C. Worrell (Eds.), (pp. 345–359). American Psychological Association.
Parenthetical citation: (Aron et al., 2019)
Narrative citation: Aron et al. (2019)
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Culture. In . Retrieved September 9, 2019, from |
Parenthetical citation: (Merriam-Webster, n.d.)
Narrative citation: Merriam-Webster (n.d.)
National Cancer Institute. (2019). (NIH Publication No. 18-2059). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. |
Parenthetical citation: (National Cancer Institute, 2019)
Narrative citation: National Cancer Institute (2019)
The specific agency responsible for the report appears as the author. The names of parent agencies not present in the group author name appear in the source element as the publisher. This creates concise in-text citations and complete reference list entries.
Harvard University. (2019, August 28). [Video]. YouTube. |
Parenthetical citation: (Harvard University, 2019)
Narrative citation: Harvard University (2019)
APA Databases [@APA_Databases]. (2019, September 5). [Tweet]. Twitter. Gates, B. [@BillGates]. (2019, September 7). [Thumbnail with link attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. |
Parenthetical citations: (APA Databases, 2019; Gates, 2019)
Narrative citations: APA Databases (2019) and Gates (2019)
News From Science. (2019, June 21). [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. |
Parenthetical citation: (News From Science, 2019)
Narrative citation: News From Science (2019)
Fagan, J. (2019, March 25). . OER Commons. Retrieved September 17, 2019, from National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. Woodyatt, A. (2019, September 10). . CNN. World Health Organization. (2018, May 24). . |
Parenthetical citations: (Fagan, 2019; National Institute of Mental Health, 2018; Woodyatt, 2019; World Health Organization, 2018)
Narrative citations: Fagan (2019), National Institute of Mental Health (2018), Woodyatt (2019), and World Health Organization (2018)
The following supplemental example references are mention in the Publication Manual:
Archival document and collections are not presented in the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition . This content is available only on the APA Style website . This guidance has been expanded from the 6th edition.
Archival sources include letters, unpublished manuscripts, limited-circulation brochures and pamphlets, in-house institutional and corporate documents, clippings, and other documents, as well as such nontextual materials as photographs and apparatus, that are in the personal possession of an author, form part of an institutional collection, or are stored in an archive such as the Archives of the History of American Psychology at the University of Akron or the APA Archives. For any documents like these that are available on the open web or via a database (subscription or nonsubscription), follow the reference templates shown in Chapter 10 of the Publication Manual.
The general format for the reference for an archival work includes the author, date, title, and source. The reference examples shown on this page may be modified for collections requiring more or less specific information to locate materials, for different types of collections, or for additional descriptive information (e.g., a translation of a letter). Authors may choose to list correspondence from their own personal collections, but correspondence from other private collections should be listed only with the permission of the collector.
Keep in mind the following principles when creating references to archival documents and collections:
Frank, L. K. (1935, February 4). [Letter to Robert M. Ogden]. Rockefeller Archive Center (GEB Series 1.3, Box 371, Folder 3877), Tarrytown, NY, United States.
Zacharius, G. P. (1953, August 15). [Letter to William Rickel (W. Rickel, Trans.)]. Copy in possession of Hendrika Vande Kemp.
Allport, G. W. (1930–1967). Correspondence. Gordon W. Allport Papers (HUG 4118.10), Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, MA, United States.
To cite specific letters in the text, provide the author and range of years as shown in the reference list entry, plus details about who wrote the specific letter to whom and when the specific letter was written.
Berliner, A. (1959). Notes for a lecture on reminiscences of Wundt and Leipzig. Anna Berliner Memoirs (Box M50), Archives of the History of American Psychology, University of Akron, Akron, OH, United States.
Allport, A. (presumed). (ca. 1937). Marion Taylor today—by the biographer [Unpublished manuscript]. Marion Taylor Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Subcommittee on Mental Hygiene Personnel in School Programs. (1949, November 5–6). Meeting of Subcommittee on Mental Hygiene Personnel in School Programs. David Shakow Papers (M1360), Archives of the History of American Psychology, University of Akron, Akron, OH, United States.
Smith, M. B. (1989, August 12). Interview by C. A. Kiesler [Tape recording]. President’s Oral History Project, American Psychological Association, APA Archives, Washington, DC, United States.
Sparkman, C. F. (1973). An oral history with Dr. Colley F. Sparkman/Interviewer: Orley B. Caudill. Mississippi Oral History Program (Vol. 289), University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, United States.
Psychoanalysis institute to open. (1948, September 18). [Clipping from an unidentified Dayton, OH, United States, newspaper]. Copy in possession of author.
Sci-Art Publishers. (1935). Sci-Art publications [Brochure]. Roback Papers (HUGFP 104.50, Box 2, Folder “Miscellaneous Psychological Materials”), Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, MA, United States.
[Photographs of Robert M. Yerkes]. (ca. 1917–1954). Robert Mearns Yerkes Papers (Box 137, Folder 2292), Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT, United States.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1880). 1880 U.S. census: Defective, dependent, and delinquent classes schedule: Virginia [Microfilm]. NARA Microfilm Publication T1132 (Rolls 33–34), National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC, United States.
Read the full APA guidelines on citing ChatGPT
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.
Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.
Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.
The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.
Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.
Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).
Works included in a reference list.
The reference list provides a reliable way for readers to identify and locate the works cited in a paper. APA Style papers generally include reference lists, not bibliographies.
In general, each work cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and each work in the reference list must be cited in the text. Check your work carefully before submitting your manuscript or course assignment to ensure no works cited in the text are missing from the reference list and vice versa, with only the following exceptions.
There are a few kinds of works that are not included in a reference list. Usually a work is not included because readers cannot recover it or because the mention is so broad that readers do not need a reference list entry to understand the use.
Information on works included in a reference list is covered in Sections 2.12 and 8.4 of the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition
*This guidance has been expanded from the 6th edition.*
The DOI or URL is the final component of a reference list entry. Because so much scholarship is available and/or retrieved online, most reference list entries end with either a DOI or a URL.
Follow these guidelines for including DOIs and URLs in references:
Follow these guidelines to format DOIs and URLs:
https://doi.org/ xxxxx
When a DOI or URL is long or complex, you may use shortDOIs or shortened URLs if desired.
Generate citations in APA format quickly and automatically, with MyBib!
An APA citation generator is a software tool that will automatically format academic citations in the American Psychological Association (APA) style.
It will usually request vital details about a source -- like the authors, title, and publish date -- and will output these details with the correct punctuation and layout required by the official APA style guide.
Formatted citations created by a generator can be copied into the bibliography of an academic paper as a way to give credit to the sources referenced in the main body of the paper.
College-level and post-graduate students are most likely to use an APA citation generator, because APA style is the most favored style at these learning levels. Before college, in middle and high school, MLA style is more likely to be used. In other parts of the world styles such as Harvard (UK and Australia) and DIN 1505 (Europe) are used more often.
Like almost every other citation style, APA style can be cryptic and hard to understand when formatting citations. Citations can take an unreasonable amount of time to format manually, and it is easy to accidentally include errors. By using a citation generator to do this work you will:
In academia, bibliographies are graded on their accuracy against the official APA rulebook, so it is important for students to ensure their citations are formatted correctly. Special attention should also be given to ensure the entire document (including main body) is structured according to the APA guidelines. Our complete APA format guide has everything you need know to make sure you get it right (including examples and diagrams).
Our APA generator was built with a focus on simplicity and speed. To generate a formatted reference list or bibliography just follow these steps:
MyBib supports the following for APA style:
⚙️ Styles | APA 6 & APA 7 |
---|---|
📚 Sources | Websites, books, journals, newspapers |
🔎 Autocite | Yes |
📥 Download to | Microsoft Word, Google Docs |
Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.
Watch the following video: .
(Looking for the old 6th edition guide?)
Most academic writing cites others' ideas and research, for several reasons:
Different academic disciplines prefer different citation styles, most commonly APA and MLA styles.
Besides these styles, there are Chicago , Turabian , AAA , AP , and more. Only use the most current edition of the citation style.
Ask your instructors which citation style they want you to use for assignments.
When to cite.
To avoid plagiarism, provide a citation for ideas that are not your own:
You do not need to cite common knowledge (ex. George Washington was the first President of the United States) or proverbs unless you are using a direct quotation. When in doubt, cite your source.
American Psychological Association (APA) style includes parenthetical in-text citations and a reference list .
APA uses parenthetical citations as its form of in-text citation. Provide a parenthetical citation before the period directly following the information you are citing. These citations should correspond to a more detailed citation in the reference list but only need to specify a page number if directly quoting or borrowing from the source material. The essential elements for this in-text citation are the author's last name and the date for the specific publications. The last name may be omitted if the sentence states or makes clear the source material.
APA uses a reference list , an alphabetized list of sources following the end of the book or paper, for its complete list of sources referenced. This list should be titled "References" in bold and alphabetized by the first item in the citation, which, in most cases, is the author's last name. Each reference from this list must be cited in your paper and vice versa.
Author Last Name, Author First Initial. (Year of publication). Title . Publisher Name.
Print Articles
Author Last Name, Author First Initial, & Author Last Name, Author First Initial. (Year). Article Title. Periodical Title , volume number(issue number), pages.
Electronic Articles
Author Last Name, Author First Initial. (Year). Article Title. Periodical Title , volume number(issue number), pages. doi or static url.
Physical Images/Artwork
Artist Last Name, Artist First Initial. (Year). Artwork Title [medium]. Host Institution Name, City, State, Country. URL of institution.
Electronic Images/Artwork
Artist Last Name, Artist First Initial. (Year). Image Title [medium]. Source Title. URL of image.
Standard case :
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet , consectetur adipiscing elit" (Last name, 2000, p.10).
If the author is not available , the title of the source may be used:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet , consectetur adipiscing elit ("Source title", 2000, pp.10-11).
If multiple authors cited have the same last name , use the author's first initial along with their last name:
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet , consectetur adipiscing elit" (E. Bronte, 1847, p.10).
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet , consectetur adipiscing elit (C. Bronte, 1847, p.10).
Archival material :
Child, J. (1974). Journal, 1974 . [Unpublished journal]. Papers of Julia Child, 1925-1993(MC 644, item 4). Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute, https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/c/ sch00222c00006 /catalog .
Child, P. (1967). Julia Child at the White House [Photograph]. Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute, https://id.lib.harvard.edu/images/olvwork539731/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:4510469/catalog.
Beck, S., Bertholle, L., & Child, J. (1961). Mastering the art of French cooking. Knopf.
Child, J. & Child, P. (1968). The French chef cookbook . Alfred A. Knopf .
Journal article :
Muneal, M. (2011). Studies in Popular Culture , 34(1), 152–154. www.jstor.org/stable/23416357.
Nussbaum, D. (2005). "In Julia Child's Kitchen, October 5 1998". Gastronomica , 5(3), 29-38. doi: 10.1525/gfc.2005.5.3.29.
Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy
Don't let plagiarism errors spoil your paper, a comprehensive guide to apa citations and format, overview of this guide:.
This page provides you with an overview of APA format, 7th edition. Included is information about referencing, various citation formats with examples for each source type, and other helpful information.
If you’re looking for MLA format , check out the Citation Machine MLA Guide. Also, visit the Citation Machine homepage to use the APA formatter, which is an APA citation generator, and to see more styles .
When you’re writing a research paper or creating a research project, you will probably use another individual’s work to help develop your own assignment. A good researcher or scholar uses another individual’s work in a responsible way. This involves indicating that the work of other individuals is included in your project (i.e., citing), which is one way to prevent plagiarism.
The word plagiarism is derived from the Latin word, plagiare , which means “to kidnap.” The term has evolved over the years to now mean the act of taking another individual’s work and using it as your own, without acknowledging the original author (American Psychological Association, 2020 p. 21). Plagiarism can be illegal and there can be serious ramifications for plagiarizing someone else’s work. Thankfully, plagiarism can be prevented. One way it can be prevented is by including citations and references in your research project. Want to make them quickly and easily? Try the Citation Machine citation generator, which is found on our homepage.
Citations and references should be included anytime you use another individual’s work in your own assignment. When including a quote, paraphrased information, images, or any other piece of information from another’s work, you need to show where you found it by including a citation and a reference. This guide explains how to make them.
APA style citations are added in the body of a research paper or project and references are added to the last page.
Citations , which are called in-text citations, are included when you’re adding information from another individual’s work into your own project. When you add text word-for-word from another source into your project, or take information from another source and place it in your own words and writing style (known as paraphrasing), you create an in-text citation. These citations are short in length and are placed in the main part of your project, directly after the borrowed information.
References are found at the end of your research project, usually on the last page. Included on this reference list page is the full information for any in-text citations found in the body of the project. These references are listed in alphabetical order by the author's last name.
An APA in-text citation includes only three items: the last name(s) of the author(s), the year the source was published, and sometimes the page or location of the information. References include more information such as the name of the author(s), the year the source was published, the full title of the source, and the URL or page range.
Including APA citations and references in your research projects is a very important component of the research process. When you include citations, you’re being a responsible researcher. You’re showing readers that you were able to find valuable, high-quality information from other sources, place them into your project where appropriate, all while acknowledging the original authors and their work.
Believe it or not, there are instances when you could attempt to include in-text and full references in the appropriate places, but still accidentally plagiarize. Here are some common mistakes to be aware of:
Mistake #1 - Misquoting sources: If you plan to use a direct quote, make sure you copy it exactly as is. Sure, you can use part of the full quote or sentence, but if you decide to put quotation marks around any words, those words should match exactly what was found in the original source. Here’s a line from The Little Prince , by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”
Here’s an acceptable option:
“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves,” stated de Saint-Exupéry (1943, p. 3).
Here’s a misquote:
“Grown-ups barely ever understand anything by themselves,” stated de Saint-Exupéry (1943, p. 3).
Notice the slight change in the words. The incorrect phrasing is an instance of accidental plagiarism.
Mistake #2 - Problems with paraphrasing: When we paraphrase, we restate information using our own words and writing style. It’s not acceptable to substitute words from the original source with synonyms.
Let’s use the same sentence from The Little Prince .
A correct paraphrase could be:
de Saint-Exupéry (1943) shares various ways adults frustrate children. One of the biggest being that kids have to explain everything. It’s too bad adults are unable to comprehend anything on their own (p. 3).
An incorrect paraphrase would be:
de Saint-Exupéry (1943) shares that adults never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for kids to be always and forever clarifying things to them (p.3).
Notice how close the incorrect paraphrase is from the original. This is an instance of accidental plagiarism.
Make sure you quote and paraphrase properly in order to prevent accidental plagiarism.
If you’re having a difficult time paraphrasing properly, it is acceptable to paraphrase part of the text AND use a direct quote. Here’s an example:
de Saint-Exupery (1943) shares various ways adults frustrate children. One of the biggest being that kids have to explain everything, and “it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them” (p. 3).
Who created it.
The American Psychological Association is an organization created for individuals in the psychology field. With close to 121,000 members, they provide educational opportunities, funding, guidance, and research information for everything psychology-related. They also have numerous high-quality databases, peer-reviewed journals, and books that revolve around mental health.
The American Psychological Association is also credited with creating their own specific citation and reference style. Today, this format is used by individuals not only in the psychology field, but many other subject areas as well. Education, economics, business, and social sciences also use APA style quite frequently. Click here for more information . This guide covers general information about the style, but is not affiliated with the American Psychological Association.
This format was first developed in 1929 to form a standardized way for researchers in science fields to document their sources. Prior to the inception of these standards and guidelines, individuals were recognizing the work of other authors by including bits and pieces of information in random order. There wasn’t a set way to format citations and references. You can probably imagine how difficult it was to understand the sources that were used for research projects!
Having a standard format for citing sources allows readers to glance at a citation or APA reference and easily locate the title, author, year published, and other critical pieces of information needed to understand a source.
The guide below is based on APA style 7th edition, which was released in 2020. In previous versions of APA format, researchers and scholars were required to include the publisher location for books and the date that an electronic resource was accessed. Both are no longer required to be included.
Details on the differences between the 6th and 7th editions is addressed later in this guide.
The appearance of citations & references.
The format for references varies, but most use this general format:
%%Author’s Last name, First initial. (Date published). Title . URL
Researchers and scholars must look up the proper format for the source that they’re attempting to cite. Books have a certain format, websites have a different format, periodicals have a different format, and so on. Scroll down to find the proper format for the source you’re citing or referencing.
If you would like help citing your sources, CitationMachine.com has a citation generator that will help make the APA citation process much easier for you. To start, simply click on the source type you're citing:
An APA in-text citation is included in research projects in three instances: When using a direct quote, paraphrasing information, or simply referring to a piece of information from another source.
Quite often, researchers and scholars use a small amount of text, word for word, from another source and include it in their own research projects. This is done for many reasons. Sometimes, another author’s words are so eloquently written that there isn’t a better way to rephrase it yourself. Other times, the author’s words can help prove a point or establish an understanding for something in your research project. When using another author’s exact words in your research project, include an APA in-text citation directly following it.
In addition to using the exact words from another source and placing them into your project, these citations are also added anytime you paraphrase information. Paraphrasing is when you take information from another source and rephrase it, in your own words.
When simply referring to another piece of information from another source, also include a citation directly following it.
Citations in the text are found near a direct quote, paraphrased information, or next to a mention of another source. To see examples of some narrative/ parenthetical citations in action, look at the image above, under “All About Citations & References.”
Note: *Only include the page or paragraph number when using a direct quote or paraphrase. Page numbers have a p. before the number, pp. before the page range, and para. before the paragraph number. This information is included to help the reader locate the exact portion of text themselves. It is unnecessary to include this information when you’re simply referring to another source.
Examples of APA in-text citations:
“Well, you’re about to enter the land of the free and the brave. And I don’t know how you got that stamp on your passport. The priest must know someone” (Tóibín, 2009, p. 52).
Student teachers who use technology in their lessons tend to continue using technology tools throughout their teaching careers (Kent & Giles, 2017, p. 12).
If including the author’s name in the sentence, place the year in the parentheses directly next to his or her name. Add the page number at the end, unless it’s a source without any pages or paragraph numbers (See Section 8.10 of the Publication manual for more details).
In-text citation APA example:
According to a study done by Kent and Giles (2017), student teachers who use technology in their lessons tend to continue using technology tools throughout their teaching careers.
The full references, or citations, for these sources can be found on the last part of a research project, titled the “References.”
Here’s how to create in-text citations for specific amounts of authors:
When the source lacks an author’s name, place the title, year, and page number (if available) in the text. The title should be in italics if it sits alone (such as a movie, brochure, or report). If the source is part of a whole (as many web pages and articles are), place the title in quotation marks without italics (See Section 8.14 of the Publication manual ).
Structure of an APA format citation in the text narratively, with the author's name missing:
Title of Source (Year) or “Title of Source” (Year)
Structure of an APA style format citation, in parentheses at the end of the sentence, with the author’s name missing: (Title of Source, Year) or (“Title of Source,” Year)
In the text, narratively: Last name of Author (Year)...(page number).
In parentheses, at the end of the sentence: (Last name of Author, Year, page number).
Place the authors in the order they appear on the source. Only use the ampersand in the parenthetical citations (see Section 8.17 of the Publication manual ). Use ‘and’ to separate the author names if they’re in the text of the sentence.
In the text, narratively: Last name of Author 1 and Last name of Author 2 (Year)....(page number).
In parentheses, at the end of the sentence: (Last name of Author 1 & Last name of Author 2, Year, page number).
Only include the first listed author’s name in the first and any subsequent citations. Follow it with et al.
(Last name Author 1 et al., Year, page number)
(Agbayani et al., 2020, p. 99)
Last name of Author 1 et al. (Year)...(page).
Agbayani et al. (2020)...(p. 99)
What do you do when you want to cite multiple works by an author, and the sources all written in the same year?
Include the letters ‘a’ ‘b’ ‘c’ and so on after the year in the citation.
(Jackson, 2013a)
Jackson (2013a)
Writers can even lump dates together.
Example: Jackson often studied mammals while in Africa (2013a, 2013b).
On the APA reference page, include the same letters in the full references.
Write out the full name of the group or organization in the first citation and place the abbreviation next to it in brackets. If the group or organization is cited again, only include the abbreviation. If it doesn’t have an abbreviation associated with it, write out the entire organization’s name each and every time (see Section 8.21 of the Publication manual ).
First APA citation for an organization with an abbreviation: (World Health Organization [WHO], Year)
World Health Organization (WHO, Year)
Notice in the example directly above, the name of the organization is written out in full in the text of the sentence, and the abbreviation is placed in parentheses next to it.
Subsequent APA citations in the text for an organization with an abbreviation: (WHO, Year) OR WHO (Year)
All citations in the text for an organization without an abbreviation: (Citation Machine, Year) or Citation Machine (Year)
Sometimes you’ll need to cite more than one work within an in-text citation. Follow the same format (author, year) format but place semicolons between works (p. 263).
(Obama, 2016; Monroe et al., 1820; Hoover & Coolidge, 1928)
Reminder: There are many citation tools available on CitationMachine.com. Head to our homepage to learn more, check out our APA citation website, and cite your sources easily! The most useful resource on our website? Our APA citation generator, which doesn’t just create full references, it’s also an APA in-text citation website! It’ll do both for you!
Click here to learn more about crediting work .
References display the full information for all the citations found in the body of a research project.
Some things to keep in mind when it comes to the references:
Learn more about each component of the reference citation and how to format it in the sections that follow. See an APA sample paper reference list at the end of this entire section.
The names of authors are written in reverse order. Include the initials for the first and middle names. End this information with a period (see Section 9.8 of the Publication manual ).
Format: Last name, F. M.
When two or more authors work together on a source, write them in the order in which they appear on the source. You can name up to 20 authors in the reference. For sources with 2 to 20 authors, place an ampersand (&) before the final author. Use this format:
Last name, F. M., & Last name, F. M.
Last name, F. M., Last name, F. M., Last name, F. M., Last name, F. M., & Last name, F. M.
Kent, A. G., Giles, R. M., Thorpe, A., Lukes, R., Bever, D. J., & He, Y.
If there are 21 or more authors listed on a source, only include the first 19 authors, add three ellipses, and then add the last author’s name.
Roberts, A., Johnson, M. C., Klein, J., Cheng, E. V., Sherman, A., Levin, K. K. , ...Lopez, G. S.
If you plan on using a free APA citation tool, like the one at CitationMachine.com, the names of the authors will format properly for you.
###No authors
If the source lacks an author, place the title in the first position in the reference (Section 9.12 of the Publication manual ). When the source’s title begins with a number (Such as 101 Dalmatians ), place the reference alphabetically as if the number was spelled out. 101 Dalmatians would be placed in the spot where ‘One hundred’ would go, but keep the numbers in their place.
Additionally, if the title begins with the words ‘A’, ‘An,’ or ‘The,’ ignore these words and place the title alphabetically according to the next word.
See the “Titles” section below for more information on formatting the title of sources.
###Corporate/Organization authors
On an APA reference page, corporate authors are always written out in full. In the text of your paper, you may have some abbreviations (such as UN for United Nations), but in the full references, always include the full names of the corporation or organization (following Section 9.11 of the official Publication manual ).
%%United Nations. (2019). Libya: $202 million needed to bring life-saving aid to half a million people hit by humanitarian crisis. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/02/1031981
Directly after the author’s name is the date the source was published. Include the full date for newspapers and magazine articles, and only the year for journals and all other sources. If no date is found on the source, include the initials, n.d. for “no date.”
%% Narducci, M. (2017, May 19). City renames part of 11th Street Ed Snider Way to honor Flyers founder. The Philadelphia Inquirer . http://www.philly.com/
If using our APA Citation Machine, our citation generator will add the correct format for you automatically.
Giving a retrieval date is not needed unless the online content is likely to be frequently updated and changed (e.g., encyclopedia article, dictionary entry, Twitter profile, etc.).
%%Citation Machine [@CiteMachine]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved October 10, 2019, from https://twitter.com/CiteMachine
When writing out titles for books, articles, chapters, or other non-periodical sources, only capitalize the first word of the title and the first word of the subtitle. Names of people, places, organizations, and other proper nouns also have the first letter capitalized. For books and reports, italicize the title in the APA citation.
Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Roots: The saga of an American family.
For articles and chapters in APA referencing, do not italicize the title.
Wake up the nation: Public libraries, policy making, and political discourse.
For newspapers, magazines, journals, newsletters, and other periodicals, capitalize the first letter in each word and italicize the title.
The Seattle Times.
A common question is whether to underline your title or place it in italics or quotation marks in the reference list. Here’s a good general rule: When a source sits alone and is not part of a larger whole, place the title in italics. If the source does not sit alone and is part of a larger whole, do not place it in italics.
Books, movies, journals, and television shows are placed in italics since they stand alone. Songs on an album, episodes of television shows, chapters in books, and articles in journals are not placed in italics since they are smaller pieces of larger wholes.
The Citation Machine citation generator will format the title in your citations automatically.
If you feel it would be helpful to include additional information about the source type, include a descriptive noun or two in brackets immediately following the title. Capitalize the first letter.
%%Kennedy, K., & Molen, G. R. (Producers), & Spielberg, S. (Director). (1993). Jurassic Park [Film]. USA: Universal.
Besides [Film], other common notations include:
If you are using Citation Machine citing tools, additional information about the title is automatically added for you.
For books and reports, include the publisher name but not the location (see Section 9.29 of the Publication manual ). Older editions of the style required the city, state and/or country, but this hasn't been the case since the 7th edition was released.
It is not necessary to include the entire name of the publisher. It is acceptable to use a brief, intelligible form. However, if Books or Press are part of the publisher’s names, keep these words in the reference. Other common terms, such as Inc., Co., Publishers, and others can be omitted.
For newspapers, journals, magazines, and other periodicals, include the volume and issue number after the title. The volume number is listed first, by itself, in italics. The issue number is in parentheses immediately after it, not italicized. There is no space after the closing parenthesis and before the volume number.
%%Giannoukos, G., Besas, G., Hictour, V., & Georgas, T. (2016). A study on the role of computers in adult education. Educational Research and Reviews , 11 (9), 907-923. https://doi.org/10.5897/ERR2016.2688
After including the publisher information, end this section with a period.
Perseus Books.
For online sources, the URL or DOI (Direct Object Identifier) are included at the end of an APA citation.
DOI numbers are often created by publishers for journal articles and other periodical sources. They were created in response to the problem of broken or outdated links and URLs. When a journal article is assigned a DOI number, it is static and will never change. Because of its permanent characteristic, DOIs are the preferred type of electronic information to include in APA citations. When a DOI number is not available, include the source’s URL (see Section 9.34 in the Publication manual ).
For DOIs, include the number in this format:
http://doi.org/xxxx
For URLs, type them in this format:
http:// or https://
Other information about electronic sources:
If using the Citation Machine APA citation website autocite features, the online publication information will be automatically replaced by the DOI. The Citation Machine APA template will properly cite your online sources for you.
Make sure you run your completed paper through the Citation Machine Plus smart proofreader, which scans for grammar, spelling, and plagiarism. Whether it’s an adjective , verb , or pronoun out-of-place, our technology helps edits your paper for you!
An APA annotated bibliography is a full bibliography that includes a small note for each reference citation. Each note should be short (1-2 paragraphs) and contain a summary or your evaluation about each source. When creating your citations on CitationMachine.net, there is a field at the bottom of each form to add your own annotations.
Follow the publication manual guidelines on paper format and writing style. Let your instructor guide other details about your annotations. Still confused? Read our guide on annotated bibliographies .
These types of projects look different depending on the style you’re using. Use the link at the top of the page to access resources related to the Modern Language Association’s style. Here’s information related to Chicago citation style .
Need help with the design and formatting of your paper? Look no further! This section provides the ins and outs of properly displaying the information in your APA essay.
Arrange your pages in this order:
Keep in mind that the order above is the recommendation for papers being submitted for peer review. If you’re writing an APA style paper for a class, your professor may be more lenient about the requirements. Also, if you’re submitting your paper for a specific journal, check the requirements on the journal’s website. Each journal has different rules and procedures.
Just a little nudge to remind you about the Citation Machine Plus smart proofreader. Whether it’s a conjunction or interjection out of place, a misspelled word, or an out of place citation, we’ll offer suggestions for improvement! Don’t forget to check out our APA citation maker while you’re at it!
In older editions of APA, running heads were required for all papers. Since the 7th edition, that’s changed.
The running head displays the title of the paper and the page number on all pages of the paper. This header is found on every page of a professional paper (not a student paper), even on the title page (sometimes called an APA cover page) and reference list (taken from Section 2.8 of the Publication manual ).
It's displayed all in capital letters at the top of the page. Across from the running head, along the right margin, is the page number.
A title page, sometimes called an APA cover page, graces the cover of an essay or paper. An APA title page should follow rules from Section 2.3 of the official Publication manual and include:
Follow the directions for the running head and page number in the section above. Below the running head, a few lines beneath, and centered in the middle of the page, should be the title. The next line below is the author’s name(s), followed by the name of the school or institution, the class or course name, your instructor’s name, and the paper’s due date.
All components on this page should be written in the same font and size as the rest of your paper. Double space the title, names, name of school or institution, and all other information on the page (except for the running head and page number).
Example - Student Title Page APA:
Example - Professional Title Page APA:
If you’re submitting your paper to a journal for publication, check the journal’s website for exact requirements. Each journal is different and some may request a different type of APA format cover page.
Looking to create an APA format title page? Head to CitationMachine.com’s homepage and choose “Title Page” at the top of the screen.
An abstract briefly but thoroughly summarizes dissertation contents. It’s found in the beginning of a professional paper, right after the title page. Abstracts are meant to help readers determine whether to continue reading the entire document. With that in mind, try to craft the lead sentence to entice the reader to continue reading.
Here are a few tips:
Formatting guidelines:
If your paper includes a lot of numerical information or data, you may want to consider placing it into a table or a figure, rather than typing it all out. A visual figure or simple, organized table filled with numerical data is often easier for readers to digest and comprehend than tons of paragraphs filled with numbers. Chapter 7 of the Publication manual outlines formatting for tables and figures. Let's cover the basics below.
If you’d like to include a table or figure in your paper, here are a few key pieces of information to keep in mind:
The 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association was released in 2009. The current 7th edition came out in the fall of 2019 and was designed to be more student focused, provide more guidance on accessibility, and address changes that have developed over the last 10 years.
Below, we’ve listed what we feel are the most relevant changes related to APA format.
DOI stands for “digital object identifier.” Many journal articles use and have a unique DOI that should be included in a full citation.
When including a DOI in a citation, format it as a URL. Do not label it “DOI.” Articles without DOIs from databases are treated as print works. For example:
6th edition:
%%Gänsicke, B. T., Schreiber, M. R., Toloza, O., Fusillo, N. P. G., Koester, D., & Manser, C. J. (2019). Accretion of a giant planet onto a white dwarf star. Nature, 576 (7785), 61–64. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1789-8
7th edition:
%%Gänsicke, B. T., Schreiber, M. R., Toloza, O., Fusillo, N. P. G., Koester, D., & Manser, C. J. (2019). Accretion of a giant planet onto a white dwarf star. Nature, 576 (7785), 61–64. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1789-8
There are few new guidelines when you are citing a book. First, the publisher location no longer needs to be indicated.
%%Zack, P. O. (2001). The shoals of time. Bloomington, IN: First Books Library.
%%Zack, P. O. (2001). The shoals of time. First Books Library.
Second, the format of an ebook (e.g., Kindle, etc.) no longer needs to be indicated.
%%Niven, J. (2012). Ada Blackjack: A true story of survival in the Arctic [Kindle].
%%Niven, J. (2012). Ada Blackjack: A true story of survival in the Arctic .
Lastly, books from research databases without DOIs are treated the same as print works.
When using a URL in a citation, you no longer need to include the term “Retrieved from” before URLs (except with retrieval dates). The font should be blue and underlined, or black and not underlined.
6th Edition:
%%Flood, A. (2019, December 6). Britain has closed almost 800 libraries since 2010, figures show. The Guardian . Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/06/britain-has-closed-almost-800-libraries-since-2010-figures-show
7th Edition:
%%Flood, A. (2019, December 6). Britain has closed almost 800 libraries since 2010, figures show. The Guardian . https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/06/britain-has-closed-almost-800-libraries-since-2010-figures-show
Within a full APA citation, you may spell out up to 20 author names. For two to 20 authors, include an ampersand (&) before the name of the last author. For sources with 21 or more authors, structure it as follows:
Structure: First 19 authors’ names, . . . Last author’s name.
7th edition example: Washington, G., Adams, J., Jefferson, T., Madison, J., Monroe, J., Adams, J. Q., Jackson, A., Van Buren, M., Harrison, W. H., Tyler, J., Polk, J. K., Taylor, Z., Filmore, M., Pierce, F., Buchanan, J., Lincoln, A., Johnson, A., Grant, U. S., Hayes, R. B., Garfield, . . . Trump, D.
When creating an in-text citation for a source with 3 or more authors, use “et al.” after the first author’s name. This helps abbreviate the mention.
6th Edition: (Honda, Johnson, Prosser, Rossi, 2019)
7th Edition: (Honda et al., 2019)
Instead of having different formats for tables and figures, both use one standardized format. Now both tables and figures have a number, a title, name of the table/figure, and a note at the bottom.
If you’re still typing into Google “how to cite a website APA” among other related questions and keywords, click here for further reading on the style .
When you’re through with your writing, toss your entire paper into the Citation Machine Plus plagiarism checker , which will scan your paper for grammar edits and give you up to 5 suggestions cards for free! Worry less about a determiner , preposition , or adverb out of place and focus on your research!
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) (2020). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
Updated March 3, 2020
Written and edited by Michele Kirschenbaum and Wendy Ikemoto. Michele Kirschenbaum has been an awesome school librarian since 2006 and is an expert in citing sources. Wendy Ikemoto has a master’s degree in library and information science and has been working for Citation Machine since 2012.
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This resourse, revised according to the 7 th edition APA Publication Manual, offers basic guidelines for formatting the reference list at the end of a standard APA research paper. Most sources follow fairly straightforward rules. However, because sources obtained from academic journals carry special weight in research writing, these sources are subject to special rules . Thus, this page presents basic guidelines for citing academic journals separate from its "ordinary" basic guidelines. This distinction is made clear below.
Note: Because the information on this page pertains to virtually all citations, we've highlighted one important difference between APA 6 and APA 7 with an underlined note written in red. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , (7 th ed.).
Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.
Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page "References" in bold, centered at the top of the page (do NOT underline or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.
Please note: While the APA manual provides examples of how to cite common types of sources, it does not cover all conceivable sources. If you must cite a source that APA does not address, the APA suggests finding an example that is similar to your source and using that format. For more information, see page 282 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , 7 th ed.
When should you add in-text citations in your paper .
There are several rules of thumb you can follow to make sure that you are citing your paper correctly in APA 7 format.
In-text citation styles: .
(Forbes, 2020) | Forbes (2020) stated... | |
(Bennet & Miller, 2019) | Bennet and Miller (2019) concluded that... | |
(Jones et al., 2020) | Jones et al. (2020) shared two different... | |
(East Carolina University, 2020) | East Carolina University (2020) found... |
An example with 1 author:
Parenthetical citation: Following American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines will help you to cultivate your own unique academic voice as an expert in your field (Forbes, 2020).
Narrative citation : Forbes (2020) shared that by following American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines, students would learn to find their own voice as experts in the field of nursing.
An example with 2 authors:
Parenthetical citation: Research on the use of progressive muscle relaxation for stress reduction has demonstrated the efficacy of the method (Bennett & Miller, 2019).
Narrative citation: As shared by Bennett and Miller (2019), research on the use of progressive muscle relaxation for stress reduction has demonstrated the efficacy of the method.
An example with 3 authors:
Parenthetical citation: Guided imagery has also been shown to reduce stress, length of hospital stay, and symptoms related to medical and psychological conditions (Jones et al., 2020).
Narrative citation: Jones et al. (2020) shared that guided imagery has also been shown to reduce stress, length of hospital stay, and symptoms related to medical and psychological conditions.
An example with a group/corporate author:
Parenthetical citation: Dr. Philip G. Rogers, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, was recently elected as the newest chancellor of the university (East Carolina University, 2020).
Narrative citation: Recently shared on the East Carolina University (2020) website, Dr. Philip G. Rogers, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, was elected as the newest chancellor.
Paraphrasing is recreating someone else's ideas into your own words & thoughts, without changing the original meaning (gahan, 2020). .
Here are some best practices when you are paraphrasing:
References :
Gahan, C. (2020, October 15). How to paraphrase sources . Scribbr.com . https://tinyurl.com/y7ssxc6g
When should i use a direct quote in my paper .
Direct quotes should only be used occasionally:
From: https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/whaddyamean/
, around the quote, are incorporated into the text of the paper. | (Shayden, 2016, p. 202) | |
(by indenting 0.5" or 1 tab) beneath the text of the paragraph. | (Miller et al., 2016, p. 136) | |
, therefore you need a different way to cite the information for a direct quote. There are two ways to do this: | (Jones, 2014, para. 4) (Scotts, 2019, Resources section) |
Chat with a librarian is available during Laupus Library's open hours .
Need to contact a specific librarian? Find your liaison.
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References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text .
Check each reference carefully against the original publication to ensure information is accurate and complete. Accurately prepared references help establish your credibility as a careful researcher and writer.
Consistency in reference formatting allows readers to focus on the content of your reference list, discerning both the types of works you consulted and the important reference elements (who, when, what, and where) with ease. When you present each reference in a consistent fashion, readers do not need to spend time determining how you organized the information. And when searching the literature yourself, you also save time and effort when reading reference lists in the works of others that are written in APA Style.
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Teaching APA Style? Become a course adopter of the 7th edition Publication Manual
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Guides, checklists, webinars, tutorials, and sample papers for anyone looking to improve their knowledge of APA Style
Scribbr Citation Generator
Accurate APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard citations, verified by experts, trusted by millions
Cite any page or article with a single click right from your browser. The extension does the hard work for you by automatically grabbing the title, author(s), publication date, and everything else needed to whip up the perfect citation.
⚙️ Styles | APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard |
---|---|
📚 Source types | Websites, books, articles |
🔎 Autocite | Search by title, URL, DOI, or ISBN |
Inaccurate citations can cost you points on your assignments, so our seasoned citation experts have invested countless hours in perfecting Scribbr’s citation generator algorithms. We’re proud to be recommended by teachers and universities worldwide.
Staying focused is already difficult enough, so unlike other citation generators, Scribbr won’t slow you down with flashing banner ads and video pop-ups. That’s a promise!
Look up your source by its title, URL, ISBN, or DOI, and let Scribbr find and fill in all the relevant information automatically.
Generate flawless citations according to the official APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard style, or many other rules.
When your reference list is complete, export it to Word. We’ll apply the official formatting guidelines automatically.
Create separate reference lists for each of your assignments to stay organized. You can also group related lists into folders.
Are you using a LaTex editor like Overleaf? If so, you can easily export your references in Bib(La)TeX format with a single click.
Change the typeface used for your reference list to match the rest of your document. Options include Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri.
Scribbr’s Citation Generator is built using the same citation software (CSL) as Mendeley and Zotero, but with an added layer for improved accuracy.
Describe or evaluate your sources in annotations, and Scribbr will generate a perfectly formatted annotated bibliography .
Scribbr’s popular guides and videos will help you understand everything related to finding, evaluating, and citing sources.
Your work is saved automatically after every change and stored securely in your Scribbr account.
Tools and resources, a quick guide to working with sources.
Working with sources is an important skill that you’ll need throughout your academic career.
It includes knowing how to find relevant sources, assessing their authority and credibility, and understanding how to integrate sources into your work with proper referencing.
This quick guide will help you get started!
Sources commonly used in academic writing include academic journals, scholarly books, websites, newspapers, and encyclopedias. There are three main places to look for such sources:
When using academic databases or search engines, you can use Boolean operators to refine your results.
Get started
In academic writing, your sources should be credible, up to date, and relevant to your research topic. Useful approaches to evaluating sources include the CRAAP test and lateral reading.
CRAAP is an abbreviation that reminds you of a set of questions to ask yourself when evaluating information.
Lateral reading means comparing your source to other sources. This allows you to:
If a source is using methods or drawing conclusions that are incompatible with other research in its field, it may not be reliable.
Once you have found information that you want to include in your paper, signal phrases can help you to introduce it. Here are a few examples:
Function | Example sentence | Signal words and phrases |
---|---|---|
You present the author’s position neutrally, without any special emphasis. | recent research, food services are responsible for one-third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. | According to, analyzes, asks, describes, discusses, explains, in the words of, notes, observes, points out, reports, writes |
A position is taken in agreement with what came before. | Recent research Einstein’s theory of general relativity by observing light from behind a black hole. | Agrees, confirms, endorses, reinforces, promotes, supports |
A position is taken for or against something, with the implication that the debate is ongoing. | Allen Ginsberg artistic revision … | Argues, contends, denies, insists, maintains |
Following the signal phrase, you can choose to quote, paraphrase or summarize the source.
Whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source, you must include a citation crediting the original author.
Citing your sources is important because it:
The most common citation styles are APA, MLA, and Chicago style. Each citation style has specific rules for formatting citations.
Scribbr offers tons of tools and resources to make working with sources easier and faster. Take a look at our top picks:
'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
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When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form .
One of the biggest complaints about ChatGPT is that it provides information that is difficult to check for accuracy. Those complaints exist because ChatGPT doesn't provide the sources, footnotes, or links from which it derived the information in its answers.
While that is true for the GPT-3.5 model, GPT-4 and GPT-4o provide more citation resources. While GPT-4 is only for paid subscribers, GPT-4o is available to both free and paid subscribers, although free users get fewer citations and less detail than users with a ChatGPT Plus subscription .
Also: 4 things Claude AI can do that ChatGPT can't
Here's how ChatGPT describes the approach: "GPT-4o in free mode provides basic and essential citations, focusing on quick and concise references to ensure information is traceable. In contrast, GPT-4o in paid mode offers enhanced, detailed, and frequent citations, including multiple sources and contextual annotations to provide comprehensive verification and understanding of the information. This ensures a robust and reliable experience, especially beneficial for users requiring in-depth information and thorough source verification."
Even with the provided citations in GPT-4o, there are ways to improve your results.
To start, you need to ask ChatGPT something that needs sources or citations. I've found it's better to ask a question with a longer answer, so there's more "meat" for ChatGPT to chew on.
Also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT and other interesting alternatives to try
Keep in mind that ChatGPT can't provide any information after January 2022 for GPT-3.5, April 2023 for GPT-4, and October 2023 for GPT-4o, and requests for information pre-internet (say, for a paper on Ronald Reagan's presidency) will have far fewer available sources.
Here's an example of a prompt I wrote on a topic that I worked on a lot when I was in grad school:
Describe the learning theories of cognitivism, behaviorism, and constructivism
This is where a bit of prompt engineering comes in. A good starting point is with this query:
Please provide sources for the previous answer
I've found that this prompt often provides offline sources, books, papers, etc. The problem with offline sources is you can't check their veracity. Still, it's a starting point. A better query is this:
Please provide URL sources
This prompt specifically tells ChatGPT that you want clickable links to sources. You can also tweak this prompt by asking for a specific quantity of sources, although your mileage might vary in terms of how many you get back:
Please provide 10 URL sources
Most large language models respond well to detail and specificity . So if you're asking for sources, you can push for higher-quality sources. You'll need to specify that you need reliable and accurate sources. While this approach won't necessarily work, it may remind the AI chatbot to give you more useful responses. For example:
Please provide me with reputable sources to support my argument on... (whatever the topic is you're looking at)
You can also tell ChatGPT the kinds of sources you want. If you're looking for scholarly articles, peer-reviewed journals, books, or authoritative websites, mention these preferences explicitly. For example:
Please recommend peer-reviewed journals that discuss... (and here, repeat what you discussed earlier in your conversation)
When dealing with abstract concepts or theories, request that ChatGPT provide a conceptual framework and real-world examples. Here's an example:
Can you describe the principles of Vygotsky's Social Development Theory and provide real-world examples where these principles were applied, including sources for these examples?
This approach gives you a theoretical explanation and practical instances to trace the original sources or case studies.
Also: Two ways you can build custom AI assistants with GPT-4o
Another idea is to use sources that don't have link rot (that is, they're no longer online at the URL that ChatGPT might know). Be careful with this idea, though, because ChatGPT doesn't know about things after January 2022 for GPT-3.5, April 2023 for GPT-4, and October 2023 for GPT-4o. So, while you might be tempted to use a prompt like this:
Please provide me with sources published within the past five years.
Instead, consider using a prompt like this:
Please provide sources published from 2019 through April 2023.
And, as always, don't assume that whatever output ChatGPT gives you is accurate. It's still quite possible the AI will completely fabricate answers, even to the point of making up the names of what seem like academic journals. It's a sometimes helpful tool, but it's also a fibber .
Keep this golden rule in mind about ChatGPT-provided sources: ChatGPT is more often wrong than right .
Across the many times I've asked ChatGPT for URL sources, roughly half were just plain bad links. Another 25% or more of the links went to topics completely or somewhat unrelated to the one I was trying to source. GPT-4 and GPT-4o are slightly more reliable, but not by much.
Also: How to use ChatGPT: Everything you need to know
For example, I asked for sources on a backgrounder for the phrase "trust but verify," generally popularized by US President Ronald Reagan. I got a lot of sources back, but most didn't exist. I got some back that correctly took me to active pages on the Reagan Presidential Library site, but the page topic had nothing to do with the phrase.
I had better luck with my learning theory question from step 1. There, I got back offline texts from people I knew from my studies who had worked on those theories. I also got back URLs. Once again, only about two in 10 worked or were accurate.
Also: What does GPT stand for? Understanding GPT-3.5, GPT-4, GPT-4o, and more
Don't despair. The idea isn't to expect ChatGPT to provide sources that you can immediately use. If you instead think of ChatGPT as a research assistant, it will give you some great starting places. Use the names of the articles (which may be completely fake or just not accessible) and drop them into Google. That process will give you some interesting search queries that probably lead to interesting material that can legitimately go into your research.
Also, keep in mind that you're not limited to using ChatGPT. Don't forget all the tools available to researchers and students. Do your own web searches. Check with primary sources and subject-matter experts if they're available. If you're in school, you can even ask your friendly neighborhood librarian for help.
Also: How to use ChatGPT to create an app
Don't forget that there are many excellent traditional sources. For example, Google Scholar and JSTOR provide access to a wide range of academically acceptable resources you can cite with reasonable confidence.
One final point: if you merely cut and paste ChatGPT sources into your research, you're likely to get stung. Use the AI for clues, not as a way to avoid the real work of research.
APA style is a citation style that's often required in academic programs. APA stands for American Psychological Association. I've often thought they invented these style rules to get more customers. The definitive starting point for APA style is the Purdue OWL , which provides a wide range of style guidelines.
Also: GPT-3.5 vs GPT-4: Is ChatGPT Plus worth its subscription fee?
Be careful: online style formatters might not do a complete job, and you may get your work returned by your professor. It pays to do the work yourself -- and be careful doing it.
This is a good question. I have found that sometimes -- sometimes -- if you ask ChatGPT to give you more sources or re-ask for sources, it will give you new listings. If you tell ChatGPT the sources it provided were erroneous, it will sometimes give you better ones. The bot may also apologize and give excuses. Another approach is to re-ask your original question with a different focus or direction, and then ask for sources for the new answer.
Also: How to access, install, and use AI ChatGPT-4 plugins
Once again, my best advice is to avoid treating ChatGPT as a tool that writes for you and more as a writing assistant. Asking for sources to cut and paste a ChatGPT response is pretty much plagiarism. That said, using ChatGPT's responses, and any sources you can tease out, as clues for further research and writing is a legitimate way to use this tool.
For some links, it's just link rot. Some links may have changed, since many sources are more than three years old. Other sources are of indeterminate age. Since we don't have a full listing of ChatGPT's sources, it's impossible to tell how valid they are or were.
Also: How does ChatGPT actually work?
Since ChatGPT was trained mostly without human supervision , we know that most of its sources weren't vetted and could be wrong, made up, or completely non-existent.
Trust, but verify.
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Considering credibility, familiarity, and patience when citing research..
Posted June 12, 2024 | Reviewed by Davia Sills
I came across an interesting social media post recently in preparation for a professional skills development workshop that I was presenting. The post discussed how academics tend to “cite up” in terms of referencing older, more famous scholars relative to more junior researchers. I thought about this proposition in light of my own citation strategies and knowledge of bibliometrics and concluded that this statement is likely true, but probably not for any explicit bias against junior researchers, as some might posit.
First and foremost, we must consider the purpose of citing research—to represent a source of evidence and indicate that someone didn’t just make up what they’re saying. It’s been established in previous work, and we pay that research kudos to further our argument in context. References are also useful for “ cutting a long story short”—one can cite another’s work that can more fully explain a concept without having to reiterate the whole thing. When I use a reference in my arguments, given that I’m trying to convince the reader of my point, I want to use the most credible source(s) that I can find.
If Author A is at the apex of credible sources in the field, I’m going to cite them where appropriate. Indeed, if I was reviewing a relevant paper and didn’t see Author A cited, I might be concerned. Of course, one can include multiple citations, but perhaps the reason why more junior or early career researchers are not cited (relative to the Author As out there) is that other researchers may not be as familiar with the early career researchers”—Author Es’—research.
Maybe the citing researcher remembers the research but not the name of the author. Obviously, Author E’s work hasn’t seemed to “stick” yet, maybe because they’re yet to make a bigger impact in the field. Sure, that’s largely the citing researcher’s issue for not having better organized their reading and note-taking, but simply, it’s also an issue of accessibility. If a researcher can’t remember Author E’s name in this context, the credibility of Author A will more than suffice. “Citing up” is not a slight here; it’s just that Author E’s contribution might not be that impactful, accessible, or memorable to a more established researcher. Moreover, I must admit there might be a level of laziness here.
For example, the scenario above is context-dependent. If I can’t remember Author E, that’s fine; I have Author A to cite. However, if Author E is the only appropriate citation, the citing strategy will change. If I know a claim is fundamental to my rationale but I can’t remember where it came from, despite knowing I’ve seen solid evidence for it in the past, I will search for Author E’s paper until I find it (because I have to if there’s no Author A to rely on). This might take time and effort.
I can imagine that some researchers will be reading this and thinking, “Surely, others are reading the new literature and taking notes as they go along or maybe even writing the rationale as they engage the new literature.” Ideally, this should be the case; indeed, it’s a handy way of keeping up-to-date with the literature. However, this does not always happen.
I imagine more established researchers in a field are “familiar enough” with it to write a rationale without having to look up papers every few lines and, instead, are more likely to write what they know. Such is human nature. When they eventually get some free time, they might dedicate a few hours to reading recently published papers. I’m also aware that some researchers are better at this than others. Obviously, this is worrying in the realm of research—perhaps more worrying altogether than the issue of “citing-up.”
With that, what are the chances that a researcher has read every paper in their field? Slim-to-none. Given the exponential increase in the amount of information available to people in the past 25 years and, likewise, the increase in the amount of Ph.D. degrees awarded and research being conducted, being up-to-date with all work in a field just isn’t feasible.
So, maybe “lazy” is unfair in context. Maybe these researchers are indeed reading as much as they can, but because the amount that’s feasible is finite relative to the seemingly endless new research that’s coming out, they might be “pickier” in what they read; for example, prioritizing known and credible researchers in their field. So, there’s a good chance that when only Author A is cited regarding a particular finding, it’s quite possible that it’s because the citing researcher has never even heard of Author E’s paper, let alone read it.
“New” papers—regardless of when and by whom they’re read, need “sticking power,” and by that, I mean that the research is well-conducted: It is well-written, and interesting food for thought is provided. I compile and read new papers every month—maybe one per session has any sticking power—and that’s not because I’m some kind of research snob; rather, it’s the case that much of it failed some of the criteria above. With that, if the paper had well-conducted research, was well-written, and provided either something novel or some food for thought, then regardless of familiarity, this paper (and its author) would be on my radar for the future. So, just as much as older researchers may be set in their bibliographies or “lazy” referencing, it is most definitely up to younger researchers to publish impactful work.
I completely understand how this is frustrating for early career researchers. I was there once, too. Even though it’s been well over 10 years since I received my Ph.D., I still find myself trying to make the aforementioned impact necessary to be considered one of those “A” researchers in the field. Of course, I get annoyed when I see missed opportunities for other researchers to cite my work. But I’m realistic enough to recognize that maybe they have not come across my work, I have not made a large enough impact for it to be noticed, or the research they did cite was sufficient to make their point. I don’t take it personally, and neither should young researchers. Their time will come, but they must be patient.
Consider the research by Morris, Wooding, and Grant (2011), where it was suggested that it takes approximately 17 years on average for health research implementation from “bench to bedside.” That’s a long time for “research to be realized.” I know citations are different and should be more visible quicker in the land of research, but the same logic applies. Patience—and continued hard work (i.e., to advance one’s research acumen)—are necessary for citation success.
Again, I don’t think that “citing up” is consciously done to slight early career academics; researchers are not conspiring against their junior colleagues—at least, not in my field. If anything, they want to see them and their field flourish. Instead, I think it’s more likely that this issue boils down to an implicit bias (which we all face on a day-to-day basis) toward what we know as familiar, accessible, and credible.
Morris, Z. S., Wooding, S., & Grant, J. (2011). The answer is 17 years, what is the question: understanding time lags in translational research. Journal of the royal society of medicine , 104 (12), 510-520.
Christopher Dwyer, Ph.D., is a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone, Ireland.
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Basic guidelines for formatting the reference list at the end of a standard APA research paper Author/Authors Rules for handling works by a single author or multiple authors that apply to all APA-style references in your reference list, regardless of the type of work (book, article, electronic resource, etc.)
APA Style is widely used by students, researchers, and professionals in the social and behavioral sciences. Scribbr's APA Citation Generator automatically generates accurate references and in-text citations for free.. This citation guide outlines the most important citation guidelines from the 7th edition APA Publication Manual (2020). Scribbr also offers free guides for the older APA 6th ...
Throughout your paper, you need to apply the following APA format guidelines: Set page margins to 1 inch on all sides. Double-space all text, including headings. Indent the first line of every paragraph 0.5 inches. Use an accessible font (e.g., Times New Roman 12pt., Arial 11pt., or Georgia 11pt.).
A citation is found in the actual writing of an APA research paper. In-text citation example: "Lecture-rooms are numerous and large, but the number of young people who genuinely thirst after truth and justice is small" (Einstein, 2007, p. 5).
Indicate the authors or sources of these in a References list at the end of your paper. This guide is based on the APA Manual (7th ed.) that was published in 2020. The following sections provide you with information and examples that will help you to cite the sources that you come across during your research. General Style Guidelines.
APA Style papers should have the same style and size of font throughout the text of the paper (title page to reference page). APA considers the following fonts acceptable: 11- point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or 10-point Computer Modern. It is recommended that you check with your instructor to see if they have a preferred ...
How to Cite an Edited Book in APA Format. This reference format is very similar to the book format apart from one extra inclusion: (Ed(s)). The basic format is as follows: Edited book example: Williams, S.T. (Ed.). (2015). Referencing: A guide to citation rules (3rd ed.). New York, NY: My Publisher . How to Cite a Chapter in an Edited Book in ...
The 7th edition of the manual does make distinctions between formatting certain components for academic use over publication. This guide will distinguish student/academic formatting where applicable. This guide is designed as a "quick" reference to common APA citation, reference and formatting criteria.
APA style, created by the American Psychological Association, is a set of rules for formatting manuscripts, including research papers. In APA, you must cite sources that you have paraphrased, quoted or otherwise used to write your research paper. Cite your sources in two places: In the body of your paper where you add a brief in-text citation.
APA stands for American Psychological Association and is a common formatting style for publications, including research papers, in the social sciences. APA style has unique formats for in-text citations and reference pages. Its style and guidelines increase the ease of reading comprehension for viewers as well as ensure consistent presentation ...
APA Format Citation Guide. This is a complete guide to APA (American Psychological Association) in-text and reference list citations. This easy-to-use, comprehensive guide makes citing any source easy.
Parenthetical citations: (Grady et al., 2019; Jerrentrup et al., 2018) Narrative citations: Grady et al. (2019) and Jerrentrup et al. (2018) If a journal article has a DOI, include the DOI in the reference. If the journal article does not have a DOI and is from an academic research database, end the reference after the page range (for an explanation of why, see the database information page).
If you want to cite a special issue of a journal rather than a regular article, the name (s) of the editor (s) and the title of the issue appear in place of the author's name and article title: APA format. Last name, Initials. (Ed. or Eds.). ( Year ). Title of issue [Special issue]. Journal Name, Volume ( Issue ).
APA Citation Basics. When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998). One complete reference for each source should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
An APA citation generator is a software tool that will automatically format academic citations in the American Psychological Association (APA) style. It will usually request vital details about a source -- like the authors, title, and publish date -- and will output these details with the correct punctuation and layout required by the official ...
A list of sources can be a useful record for further research; Different academic disciplines prefer different citation styles, most commonly APA and MLA styles. Besides these styles, there are Chicago, Turabian, AAA, AP, and more. Only use the most current edition of the citation style.
APA Style uses the author-date citation system, in which a brief in-text citation directs readers to a full reference list entry.The in-text citation appears within the body of the paper (or in a table, figure, footnote, or appendix) and briefly identifies the cited work by its author and date of publication.
APA uses a reference list , an alphabetized list of sources following the end of the book or paper, for its complete list of sources referenced. This list should be titled "References" in bold and alphabetized by the first item in the citation, which, in most cases, is the author's last name. Each reference from this list must be cited in your ...
More than 100 reference examples and their corresponding in-text citations are presented in the seventh edition Publication Manual.Examples of the most common works that writers cite are provided on this page; additional examples are available in the Publication Manual.. To find the reference example you need, first select a category (e.g., periodicals) and then choose the appropriate type of ...
An APA in-text citation is included in research projects in three instances: When using a direct quote, paraphrasing information, or simply referring to a piece of information from another source. Quite often, researchers and scholars use a small amount of text, word for word, from another source and include it in their own research projects ...
Reference List: Basic Rules. This resourse, revised according to the 7 th edition APA Publication Manual, offers basic guidelines for formatting the reference list at the end of a standard APA research paper. Most sources follow fairly straightforward rules. However, because sources obtained from academic journals carry special weight in research writing, these sources are subject to special ...
Let's look at these examples if they were written in text: An example with 1 author: Parenthetical citation: Following American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines will help you to cultivate your own unique academic voice as an expert in your field (Forbes, 2020). Narrative citation: Forbes (2020) shared that by following American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines ...
APA Style provides guidelines to help writers determine the appropriate level of citation and how to avoid plagiarism and self-plagiarism. We also provide specific guidance for in-text citation, including formats for interviews, classroom and intranet sources, and personal communications; in-text citations in general; and paraphrases and direct quotations.
References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text. Check each reference carefully against the original publication to ensure information is accurate and complete. Accurately prepared references help establish your credibility as a careful researcher and writer. Consistency in reference ...
In-Text Citation . In-text citations - author/authors One to five authors: (Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993) Six or more authors: (Harris et al., 2001) In-Text Citations - short quotations (under 40 words) According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).
Citation checker: Check your work for citation errors and missing citations. Knowledge Base : Explore hundreds of articles, bite-sized videos, time-saving templates, and handy checklists that guide you through the process of research, writing, and citation.
APA style is a citation style that's often required in academic programs. APA stands for American Psychological Association. I've often thought they invented these style rules to get more customers.
I know citations are different and should be more visible quicker in the land of research, but the same logic applies. Patience—and continued hard work (i.e., to advance one's research acumen ...