Citation Style
Guide
Reference
• Is an important part of research paper.
• It must be consistent and easy to read across
different papers.
• There are predefined styles stating how to set
them out-these are called citation styles.
• Referencing is a method used to demonstrate
to the readers that you have conducted a
through and appropriate literature search,
and reading.
1.APA
2.MLA
3.Turabian &
Chicago
Style of
writing
1. APA ( American Psychological
Association)
APA is placed on the author/date-based style.
This means emphasis is placed on the author
and the date of a piece of work to uniquely
identify it.
Most of the education researches and social
science researches used APA referencing.
1. APA ( American Psychological
Association)
APA requires that information be cited in 2
different ways—within the text and in a
reference list at the end of the paper.
The reference list should be on a new page,
double space, and use the hanging indent
method.
2. MLA ( Modern Language
Association)
MLA is most often applied by the arts and humanities,
particularly in the USA.
It is arguably the most well used of all the citation
styles.
It uses in-text citations rather than footnotes or
endnotes.
The citations in-text are very brief, usually just the
author’s family name and a relevant page number.
These citations correspond to the full references in the
list of works cited at the end of the document.
3. Chicago and Turabian
• These two are separate styles but
very similar, just like Harvard and
APA.
• These are widely used for history and
economics.
Direct Quotation
• Use quotation marks around the
quote and include page numbers
Example:
Samovar and Porter (1997) point out
that “language involves attaching meaning to
symbols” (p.188).
“Language involves attaching meaning to
symbols” (Samovar & Porter, 1997, p. 188)
Indirect quotation/paraphrasing
• No quotation marks
Example:
Attaching meaning to symbols is
considered to be origin of written
language (Samovar & Porter, 1997).
Citations from a secondary source
• No quotation marks
Example:
As Hall (1977) asserts, “culture
also defines boundaries of different
groups” as cited in Samovar & Porter,
1997, p.14.
In-text Citations
• If the author’s name is mentioned in
the sentence, only cite the page
number.
APA 7 th edition format
1. The publisher location is no longer included in the
reference.
Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly
effective people: Powerful lessons in personal
change. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly
effective people: Powerful lessons in personal
change. Simon & Schuster.
2. The APA in-text citation for works with three or
more authors is now shortened right from the first
citation. You only include the first author’s name
and “et al.”.
(Taylor, Kotler, Johnson, &
Parker, 2018)
(Taylor et al., 2018)
3. Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors
(instead of 7) should be provided in the
reference entry.
Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B.,
Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T., . . . Lee, L. H. (2018).
Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B.
B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T., Lewis, F., Nelson, T. P., Cox,
G., Harris, H. L., Martin, P., Gonzalez, W. L., Hughes, W.,
Carter, D., Campbell, C., Baker, A. B., Flores, T., Gray, W.
E., Green, G., . . . Lee, L. H. (2018).
4. DOIs are formatted the same as URLs. The label
“DOI:” is no longer necessary.
doi:
10.1080/02626667.2018.1560449
https://doi.org/10.1080/
02626667.2018.1560449
5. URLs are no longer preceded by “Retrieved
from,” unless a retrieval date is needed. The
website name is included (unless it’s the same as
the author).
Streefkerk, R. (2019, October 11). APA 7th
edition: The most notable changes [Blog post]. Retrieved
from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-seventh-
edition-changes/
Streefkerk, R. (2019, October 11). APA 7th
edition: The most notable
changes. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-
seventh-edition-changes/
6. For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g.
Kindle) is no longer included in the reference, and
the publisher is included.
Brück, M. (2009). Women in early British and
Irish astronomy: Stars and satellites [Kindle
version]. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-
2
Brück, M. (2009). Women in early British
and Irish astronomy: Stars and satellites. Springer
Nature. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2
7. Clear guidelines are provided for
including contributors other than authors
and editors. For example, when citing a
podcast episode, the host of the episode
should be included; for a
TV series episode, the writer and director
of that episode are cited.
8. Dozens of examples are
included for online source types
such as podcast episodes,
social media posts, and
YouTube videos. The use of
emojis and hashtags is also
explained.
9. The singular “they” or “their” is endorsed
as a gender-neutral pronoun.
A researcher’s career depends on how
often he or she is cited.
A researcher’s career depends on how
often they are cited.
10. Instead of using adjectives as nouns to
label groups of people, descriptive phrases are
preferred.
The poor
People living in poverty
11. Instead of broad categories, you
should use exact age ranges that are
more relevant and specific.
People over 65 years old
People in the age range of 65 to 75
years old
12. Increased flexibility regarding fonts:
options include Calibri 11, Arial 11,
Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New
Roman 12, and Georgia 11.
13. The running head on the title page no
longer includes the words “Running head:”. It
now contains only a page number and the
(shortened) paper title.
Running head: THE EFFECT OF GOOGLE
ON THE INTERNET
THE EFFECT OF GOOGLE ON THE
INTERNET
14. The running head is omitted
in student papers (unless your
instructor tells you otherwise).
Parenthetical vs. narrative
citations
The in-text citation can be placed in parentheses or
naturally integrated into a sentence.
Parenthetical: There is a correlation between social
media usage and anxiety symptoms in teenagers (Parker,
2019).
Narrative: Parker (2019) found a correlation between
social media usage and anxiety symptoms in teenagers.
APA in-text citations with
multiple authors
If a work has two authors, separate their
names with an ampersand (&) in a
parenthetical citation or “and” in a
narrative citation.
If there are three or more authors, only
include the first author’s last name
followed by “et al.”, meaning “and others”.
APA in-text citations with multiple authors
No author, date or page number
No author
If the author of a source is unknown, try to determine
if there is an organization or government responsible
for creating the content. If so, include its name in the
in-text citation (and reference entry).
The costs of solar energy have decreased by
34% in the past three years (Tesla, 2020).
No author
Alternatively, use the source title in place of the
author. Italicize the title if it’s italicized in the
reference Otherwise, enclose it in double quotation
marks.
Apply title case capitalization, and shorten long titles.
The first word of the title should always be included
so readers can easily locate the corresponding
reference entry.
No author
(“U.S. Flood Risk,” 2015)
(Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2017)
No publication date
If the publication date is
unknown, write “n.d.” (no date)
in the in-text citation.
(Johnson, n.d.).
No page number (alternative locators)
Page numbers are only required with
direct quotes in APA. If you are quoting from a work
that does not have page numbers (e.g., webpages or
YouTube videos), you can use an alternative locator,
such
as:
(Liu, 2020, 03:26)
(Johnson, 2019, Chapter 3)
(McCombes, 2016, para. 4)
(Davis, 2016, Slide 15)
(Flores, 2020, Table 5)
(Streefkerk, 2020, “No page number” section)
No page number (alternative locators)
Note that Bible citations always use chapter and
verse numbers, even when page numbers are
available:
(English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Josh. 2:7)
