Citations & References

Citations and References

As indicated in Chapter 1 of the APA Manual, "Researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due" (American Psychological Association, 2009, pg. 15). In essence, "the key element of this principle is that authors do not present the work of another as if it were their own work" (American Psychological Association, 2009, pg. 116). This issue is especially challenging when writing in the social sciences as much of our scientific writing is a summary of the findings, research and conclusions drawn by other researchers over time. When writing scientific papers, you will discover that most of your information comes from other sources, and, as such, needs to be properly cited and referenced to give proper credit to the original authors. 

The key rule-of-thumb to follow in scientific writing is "cite the work of those individuals whose ideas, theories, or research have directly influenced your work" (American Psychological Association, 2009, pg. 169).

Guidelines for citations:

  • Direct quotes
    • In-text citation should include author, year and specific page number of the quotation
    • If less than 40 words, include in the body of the paragraph and put quoted material in quotation marks
    • If 40 words or more, include the quoted material as a block quote indented on a new line with no quotation marks (double-space the entire block quote)
    • If using an online source in which page numbers are not present:
      • If paragraph numbers are present, use "para" and the paragraph number
      • If there are headings and no paragraph numbers, use the heading and count down to the relative paragraph
  • Paraphrased material
    • Include the author and year
    • See the APA Publication Manual for specific guidelines on how to list in-text citations for various formats of reference material

The reference list should include all information cited within the body of your paper. You only include information that was cited; you do not include articles that you read but did not cite in the paper.

Key tips for the reference list:

  • List all information alphabetically by the first author's last name
  • Reference page is double-spaced with no additional line breaks between entries
  • Reference page utilizes hanging indents
  • See the APA Publication Manual for specific guidelines on how to list various material formats in the reference page; pay particular attention to the reference examples listed in Chapter 7

See Psychbytes for an example of how to format your reference page using Microsoft Word.

The APA Publication Manual  and APA Style provide very specific guidelines for how to format each reference entry. The key here is attention to detail; APA style dictates the placement of every period, comma, space and capitalization. It is important to pay attention to these minor details.

For specific information on formatting your references, see:

 

APA Style

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