García Márquez, Gabriel. Cien años de soledad [One Hundred Years of Solitude]. Editorial Sudamericana, 1967.
3. Chicago Style
Chicago style dictates that you provide the original title followed by the translated title in brackets. Capitalization should strictly follow the grammatical rules of the original language.
Example: Bourdieu, Pierre. La distinction: Critique sociale du jugement [Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste]. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1979.
Handling Non-Latin Alphabets
If your source uses a non-Latin alphabet (such as Chinese, Arabic, or Russian), you generally need to transliterate or romanize the author's name and the original title into the English alphabet before providing the bracketed translation. This ensures that readers using English-language databases can still search for the phonetic title.
Managing complex translated citations can quickly become tedious and prone to formatting errors. To streamline your bibliography, WisPaper's TrueCite auto-finds and verifies citations, ensuring your references are completely accurate while eliminating the risk of hallucinated sources.
By consistently providing both the original and translated titles, you maintain academic integrity while making global research easily accessible to your English-speaking audience.
