Ways of Citing Related Literature and Studies

When writing the Review of Related Literature of a given research paper, citations are a
must. This is largely in line with the idea to avoid plagiarism and to give the authors that
provided the necessary knowledge to the researchers the recognition they deserve. Commonly,
in-text citations are used when citing authors in chapter 2 of our research paper. To start, there
are two ways of in-text citation: narrative and parenthetical. Briefly explaining, a narrative
citation is when you cite the author while you are quoting or paraphrasing their work; hence the
term narrative. Below would be an example of such:

According to Smith, Van Ness, and Abbott (2004), steam is considered as an inert
medium, when taken into context in a steam power plant, in which heat is transferred from a
burning fuel; but it is also quite possible to originate from a nuclear reactor instead of fuel (p.
302).

On the other hand, when citing in narrative form becomes too complex or redundant,
parenthetical citation can instead be used. Here, the author-date citation system is typically used.
Here is an example:

Internal energy can be defined as energy internal to a system by virtue of the

configuration and motion of a given set of molecules contained within (Narayanan, 2013; Smith,
et al.. 2004).

Notice that the main difference between the narrative and parenthetical citations is that
parenthetical citations involves containing the author, date, and page number (or paragraph
number if there are no page numbers present), in that order, contained within parentheses and are
located at the end of a sentence or at the end of a given paragraph. This is the reason why it is
called a parenthetical citation.

As with anything that involves scholarly writing, citations also come with some rules to
remember. Not in any order, the following are expressed:

A work by two authors. Name both authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses each
time you cite the work. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the text
and use the ampersand in parentheses.

Ex 1: Geankoplis and Van Ness (2020) stated that…

Ex 2: … for closed systems (Geankoplis & Van Ness, 2020).

A work by three or more authors. Here, we will list the first author’s name followed by
“et al.” in every citation, even the first, unless doing so would create confusion between
different sources. This is the case when citing multiple works with similar groups of
authors, and when the shortened “et al” citation is used, the two citations would then be
identically the same. Thus, to avoid ambiguity, the researcher must need to write out
more names. Since et al. is plural, it should always be a substitute for more than one
name. In the case that et al. would stand in for just one author, write the author’s name
instead.

Ex. 1 (no ambiguity): …inert medium (Smith, et al., 2004, p. 420).

Smith et al. (2004) stated that steam, in a steam power…

Ex. 2 (with ambiguity): Given the two sets of authors below:

Smith, Van Ness, Barns, and Abbott (2004)

Smith, Van Ness, Bunyan, and Narayanan (2004)

Correct: (Smith, Van Ness, Barns, et al., 2004)

(Smith, Van Ness, Bunyan, et al., 2004)

Incorrect: (Smith, Van Ness, et al., 2004)

(Smith, Van Ness, et al., 2004)

Unkown author. If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in
sentence or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are
italicized; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks. The APA
style prefers capitalizing important words in titles when they are written in the text.
However, they should not be when they are written in reference lists. It should be noted
that if "Anonymous" is used for the author, we shall treat it as the author's name
(Anonymous, 2020). For the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.

Ex: The type of equipment used depends primarily on the heat transfer…
(“Transport Processes,” 1978).

Organization as an author. If the author is an organization or a government agency,

mention the organization in sentence or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite
the source; the same as you would for an individual person. If the organization has a well-
known abbreviation, you may include the abbreviation in brackets (when used inside
parentheses) or in parentheses (for narrative ciations) the first time the source is cited and
then use only the abbreviation in later citations. However, if you cite work from multiple
organizations whose abbreviations are the same, do not use abbreviations to avoid
ambiguity. Abbreviations should not be used in reference lists.

Ex 1: According to the Philippine Institute of Chemical Engineers (2020) …

According to the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) (2020) …

Ex 2: First Citation - (Philippine Institute of Chemical Engineers [PIChE], 2020)

Subsequent Citations - (PIChE, 2020)

Two or more works in the same parentheses. When your parenthetical citation
includes two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list,
which is alphabetically, then separated by a semi-colon. Citing multiple works by the
same author in the same parenthetical citation only gives the author’s name once and then
followed by dates. No date citations go first, then years, then in-press citations.

Ex 1: (Narayanan, 2013; Smith, et al., 2004)

Ex 2: (Geankoplis, n.d., 1995, 2002, in press)

Authors with the same last name. To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last
names.

Ex: (J. Smith, 2004; M. Smith 2020)

Two or more works by the same author in the same year. When having two sources
by the same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order
the entries in the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text
citation.

Ex: Smith (2020a) in his research proved the existence of perpetual machines
through complex calculations and theories. However, applying the calculations for real
life applications was proved to be unattainable (Smith, 2020b).

Citing indirect sources. While researchers tend to cite from primary sources, there are
times where this is a difficult task. When using a source that was cited in another source,
name the original source in the sentence, then include the secondary source in the
parentheses. List the secondary source in your reference list. If you know the year of the
original source, include it in the citation.

Ex: Rajput stated that perpetual … (as cited in Narayanan, 2010, pp 7-8).
 Unknown author and unknown date. If no author or date is given, use the title in the
signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the
abbreviation "n.d." ("no date").
Ex: The type of equipment used depends primarily on the heat transfer…
(“Transport Processes,” n.d.).

Sources without page numbers. There are instances where an electronic source lacks
page numbers, and it could be quite hard for the readers to find the part where it was
cited. In this case, we can use the heading or section name, an abbreviated heading or
section name, a paragraph number (para. 1), or a combination of these.

Ex: However, according to Smith et al. (2020b), applying the calculations for
real life applications was proved to be unattainable (Perpetual Motion Machines section,
para. 2).

Some additional notes. Parenthetical citations, like (see, e.g., Naranayan, 2013; Smith,
et al., 2004), the word “see” is used when the researcher wants to list a few example
sources of a large body of work.

The above gives a rough idea on how to properly cite sources in the review of related literature in
APA 7th edition. With these in mind, the following are the ways of citing related literature and
studies.

1. By author or writer

One of the ways in citing the related literature would be by author or writer. Here,
the ideas, facts, or governing principles concerning about the researchers’ chosen topic
are discussed separately, with the authors, along with other relevant information such as
the date, paragraph number, or page number, being cited. The following are examples
that explains how this is performed:

According to Narayanan (2013), internal energy is defined as (…). In the case for
Smith et al. (2004), for them, internal energy refers to energy of the molecules (…).

2. By topic

In order to avoid long discussion given the same topic, it is best to summarize the
discussion or opinions of two or more different authors into one sentence or paragraph.
This is given if the opinions in question are of the same topic. An example would then be:
 Internal energy can be defined as energy internal to a system by virtue of the
configuration and motion of a given set of molecules contained within (Narayanan,
2013; Smith, et al.. 2004).
3. Chronological

There are also instances where related literature are expressed chronologically.
Here, related literature should be cited from the least recent up to the most recent.
Additionally, citing related literature and studies by author or by topic can be both cited
chronologically.

REFERENCES:

Calderon, J., & Gonzales, E. (1993). Methods of Research and Thesis Writing. National Book
Store, Inc.

Citation Resources: APA 7th Ed: In-Text Citations. https://libguides.sjfc.edu/citations/apa/intext.

Purdue Writing Lab. In-Text Citations: Author/Authors.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_gui
de/in_text_citations_author_authors.html.

Purdue Writing Lab. APA Sample Paper. Purdue Writing Lab.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_g
uide/apa_sample_paper.html.