Citation & Documentation

Research papers at the college level will require some kind of documentation style.
Documentation styles provide students, teachers, and researchers standards and
specifications to follow for paper set up, in-text documentation, and references. They
also will have recommendations for writing style, word choice, and in some cases,
organization.

The most common documentation styles are APA (from the American Psychological
Association) and MLA (from the Modern Language Association), and some fields
require Chicago Style (from the University of Chicago Press).
While it may feel tedious learning the different aspects of a documentation style, it’s
important to remember following style guidelines helps add credibility to your writing
by providing you with a structured method for sharing your research with your
audience.

APA Style
You will often use sources for academic writing, and it’s important to know how to
responsibly cite and integrate those sources into your own writing. APA format
provides guidelines and structures for citing those sources in a way that helps you avoid
plagiarism and give proper credit to your sources.

APA stands for the American Psychological Association and is the format designed for
use within the field of psychology. However, other disciplines use APA as well, so
always use the format your professor chooses.
In addition to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th
edition, the APA maintains its own website with multiple examples of how to format
your paper and cite your sources. If you’re unable to find the answer to your question
here, check the APA Manual 7th edition or the APA website.

Papers constructed according to APA guidelines generally include the following

elements:

 Title Page
 Abstract
 Body
 Subsections within the body, with headings
 Tables and Figures
 References
In most cases, each of these elements will begin on a separate page, and it is important
to note that not all academic papers will include all of these elements.

For specific types of reports, your subsections may need to be named with headings that
reflect the type of report you are writing. For example, in reports on experiments or
studies you’ll usually need to follow the IMRAD structure with Introduction, Methods,
Results, and Discussion sections. Be sure to check with your instructor to determine
what the expectations are for your paper.
APA Overview
APA stands for the American Psychological Association, and APA format is the
formatting style that many academic majors use to format their papers and cite sources
within their papers.

There are three basic “parts” of APA that you should understand:

The overall formatting:

In the 7th edition of APA format, you should have a cover page that includes your title,
your name, the name of your program and school, the name of your class, the name of
your professor, and the date. You should also have the page number at the top right
corner. Your page numbers should appear on every page.

You should begin your essay on the next page. Your margins should be 1 inch all the
way around. You should use a clean, standard font, and you should double space your
lines and single space after all punctuation. Be sure to indent by hitting tab for all new
paragraphs.

In-text citing:
It is important to remember that you must cite your sources within your text when you
quote, summarize, and paraphrase information from your sources.

In APA, there are two basic structures for in-text citations:

The narrative citation is used when you mention the author or authors’ last names
within the sentence. In this kind of citation, the year citation is placed after the author or
authors’ last names, and any page or paragraph citations come at the end.

Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.

The parenthetical citation is used when you haven’t mentioned the author or authors’
names within the sentence. This citation includes the author or authors’ last names, year,
and page number if necessary for a direct quote.

Falsely balanced news coverage can distort the public’s perception of expert consensus
on an issue (Koehler, 2016).

References page:
The References page is where you will provide full publication and retrieval
information for your sources. The References page is presented in alphabetical order,
and it is important to remember that your in-text citations must match up with your
References.
 The References page must conform to the following rules:

 Begin on a separate page at the end of your essay, using the same format as
your essay (i.e., one-inch margins and page number).
 Entries in your list of references should be alphabetized by the authors’ last
names. Use the title if a work does not have an author.
 Center and bold the word References at the top of the page.
 Double-space all references, even within individual references.
 Use a hanging indent of 0.5 inches for each reference. This means the first
line of each entry will be flush against the left margin, and subsequent lines
are indented 0.5 inches.

Print Book
Authored

Single Author
Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials. (Year of
publication). Title italicized. Publisher.
Larson, M. S. (1977). The rise of professionalism. University of California Press.

Multiple Authors (two to 20)

List up to 20 authors by their last names followed by initials. Use an ampersand (&)
before the last author.

Rivano, N. S., Hoson, A., & Stallings, B. (2001). Regional integration and economic
development. Palgrave.

Multiple Authors (21 or more)

When listing 21 or more authors, list the first 19 authors with names and initials,
followed by an ellipsis (no ampersand), and then the final author’s name.

Crocco, F., de Barros, B., McCaffery, B., Croop, P., Aldrich, L., Abeyta, M., Smith, J.
Sands, C. Pearson, B., McCage, J., Jackson, C., Walker-Williams, H., Sekera, L., Lee,
N., DiCamillo, K., Silver, J., Dvorak, A., Fuller, M., Thoreau, H., . . . Healy, A.
(2017). Creativity and design. Abbeville Press.
Edited
Elements: Editor’s Last name, Editor’s First and Middle initial, & Last names and
initials of other editors, if any. (Ed. or Eds.). (Year of publication). Title italicized.
Publisher.
Siskin, M. (Ed.). (1988). The alphabet of desire. Plenum.

Revised Editions
Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initial, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Year of publication). Title italicized (Number of edition
followed by ed.). Publisher.
Hochman, J. (1994). Strategies for urban farming (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall.

Chapter or Article in an Edited Book

Elements: Chapter Author’s Last name, Chapter Author’s First and Middle initials, &
Last names and initials of other authors, if any. (Year of publication). Title of chapter or
article. In Editor(s) First and Middle initials and Last names (Ed. or Eds.), Book title
italicized (pp. followed by the page range for the chapter/article). Publisher.
Rodriguez, J. (1999). Imperfection is meaningless: On prayer and chanting. In P. Smith
(Ed.), Looking ahead (pp. 107-112). St. Martin’s Press.

Online Book
Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Year of publication). Title of the book italicized.
Publisher. URL to the full text ebook or to the distributor’s homepage

NOTE: Do not list a database. If the book has no stable URL, end the reference with the
publisher.

Austen, J. (1813). Pride and prejudice. Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342

Online Book with a DOI

Smith, J. (2018). Women’s support groups. Routledge. https://doi.org/10/1022/0000091-00

Edited Ebook from a Library Database

NOTE: Use (Ed.) if there is a single editor.

Randall, S. & Ford, H. (Eds.) (2011). Long term conditions: A guide for nurses and health
care professionals. John Wiley & Sons.

Print Journal Article

 NOTE: In the 7th edition, the style manual of the American Psychological Association no
longer differentiates between journals with and without continuous pagination. If the journal
does not have an issue number, simply omit it from the reference.

Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal
italicized, Volume number italicized(Issue Number), Page numbers.
Winans, A. D. (1992). The Mafioso and American political culture. Journal of Popular
Culture, 22(1), 21-47.

Print Magazine Article

NOTE: Magazine citations are similar to journal citations, but they include additional
information about the publication date. For monthly magazines, the month is included. For
weekly magazines, both the month and day are included.

Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Year, Month and Day of publication). Title of
article. Title of Magazine italicized, Volume number italicized(Issue number, if
available), Page numbers.
Cooper, H. (1998, May). The trouble with debt. Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, 43,
100-103.

Online Magazine Article

Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Year, Month and Day of publication, if available). Title
of article. Title of Magazine italicized, Volume number italicized(Issue number, if
available). URL or DOI link
Vogel, C. (2008, June). A honeymoon cut short: How one couple survived the sinking of the
Lusitania. American Heritage. http://www.americanheritage.com/honeymoon-cut-short

Article from Database

NOTE: If an article from a database includes a DOI, provide the DOI link as you would for any
online journal article. If the article does not include a DOI, the reference will look like a print
version of the article. The 7th edition of American Psychological Association Publication
Manual states, “Do not include the database name or URL.”

Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Date). Title of article. Title of Journal italicized,
Volume number italicized(Issue number), Page numbers.
Mershon, D. H. (1998, November). Star Trek on the brain: Alien minds, human
minds. American Scientist, 86(6), 585.

Print Newspaper Article

Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initial, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Year, Month and Day of publication). Title of
article. Title of Newspaper italicized, Page numbers.
Clark, D. E. (1994, March 21). Health factor in cauliflower still elusive. New York Times,
C1.

Online Newspaper Article

Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Year, Month and Day of publication). Title of
article. Title of Newspaper italicized. URL for article
Hunter, J.D. (2019, April 14). Pressure cooker: A Tiger Woods recipe. The Oregonian.
https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/2019/04/pressure-cooker-a-tiger-woods-recipe-
commentary.html

Article on a News Website

Distinguishing Between a News Website and a Newspaper’s Website: There is very little to
distinguish the presentation of articles on websites like CNN or Vox from articles found on the
website for the New York Times or Washington Post. However, periodicals with print editions
are treated differently from online-only sources, even if the articles were accessed online. Note
that online-only news sources and webpages have the article title italicized instead of the
webpage where the article itself is hosted.

Elements: Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials, & Last names and
initials of other authors, if any. (Date published or updated). Title of webpage italicized.
Site Name. URL
Street, F. (2020, January 9). How the village that inspired ‘Frozen’ is dealing with
overtourism. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/overtourism-frozen-hallstatt-
austria/index.html

Webpage
 Elements: Author (person or organization). (Date published or updated). Title of
webpage italicized. Site Name. URL
Gramlich, J. (2017, September 29). Hispanic dropout rate hits new low, college enrollment
at new high. Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/09/29/hispanic-dropout-rate-hits-new-
low-college-enrollment-at-new-high/
NOTE: If the above example had no author or date, the title of the webpage would be moved to
the front, and (n.d.) should be used to reflect that no date is available.

Hispanic dropout rate hits new low, college enrollment at new high. (n.d.). Pew Research Center.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/09/29/hispanic-dropout-rate-hits-new-
low-college-enrollment-at-new-high/
NOTE: If a webpage is expected to be updated or contains data that changes over time, you
should include a retrieval date with the URL.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, October 20). COVID Data Tracker.
Retrieved October 23, 2023, from https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-
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