When you include the title of a source within your writing, there are guidelines for which titles should be italicized and which titles should be “in quotation marks.”
Generally speaking, the title of stand-alone works should be italicized. A stand-alone work is not part of a bigger publication. For example, the book The Handmaid’s Tale or the journal The Lancet are stand-alone works.
Works that form part of a greater whole, such as book chapters, individual articles, poems, or short stories should be in quotation marks. For example, the poem “The Road Not Taken” is part of a greater whole.
One informal way to tell if something is stand-alone or part of a greater whole is called the "spine trick." If the source was printed and bound, would the title be on the spine? If yes, it's probably a stand-alone work. If no, it's probably part of a greater whole.
When you're creating your References or your Works Cited list, each citation style has specific rules regarding italics and quotation marks. For more information, see our Citation Guides:
