Footnotes in Korean reports: author, title, publication, year and page

This guide is for people who write reports, proposals or analyses in Korean at work, for example in accounting, legal, HR or management support, and who cite outside sources. Clear footnotes (각주) show where each fact comes from and make a report easier to trust and to check. Korea has no single national standard. The formats below are common in Korean academic guidelines, which company reports usually borrow from.

Choose one style and use it throughout

Korean journals and universities each set their own rules. Some put full references in footnotes. Others, such as the Korean Journal of Archival Studies (『기록학연구』), use footnotes only for explanations, not for references. If your company, client or target journal has a style guide, follow it. If not, use the formats below and keep them the same throughout the document.

Korean punctuation rules set the marks for titles (Korean Orthography, punctuation appendix, in force since January 1, 2015):

• 『 』 (or 《 》) for titles of books and names of newspapers and journals. Double quotation marks are also allowed.
• 「 」 (or 〈 〉) for article and chapter titles, works of art, company names, laws and regulations. Single quotation marks are also allowed.

Journal articles and theses

For a journal article, give the author, article title, journal name, volume and issue, publisher (usually the academic society), year and page.

• 김○○, 「논문 제목」, 『학술지명』 제30권 제2호, ○○학회, 2024, 45쪽.

For a master's or doctoral thesis, give the author, thesis title, university and degree, year and page. Some guides also name the department.

• 박○○, 「논문 제목」, ○○대학교 박사학위논문, 2023, 78쪽.

Books and translations

For a book, give the author, title, publisher, year and page. For books published abroad, some guides add the place of publication before the publisher.

• 이○○, 『책 제목』, ○○출판사, 2024, 156쪽.

For a translated book, give the original author, title, the translator followed by 역 (translated by), publisher, year and page.

• 원저자, 『책 제목』, 최○○ 역, ○○출판사, 2024, 67쪽.

Korean guides write pages as 쪽 or 면, or as p. and pp. Pick one form and keep it.

Newspapers and websites

For a newspaper article, give the article title, newspaper name, date and page (면).

• 「기사 제목」, 『○○신문』, 2024.7.15., 3면.

For online material, give the author or organization, title, site name and date posted where available, then the full URL and the date you accessed it. Online news articles need the URL and access date too. Cite reliable sites only, such as official websites of government agencies, statistics bodies and industry associations, not personal blogs.

Citing the same source again

You do not need to repeat the full details.

A sequence of notes looks like this:

1. 김○○, 『책 제목』, ○○출판사, 2024, 50쪽.
2. 위의 책, 52쪽.
3. 이○○, 「논문 제목」, 『학술지명』 제40호, 2020, 52쪽.
4. 김○○, 앞의 책, 44쪽.

Numbering, punctuation and final checks

• Number notes in order and show the number as a superscript in the text.
• Placement varies. Many Korean journals put the note number after the period at the end of a sentence, which is the common practice; some writers prefer it before the period. Choose one and be consistent.
• To cite several sources in one note, separate them with semicolons (;).
• End each note with a period.
• In a reference list, some guidelines separate domestic and foreign sources, sorting Korean entries in 가나다 order and foreign ones alphabetically.
• Internal reports can still leave the company, so check that cited material contains no trade secrets or personal information.
• For figures that change quickly, cite the latest source and state the date of the data.

Before you submit, check:

• Is there a style guide you must follow?
• Does each note give the author, title, publication details, year and page?
• Are titles marked with 『 』 or 「 」 correctly?
• Do online sources show the URL and the access date?
• Are repeat citations in the 위의 or 앞의 form?
• Are numbering and punctuation the same throughout?