Referencing : Formatting

and Citations
Why cite your sources?
\

 To avoid plagiarism (scholarly community issue)

 To avoid copyright violations/legal action (public

issue)

 To give credit to others for their hard work

 To direct reader to more information about your

topic
When to cite your sources
 Any time you use information in a paper that you
got elsewhere, you should cite your source

 When paraphrasing, summarizing, giving conclusions

from a study, etc.

 When directly quoting from a source

What is APA?

 Standard style used by scholars and students in

the social sciences to cite sources

 Developed by the American Psychological

Association

 Gives guidelines for formatting research papers and

citing sources
• Manual looks like
this:
How to format an APA paper:

 General guidelines:
 Times New Roman font, 12pt, double-spaced, 1-inch margins
 Pages are numbered consecutively throughout

 What should include in full citation:

 Author
 Date
 Title
 Source
In-text Citations

 These are your short, parenthetical citations that you

place in the body of your text immediately following the
material you are citing

 Point to a corresponding full citation in your reference list

 Usually include the author’s last name and the publication

year
 The study concluded that people like pie (Jones, 1998).

 Can also include page number (if directly quoting from

source)
 “I like pie” (Jones, 1998, p. 50).
In-text Citations
 Three ways to cite in-text:

 1. As in previous examples, add the parenthetical citation

to the end of the material paraphrased.
 The study concluded that people like pie (Jones, 1998).

 2. Write the author’s name into the text and put the year
in parentheses after.
 Jones (1998) concluded that people like pie.

 3. Write as much of the citation as possible into the text (but

don’t forget parenthetical page numbers if you quote
directly.)
 In 1998, Jones concluded that “people, on average, like pie” (p. 50).
In-text Citations
In-text Citations

 What if…

 There are two or three authors?

 (Smith & Jones, 1998)
 Smith, Jones and Leery (1998) conclude that…
 “I like pie” (Smith, Jones, & Leery, 1998, p. 50).

 There are more than three authors? Use et al., which just means “and
others”
 Jones et al. (1998) concluded that people like pie.
 People like pie (Jones et al., 1998).

 There is no personal author? Use a corporate author. If there is no corporate

author, use the first few words of the title in the reference list
 Pie is unhealthy (USDA, 2010).
 Pie is really good for you (“Why Pie is Wonderful,” 2010).

 There is no date? Use n.d., which just stands for “no date”
 (Smith & Jones, n.d.)
Reference List Format
 Start your reference list on a new page (also numbered)

 Use the word “References” as your title, centered

 Arrange references alphabetically by the first word of

the citation (usually the author’s last name)

 Indent all but first line of every reference from left

 Double space throughout with no extra spaces

between title or references
References
 References are formatted slightly differently
depending on the type of source

 Most commonly cited sources for research papers

are scholarly books and journal articles. These can
be print or electronic

 There is a quick citation guide on the library

website with the format and examples of every type
of source you will encounter
References: BOOKS
References: BOOKS
References: eBOOKS
For an ebook, less publication information is needed. Just make sure you
include the name of the source in brackets, followed by “Retrieved from” and
the permalink.
References: Journal Articles
Journal articles begin like a book, but have different publication information.
Instead of the place of publication and publisher, you have a journal title,
volume and issue number, page range within the journal, and a doi (digital
object identifier) or permalink.
References: Journal Articles
DOI stands for “digital object identifier.” It is a unique number assigned to
article so that its information can be shared or retrieved quickly. Include it only
if given; otherwise use “Retrieved from” and the database OR permalink.
References: Journal Articles
 All the information you need for the citation is on
the article record in the database.

 PROQUEST EDUCATION JOURNALS

 ERIC JOURNALS

 WORLDCAT ARTICLES
Assignment
 Find one book about your topic using the
resources provided. It can be a print book or e-
book. Cite the book in APA format.

 Find two journal articles on your topic. One should

be from ERIC and the other should be from
ProQuest.
Provide APA formatted citations for both.