High-quality academic work is based on conscious use of key scholarly sources, and uses them to build on existing knowledge. Your references will reflect the scope of your work. They are also evidence of your integrity in using other people’s work. For these reasons, referencing is one of the factors that will be taken into consideration when your thesis is graded.
- Bibliography is the list of publications you consulted.
- Reference is the detailed description of the document from which you have obtained the information. There are two principal components to citing references
- the way you acknowledge, cite the source in your text
- the way you list your sources at the end of your work to enable identification, i.e. the bibliography (or reference list )
Choosing a citation style
For most papers, you will need to format your bibliography according to the citation style specified by your instructor or publisher. Some of the commonly used citation styles include:
APA (7th Ed.) References
For Example
Journals Article
Ashing-Giwa, K. T., Padilla, G., Tejero, J., Kraemer, J., Wright, K., Coscarelli, A.,
Clayton, S., Williams, I.,& Hills, D. (2004). Understanding the breast cancer experience of women: A qualitative study of African American cancer
survivors. Psycho-Oncology, 13(6), 408 -428.
https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.750
Book
Schmidt, N. A., & Brown, J. M. (2017). Evidence-based practice for nurses:
Appraisal and application of research (4th ed.). Johns & Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Web Page
American Nurses Association. (n.d.). Disaster preparedness.
News Article
Creseli, I., & Kaplan, S. (2019, November 24). How Jool hooked a generation on
nicotine. The New York Time. https://www.nytimes.com/...
In-text Citations
Basic format:
| (Author’s Last Names or Organization, Year). | |
|
1 Author 2 Authors 3+ Authors Group Author |
(Abrams, 2018) (Wegener & Petty, 1994) (Harris et al., 2018) First time with a abbreviation:(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019) Then all subsequent citations:(CDC, 2019) |
Direct Quotes:
- According to Brown (2019) “Direct quote” (p.2021).
- Brown (2019) found that “Direct quote” (p.2021).
- [Some other introduction] “Direct quote” (Brown, 2019, p.2021).
APA Manual 6th Ed. VS 7th Ed.
The Most Notable Changes References and in-text citations in APA Style
1. The publisher location is no longer included in the reference.
|
6th Edition Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. |
7th Edition Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. Simon & Schuster. |
2. The in-text citation for works with three or more authors is now shortened right from the first citation. You only include the first author’s name and “et al.”.
|
6th Edition (Taylor, Kotler, Johnson, & Parker, 2018) |
7th Edition (Taylor et al., 2018) |
3. Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors (instead of 7) should be provided in the reference list.
|
6th Edition Miller. T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T., …Lee, L. H. (2018). |
7th Edition Miller. T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T., Lewis, F., Lee, L. H., Cox, G., Harris, H. L., Martin, P., Gonzalez, W. L., Hughes, W., Carter, D., Cambell, C., Baker, A. B., Flores, T., Gray, W. E., Freen, G….Nelson, T. P. (2018). |
4. DOIs are formatted the same as URLs. The label “DOI:” is no longer necessary.
|
6th Edition |
7th Edition |
5. URLs are no longer preceded by “Retrieved from,” unless a retrieval date is needed. The website name is included (unless it’s the same as the author), and web page titles are italicized.
|
6th Edition Walker, A. (2019, November 14). Germany avoids recession but growth remains weak. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50419127 |
7th Edition Walker, A. (2019, November 14). Germany avoids recession but growth remains weak. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50419127 |
6. For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g.Kindle) is no longer included in the reference, and the publisher is included.
|
6th Edition Bruck, M. (2009). Women in early British and Irish astronomy: Stars and satellites. [Kindle version]. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2 |
7th Edition Bruck, M. (2009). Women in early British and Irish astronomy: Stars and satellites. SpringerNature. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2 |
7. Clear guidelines are provided for including contributors other than authors and editors. For example, when citing a podcast episode, the host of the episode should be included; for a TV series episode, the writer and director of that episode are cited.
8. Dozens of examples are included for online source types such as podcast episodes, social media posts, and Youtube videos. The use emojis and hashtags is also explained.
Harvard is very similar to APA. Where APA is primarily used in the USA, Harvard referencing is the most well used referencing style in the UK and Australia, and is encouraged for use with the humanities.
These are two separate styles but are very similar, just like Harvard and APA. These are widely used for history and economics.
MLA is most often applied by the arts and humanities, particularly in the USA. It is arguably the most well used of all of the citation styles.