When you use others' ideas and quotes, cite your source by including:
In-text citations direct the reader to the full citation on the References list.
Ex. Experts' ability to reason depends on well-organized knowledge (Bransford, 2018).
To maximize the effectiveness of your writing, word your in-text citations in several ways:
Author's last name and publication year in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
Ex. There is not a strong correlation between a high GPA and students who began reading at an early age (Kahneman & Klein, 2019).
Author's name in the text with the publication year in parentheses after it.
Ex. Kahneman and Klein (2019) found that there is not a strong correlation between a high GPA and early readers.
Ex. In 2019, Kahneman and Klein found that there is not a strong correlation between a high GPA and early readers.
Include short quotations (40 words or less) in-text with quotation marks.
Ex. Facebook's influence over online privacy standards reaches far beyond its 500 million users; its privacy policies, "more than those of any other company, are helping to define standards for privacy in the Internet age" (Helft & Wortham, 2019, p. B1).
For quotes more than 40 words, indent the entire quote a half inch from the left margin and double-space it with no quotation marks.
Ex. Brands are engaging customers with social media in different ways:
Engagement on social media can be as short as brands posting content and consumers responding by clicking “like” or “share”. Online engagement also can be more interactive and extensive with consumers commenting on brand posts, brands responding to consumer comments and at times consumers taking over social media conversations by engaging with other consumers. (Dhaoui and Webster, 2022, p. 156)
If citing only one source multiple times within one paragraph, cite it once in the first sentence as long as the source remains clear.
Ex. Campbell's (2022) survey of incoming freshmen shows the need for more investment into open educational resources. She found 73% of respondents cited the high cost of textbooks as their primary reason. Accessibility features of online resources also contributed to their appeal at 57%.
Use ellipsis (...) when omitting sections from a quote and use four periods (....) if omitting the end section of a quote.
Ex. Social media applications, like Facebook, need regulation, according to Hemphill and Banerjee (2021), to protect its customers: "Information technology transparency . . . with regulators, and how it protects safety, privacy, and freedom of expression, is an outcomes-based approach to achieving efficacious oversight" (p. 3).
Ex. Williams and Washington (2021) believe the best times to post to Facebook "in descending order are 5 am, 2 am or 6pm, and 10 am . . . ." (p. 6).
Include the author's last name, publication date, and page number(s).
Ex. Although businesses collect a lot of information on their customers' buying patterns, "it is not enough to know how customers behave, you also need to know why" (Brown, 2022, p. 522).
Cite the author, publication year, and possibly page numbers.
Ex. Many insects and animals have a larger spectrum of color vision than humans, including ultraviolet and infrared (McDaniel, 2018).
Put an ampersand between the authors when in parentheses at the end, but write out "and" when in the sentence.
Ex. There is not a strong correlation between a high GPA and students who began reading at an early age (Goldman & Soo, 2019).
Ex. Goldman and Soo (2019) believe there is not a strong correlation between a high GPA and students who began reading at an early age.
Cite only the first author followed by "et al" (meaning "and others").
Ex. A study by Alloy et al. (2020) examines the relationship between bipolar personality and substance abuse.
Ex. Despite equal numbers of hours studying, students who regularly slept at least seven hours performed better on tests (Williams et al., 2021).
Cite the first few words of the source's reference list entry (usually the title.)
Ex. From 2010 to 2022, the U.S. Mint will issue quarters featuring United States National Parks ("Quarter to Feature Smokies," 2017).
Ex. Getting plenty of sleep is essential to academic success (College Bound Seniors, 2019).
When quoting directly from a source with no page numbers, provide one of the following:
Ex. Physical fitness is a better predictor of life expectancy than chronological age (Baker et al., 2020, Physical Fitness).
Ex. According to Ibn Nidal (2018, "Metabolic Changes"), extra sleep on the weekend does not make up for regular sleep loss during the week and can lead to weight gain.
Ex. Learning from others' mistakes, also known as social learning, is just as effective of lesson as making the mistake yourself (Jackson, 2020, para. 12).
Ex. With the newly developed blood test, multiple types of cancer can be accurately detected (Ivanov, 2019, "Early Detection," para. 3).
Ex. In 2019, researchers found that exercise not only improved health but also changed fat, which begins to release growth factor beta 2 to increase glucose tolerance (American Diabetes Association, 2021, 2:46).
For short names where the abbreviation would not be readily understandable, write out the name each time. For long names where the abbreviation is familiar, write out the name with the acronym in brackets for the first reference, then use just the acronym.
Ex. In 2014, approximately 1 in 68 children were diagnosed with a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020). The CDC recommends...
Order the citations alphabetically by the first author's last name and separate them with semicolons. For works by the same author, order them by publication year: give the last name once and then the dates.
Ex. Several studies (Hall & Krupin, 2019; Ramirez et al., 2022; Walker et al., 2019) cite the need for more replication studies.
Cite the quoted author in the text and the author of the article at the end. Do not include the citation to the quoted quote in the References list.
Ex. Jonsen and Willse concluded "there was no direct correlation between the two factors" (Kosek, 2019).
Cite interviews you conduct in-text only, not on the references list.
Ex. Individual researchers are not eligible for many private foundation grants, because often those funds are only given to nonprofit organizations (P. Karga, personal communication, April 3, 2020).
Only cite emails, text messages, or chats in-text, not on the references list.
Ex. T. J. Suarez (personal communication, March 12, 2020 maintains that we move through life transitions more easily if we feel closure with the previous phase.
