Public Speaking: APA Citations

Available at the Reference Desk!

In addition to citing your work  and listing your resources in your list of References, APA style includes specific formatting rules:

• 12 pt. font,
• one inch margins,
• double spacing,
• Running header with your title on every page.

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Check this style sheet from Purdue University"s Online Writing Lab (OWL) for specifics!

Every source you used must be included in your References page at the end of your paper.

Each source format has its own citation format. In addition to the author(last name, first initial) and title:

• a book will require the city of publication, the publisher and copyright date.
• a magazine article will require the date of publication, volume, issue number and page numbers. 
• Online articles require the DOI or digital object identifier, if available. If not, the URL must be included.
• Articles from databases do not require the name of the database.
• Titles of books and journals are italicized.
• Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of an article or chapter title.

 APA (which stands for American Psychological Association) format is a standardized method for giving credit to those whose work you use.  

It is important to let your readers know where you got your information. This style is used in courses such as History, Allied Health, Education, Nursing, Psychology and Sociology.

 Every research paper or project that uses outside sources must include a list of those sources at the end of the paper. This is called References and should list all sources in proper APA format alphabetically by the authors' last names.

APA format has specific forms for each type of resource you use: books, magazine articles, journal articles etc.With correct APA citations, you will never risk committing plagiarism. Plagiarism is considered stealing and could result in failure or worse!

If you have more questions, speak with a librarian or consult a tutor in the Writing Center. 

Most of the databases now provide citations for articles. You must locate the tools box and look for the link to cite or citation tools. This image from Gale databases such as  Infotrac General Onefile/ Academic Onefile shows the link for citation tools.

 Once you click on the link, you will be given several choices.  Select APA 6th edition and then choose Save. Next, choose Open to see the citation. You do not need the URL. Copy and paste this citation into your works cited page.  Make sure it is correct. All words in the title of the  journal must be capitalized but only the first word of the article is capitalized. Once you have all your citations, make sure they are in alphabetical order by the authors' last names.

This is the tool box for all EBSCO databases such as Academic Search Complete and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Once you click on the Cite link, you will be given all possible citation formats for the article. Select APA 6th edition. Copy and paste the citation into your works cited page. Be sure to check that titles are capitalized and formats are correct.

 If you are using a Proquest database such as Newsday, ABI-Inform or Historical New York Times, click on the cite link in the tool menu above the article.

Always be sure to select the APA 6th edition version of the citations you are using!

CQ Researcher and CQ Weekly also generate citations for you.  Click on the Cite Now! link and then select APA from the choices.