APA Citation and Format

Citing Guide

This guide will help you create properly formatted bibliographies/work cited lists and notes. The Introduction to the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association provides a detailed overview of the APA Style.

Page Contents:

• Citing Assistance Policy
• What are Notes and Bibliographies?
• Citing Dos and Don'ts

Citing Assistance Policy

Library staff are available to help students with properly citing and formatting their papers by:

• Explaining the general rules of attribution and the logic the APA style.
• Identifying patterns of inadequate attribution and/or error in a bibliography or works cited list and make suggestions for improvement.
• Helping students construct citations for items that do not fit into predetermined categories.
• Teaching students how to use citation management and citing software.

Students are ultimately responsible for the integrity of their own work and must:

• Proofread their own work for accuracy and adherence to the APA style. Library staff cannot engage in line-by-line editing of papers or projects.
• Keep track of their own research material and know what sources they are quoting or paraphrasing, as well as when another’s work is consulted in the body of a research paper.

What Are Notes and Bibliographies

Acknowledging sources is a two step process:

1. Notes/Citations: Academic projects require use of notes or citations, which are brief notations that acknowledge when you are quoting, paraphrasing, or otherwise referring to information found in another source. In the APA Style, the note/citation takes the form of an in-text parenthetical notation following each direct quote or paraphrased statement within the body of the work. (Other styles you may find in academic works may use footnotes, or endnotes.) An in-text note consists of the author's or creator’s name and the item’s publication date in parentheses immediately following quoted or paraphrased text.
2. Bibliography: All projects, no matter the style, require the use of a bibliography. A bibliography, sometimes called a "works cited list" or a "reference list," is a detailed, specially formatted list of all the individual materials consulted for a research project. It is typically arranged in alphabetical order by authors' last names. In-text citations refer to the complete citation in the bibliography. The bibliography appears at the end of a project.

Citing Dos and Don'ts