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Citing Sources: APA

Information and guidance for avoiding plagiarism. Links to online resources including citation generators and plagiarism checkers.

Plagiarism: A Definition

Plagiarism is the use of another's words and ideas without giving credit and claiming them as your own.

Most cases of plagiarism by college students are unintentional and due to mistakes or misunderstandings about how to cite properly.

This guide will help with citing a variety of sources and using in-text citations.

If you didn't write it, you have to cite it.

For a fuller explanation of plagiarism and best practices on how to avoid it, visit Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) website Avoiding Plagiarism

Getting Citations from Databases

Omnivore, Google Scholar, and library databases will provide citations for sources.

Search to find books and articles. Click CITE.  Select a Citation Style. Copy & paste or export. Proofread using the instructions on this guide.

Easily generate and copy a citation with the CITE button in Omnivore  

 

Getting Help

Librarians and Tutors are here to help you to cite your sources correctly and avoid plagiarism.

Library Databases, which are used to find articles, also provide tools to create citations. When looking at the document page, click cite to generate a citation in various styles. 

APA Style & Citation Resources

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

Turnitin for Students

Turnitin in Moodle for Students

Online Citation Generators

Always proofread the citations from a generator to check for errors, such as punctuation, capitalization, or dates

NEW: Citing AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Check with your instructor if it is acceptable to use AI tools as an information source or as a writing assistant.

If you use an AI tool, such as, ChatGPT, you must cite it as any other source. 

Suggested Format:

"Title of conversation OR Prompt." (Year, Month Day). Name of AI Platform. url of conversation or AI platform.

Example:

"Slice or scoop cookies." (2023, July 5). ChatGPT.  https://chat.openai.com/share/0197f0c0-aef2-49c1-8cb9-586cd8e5e543.

In-text Citation Format:

(Title, year)

Example

("Slice or Scoop", 2023)


APA Style Handbook Format:

Example: APA ChatGPT citation
APA format OpenAI. (Year). ChatGPT (Month Day version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
APA reference entry OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Feb 13 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
APA in-text citation (OpenAI, 2023)

How to get the URL link to a ChatGPT conversation: 
ChatGPT Shared Links FAQ

  • Click on the up-arrow next to the title of the conversation

ChatGPT link

  • Click on Copy Link

ChatGPT Link

ChatGPT link

Learn more about AI Writing Tools from Scribbr

Quick Guide

APA Style: Citation Quick Guide
 

References Page
Put the reference list on a separate page at the end of your paper.  
The title, References, should be centered at the top; do NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks.

 

Books

Basic format

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work: Subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Example

Logue, A. W. (2014). The psychology of eating and drinking. New York, NY: Routledge.

 

Articles in a Scholarly Journal

APA does not require database information; instead use a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). If there is no DOI, use the database link or the URL of the website.

 

Basic format

 

With DOI

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), pages. doi

Example

Otsuki, K. (2014). Social economy of quality food. International Journal of Social Economics, 41(3), 233-243. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-11-2012-0205

 

Without DOI

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), pages. Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/

Example

Burger, J. M., Bell, H., Harvey, K., Johnson, J., Stewart, C., Dorian, K., & Swedroe, M. (2010). Nutritious or delicious? The effect of descriptive norm information on food choice. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology,29(2), 228-242. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224851696?accountid=40999

 

In-Text Citations

Parenthetical Citation: Put a reference to the work cited in parentheses after a quote or paraphrase.

Author-date style: put the author's last name and the year of publication in parentheses in the text. For direct quotes add the page number. The complete citation is in the reference list at the end of the paper.  Each reference cited in the text must appear in the reference list; each source in the reference list must be cited in the text. 

Basic Format: “Quote” (Author’s last name, year, page #)

Paraphrase, page #s are recommended but not required, (Author’s last name, year)

Example with One Author

“Our daily decisions about eating - what, when, and how much to consume - are influenced by a complex set of factors, including biological, developmental, and personality sources. However, a number of investigations suggest that social factors also play an important role” (Burger et al., 2010, p. 228).

Examples with multiple authors:

  • Two authors: (Wegener & Petty, 1994). 
  • Three or more authors: (Harris et al., 2001)

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