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LIS2004 Strategies for Online Research | Prof. Tiffany Walker

Learning Outcomes

After completing this module, you will be able to:

  • Identify the publication information necessary to cite the contributing work of others in your own information production
  • Give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation to avoid plagiarism and copyright infringement

Information Literacy Competencies

You will apply and learn about information literacy competencies while completing this learning module.

  • The primary competency related to this module is Scholarship as Conversation
  • The primary knowledge practice is to cite the contributing work of others in their own information production
What are Citations and Citation Styles?

In Lesson 2, we learned about Using Information Ethically (defining and avoiding plagiarism). When we use a writer’s ideas and data, we must give him/her credit by providing citations to their work (the books, database articles, website, etc, we used as our sources). Creating and listing citations is how we give credit to the author and acknowledge their ideas and work. In APA (American Psychological Association) style, the list of citations is called the References page. This is the last page or slide of your paper/project and allows the reader (your professor) to review the quality of your sources and to refer to your sources as needed.

There are many other citation styles too! MLA (Modern Language Association) is used for Literature and Humanities, Chicago/Turabian is used for History, IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is used or engineering, computer science, and information technology, AAA (American Anthropological Association)...you get the idea.

In this course, you will use APA (American Psychological Association) style to complete the final course project.

APA Style

APA: American Psychological Association, used for Social Sciences: Psychology, Sociology, Health and Nursing, Business, and other Social Science subject areas.

Reference citations are designed to provide enough information to your reader to be able to find and access the sources you've cited. In general, APA style Reference citations include as much of the following information as possible: author's name, publication date, title of the source, pagination information, and URL or DOI. The information you include, the order, and the punctuation depends on the style guide you are using and the kind of source (book, eBook, website, journal article, online journal article, journal article from a database, DVD, etc.). Please visit the APA Style website and check out the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association to see complete details for each kind of source.

 

Author-Date Citation System

APA style is a two-part citation system. A complete citation includes an in-text citation within the body of the paper and a reference citation at the end of the paper. APA style calls this the Author-Date citation system.

  • In-text citations show where you paraphrased, summarized, or used a direct quote within the body of your paper. Below is an example of a paraphrased sentence with an in-text citation in APA style:

Students’ ability to trust their teachers greatly impacts their learning (Davis, 2004).

  • Reference citations make up the reference page at the end of your paper. It is the list of all the sources you consulted in writing your paper. The citations must be complete enough to allow your reader to find the exact sources you used. Below is a corresponding reference citation example in APA style:

Davis, K. S., & Dupper, D. R. (2004). Student-teacher relationships:  An overlooked factor in school dropout. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 9(1/2), 179-194. https://doi.org/10.1300/J137v09n01_12

For every reference citation in your reference page, you MUST have at least one corresponding in-text citation in the body of your paper.

In-Text Citations

There are two common ways to construct in-text citations.

Behavior analysis is necessary for society because "almost all major problems involve human behavior" (Skinner 24).

  • Narrative In-text Citation: Placing the author's name in the sentence and the page number (MLA) or publication year (APA) in parentheses at the end of the sentence:

According to B.F. Skinner, behavior analysis is necessary for society because "almost all major problems involve human behavior" (24). [MLA Example]

For additional guidance, visit the In-Text Citations page of the APA style website. 

Formatting

APA style provides formatting rules for various papers that you may write. This includes instructions about page margins, page numbering, font, line spacing, titles, headings, and more. The entries in the reference page are listed in alphabetical order, are double-spaced, and have a hanging indent.

The rules for each style are outlined in detail in the respective manuals. They are also outlined in detail in the Miami Dade College Libraries LibGuides for APA style. You are not expected to memorize these details. However, you are expected to submit an annotated bibliography which adheres to these style rules.

Review

In this module, you have learned how to:

  1. Identify the publication information necessary to cite the contributing work of others in your own information production.
  2. Give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation to avoid plagiarism and copyright infringement