Any time you use a piece of information that is not your own in a paper, project, or presentation you must give credit to the original author. This includes both quotations and paraphrases. Failure to do so is considered plagiarism.
Even when you are not directly quoting a source, if you use information or an idea that is not common knowledge or that you did not come up with yourself, you must provide a citation.
Anything considered common knowledge does not need a citation.
APA Style uses the author-date system for in-text citations. Any work cited in the body of your paper must appear in your list of References, excepting personal communications, general mentions of entire websites and a few other very specific cases. You may cite a source parenthetically or in the narrative.
Example of a parenthetical citation:
Early onset resulted in a more persistent and severe course (Kessler, 2003).
Example of a narrative citation:
In 2003, Kessler noted that early onset resulted in a more persistent and severe course.
Often you will come across a source that refers to another source. In this case, you have a secondary source but you want to cite the primary source of information. If you can, find the original source. If you cannot find the primary source, create a Reference entry for the secondary source. In the body of your paper, cite the primary source as the author of the content and then write "as cited in" and list the secondary source.
Works with an unknown author: use the title in place of the author last name.
Basic Citation Styles |
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Type of citation |
Narrative Citation |
Parenthetical Citation |
One work by one author |
Jacobs (2010) |
(Jacobs, 2010) |
One work by two authors |
Jacobs & White (2013) |
(Jacobs & White, 2013) |
One work by three or more authors |
Moore et al. (2009) |
(Moore et al., 2009) |
Group with abbreviation First Citation
Subsequent citations |
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL, 2011)
ACRL (2011) |
(Association of College and Research Libraries [ACRL], 2011)
(ACRL, 2011) |
Groups (no abbreviation) as authors |
University of Alabama (2001) |
(University of Alabama, 2001) |
Adapted from Table 8.1 of the Publication Manual of the APA
Quoting
When word for word material is directly quoted from another author’s work or your own previously published work, always include the author, year, and specific page citation. A quotation of fewer than 40 words should be enclosed in double quotation marks and should be incorporated into the formal structure of the sentence. If the quotation appears in mid-sentence, provide the year in parentheses after the author’s name, cite the source in parentheses after the quotation marks, and continue the sentence.
Example:
Patients receiving prayer had "less congestive heart failure, required less diuretic and antibiotic therapy, had fewer episodes of pneumonia, had fewer cardiac arrests, and were less frequently intubated and ventilated" (Vance, 2001, p. 829).