Visit the Library How-To Guide for APA 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:
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.
Zotero is a free tool, available to help you automatically format your bibliographies and organize all those articles, books and websites you find.
The library offers an online guide, a guided tutorial, or online workshops to support a variety of learning styles.
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.
The basic format for a website citation in APA style is as follows (please follow the guidance from the APA Style Blog entry about when to use Format Description).
In-text citation:
(Author, Year)
Reference List:
Author, A. (Year, Month Day). Title of document [Format description]. Retrieved from http://URL
Example Citation
In-text Citation:
(Mayo Clinic, 2014)
Reference List:
Many databases and search tools will help you create formatted citations for the sources you have chosen to save or email. Here are a few examples:
1Search: Under the Actions menu, look for the Citation option when using any of the main tabs like Item Details
Medline (an EBSCOHost database): Open the full record for the reference, look for the Cite option
Google Scholar: Look for the Cite option below each source (click the More option if you don't see Cite):
