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HDFS 360: Critical Thinking in HDFS (Corvallis)

Applying critical thinking to your research, evaluating evidence and arguments.

APA Citation Basics

The OWL (Online Writing Lab) website from Purdue University provides some great examples of citing in APA style and in MLA style (look at the left side menu on the page for the links to examples for various source types).

There are certain basic things you need to cite just about any source, using just about any format:

  • The AUTHOR (or creator) of the work.  This may be one person, many people, or a group or organization.
  • The TITLE OF THE WORK itself.  For example, the article title, the book title, the chapter title, etc.
  • The JOURNAL or the PUBLISHER or the ORGANIZATION RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT .  For an article, you include the name of the specific magazine or journal.  For a book, the publishing house. For a website/webpage, include individual authors, if they are noted. Otherwise include the organization name.
  • The PUBLICATION DATE.

There are also certain things that must be included for specific types of works.  For example, for an article or a book chapter, you would provide page numbers.  For a website, you would provide the URL.

The moment when you are most likely to have easy access to all of this information?  When you find it in the first place.  Know then what you need to take note of to cite it effectively later.

 

Journal Article Citation: What Info Do I Need?

The basic format for a journal article citation in APA style is as follows (pay attention to capitalization in the article and journal titles and to where italics appear).

In-text Citation:

(AuthorLastName, Year)

 

Reference List:

 

Author, A.A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal,

volume_number(issue number if available), starting_page-ending_page. doi:00000/00000000 [or] https://doi.org/10.000/00000

 


 

Example

In-text Citation (3-5 authors)

(Bull, Levine, Black, Schmiege, & Santelli, 2012)

 

Reference List

Bull, S. S., Levine, D. K., Black, S. R., Schmiege, S. J., Santelli, J. (2012). Social media-

delivered sexual health intervention: A cluster randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 43(5), 467-474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2012.02.022


 

So where do you find this information on the article?  See the image below for one example.

First page of article with the following highlighted by callout boxes: article title; authors; journal name; year of publication; volume and issue, page numbers and DOI (digital object identifier).page numbers