Most of the rules of citation can be summarised by one principle; what is it?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The principle behind most rules of citation is that the citation must be complete enough to enable the reader to find the reference in the reference list. This means that the citation should include enough information about the source (such as the author, title, publication year, and page numbers) to allow the reader to locate the full reference in the list of references at the end of the document.

Most of the Rules of Citation Can Be Summarised by One