This page is designed to offer assistance with using APA citation style. A citation is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from another source. It also gives your tutors the information necessary to find that source again. APA (American Psychological Association) style is the one used by Botswana Open University.
You need to include an in-text citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source.
APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Smith, 2019).
For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: (Smith, 2019, p. 14).
For sources such as websites and e-books that have no page numbers, use a paragraph number.
No matter where you find the information, whether it is from a book, journal, magazine, newspaper, interview or the internet, you must give the author credit for using his or her work and ideas.
For every in-text citation in your paper, there must be a corresponding entry in your reference list.
This citation guide is based on the 6th edition of the APA Manual.
Remember: When in doubt, cite!
Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the only way to use other people's work without plagiarizing. But there are a number of other reasons to cite sources:
When do you need to cite?
Whenever you borrow words or ideas, you need to acknowledge their source. The following situations almost always require citation:
Include the author’s last name and the year of publication. For example;
When there are two authors, separate their last names with an ampersand (&), or with the word ‘and’ when they appear in the running text. For example;
When there are three or more authors, separate their last names using commas. The last two authors’ last names should be separated by both a comma and an ampersand. For example;
If you cite the same source again, to save space, you shorten the citation. Instead of including all the authors’ names, include only the first author, followed by “et al.” (meaning “and others”).
If a source has six or more authors, use the shortened version from the first citation. For example;
When you quote a source, you also have to add the page number to the in-text citation. For example;
When a source does not list an individual author, it can often be attributed to an organization instead. For example;
Sometimes, it’s necessary to cite multiple sources in one sentence. You can combine them into one set of parentheses, separated by semicolons. For example;
APA formatting for papers
There are certain formatting rules you must adhere to when writing a paper in APA format.
The basic requirements are:
Sort the references in alphabetical order based on the author’s last name. If you cite multiple sources by the same author, then sort them by publication year.
Note: Book titles should be italicized.
Note: The journal title and volume number should be italicized.
Note: The title should be italicized.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by
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Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the style manual of choice for writers, editors, students, and educators in the social and behavioural sciences. It provides invaluable guidance on all aspects of the writing process, from the ethics of authorship to the word choice that best reduces bias in language. Well-known for its authoritative and easy-to-use reference and citation system, the Publication Manual also offers guidance on choosing the headings, tables, figures and tone that will result in strong, simple, and elegant scientific communication. The Sixth Edition offers new and expanded instruction on publication ethics, statistics, journal article reporting standards, electronic reference formats, and the construction of tables and figures. The Sixth Edition has been revised and updated to include new ethics guidance on such topics as determining authorship and terms of collaboration, duplicate publication, plagiarism and self-plagiarism, disguising of participants, validity of instrumentation, and making data available to others for verification; new journal article reporting standards to help readers report empirical research with clarity and precision; simplified APA heading style to make it more conducive to electronic publication; updated guidelines for reducing bias in language to reflect current practices and preferences, including a new section on presenting historical language that is inappropriate by present standards; new guidelines for reporting inferential statistics and a significantly revised table of statistical abbreviations new instruction on using supplemental files containing lengthy data sets and other media; significantly expanded content on the electronic presentation of data to help readers understand the purpose of each kind of display and choose the best match for communicating the results of the investigation, with new examples for a variety of data displays, including electrophysiological and biological data; consolidated information on all aspects of reference citations, with an expanded discussion of electronic sources emphasising the role of the digital object identifier (DOI) as a reliable way to locate information; and expanded discussion of the publication process, including the function and process of peer review; a discussion of ethical, legal, and policy requirements in publication; and guidelines on working with the publisher while the article is in press. Key to this edition of the Publication Manual is an updated and expanded Web presence. Visit the APA Style web site to Look up additional supplemental material keyed to the book Test your knowledge of APA Style with a free tutorial on style basics Learn about the changes in the sixth edition with a free tutorial reviewing key revisions Sign up for an on-line course to enrich and enhance your understanding of APA Style Read the APA Style blog and share your comments on writing and referencing Consult frequently asked questions to sharpen your understanding of APA Style Examine additional resources on such topics as ethics, statistics, and writing Familiarise yourself with submission standards for APA books and journals What''s New in the Sixth Edition? Book has been updated to acknowledge and incorporate advances in computer technology. New discussions of the creation, submission, and storage of supplemental data. New guidelines for referencing electronic sources. New and expanded reference examples for a variety of on-line sources. Redesigned APA Style website, expanded to provide tutorials, on-line courses, and other resources for learning APA style. Book has been reorganised and streamlined for ease of use Organised to describe the writing process from idea to publication, it begins with background information on ethical issues in publishing, then moves on to manuscript structure and content, then writing style and rules, then graphics and references, then guidance on working with the publisher. Sample paper section has been moved up and featured to better exemplify manuscript structure and content Like discussions have been moved to one place in the book, with discussions of function followed by instruction on form. Focus has been broadened to include readers in the behavioural and social sciences. Information specific to APA has been moved to the web, where it is more broadly accessible and can be updated frequently. New examples throughout the book have been drawn from publications in education, business, and nursing as well as psychology.