PreCollege STEM Summer Program - Research Guide

When writing, you'll support your own ideas by referring to the works of other authors. Citing these authors fulfills certain purposes:

• Provides credit to other authors for their own ideas and research 
• Allows readers of your paper to find your sources and learn more 
• Demonstrates the work that you've done in your own research
• Establishes the credibility and authority of your own writing
• Signals allegiance with a particular viewpoint or recognizes counterarguments
• Demonstrates that you are up to date on the current state of issues

Although different styles are used in citing sources, they all provide enough information for someone to find the source being referenced. The parts of a citation in APA format are shown below for several common types of sources. Examples of citation formats for other sources are available here.

Website

Authored Book

Edited Book

Journal Article

In addition to your list of references, you'll also want to cite sources within your text to let your readers know what information is coming from your sources.  Format for APA in-text citations follows this format:

One author: (Adeyemi, 2019)

Two authors: (Adeyemi & Wilson, 2019)

Three or more authors: (Adeyemi et al., 2019)

When you refer to information from a source in your text, include the in-text citation right after the relevant information:

40% of the national bigfoot population lives in Colorado (Adeyemi, 2019).

If you mention the author(s) in the sentence, include the date in parentheses after the names:

Adeyemi (2019) found that 40% of the national bigfoot population lives in Colorado.

If you quote directly from the source, include the page number(s) and place quotation marks where appropriate:

"The moon is made out of cheese, but not crackers." (Adeyemi, 2019, p.22).

Adeyemi (2019) found that "the moon is made out of cheese" (pp. 22-23). Crackers do not seem to be part of its composition.

Many library catalogs, databases, and even Google Scholar will generate citations for the resources you find there.  The websites listed below are also useful tools for creating citations.  However, it's important to remember that no citation generator is 100% accurate all the time.  Remember to review citations before turning in your work!

ZoteroBib - Easy to use generator that offers over 10,000 citation styles.  ZoteroBib defaults to MLA format, so be sure to switch to APA after generating the citation.

bibme - Generates APA citations for many different types of sources.

QuillBot - Generates multiple citations and offers the ability to save a bibliography with a free account.