ENGL 101: Monk, M. (Spring 2025): Citing your sources - APA

Useful Online Style Guides

Visit Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) APA Style Guide for a sample paper and instructions for citing individual sources such as newspaper articles, scholarly journals, video and books.

OWL also provides general information about APA style in an APA Style Workshop.

Please use the link below to visit TCC's Citation guide if you are interested in learning more about:

• How citation is important
• What, when, where and how to cite
• Integrating your research into your writing
• Word tips for creating reference lists 

Purdue OWL Guides: APA 7 

APA Citation Examples

The following are examples of how to do an APA style in-text citation and corresponding References list citation for a journal article from a library database.

In-text Citation

• Using a Signal Phrase

The first time you introduce a source within the body your paper, it is generally preferred that you use a signal phrase (and many instructors require that you do so). A signal phrase introduces a source and "signals" to your reader that the material to follow comes from someone other than yourself. The signal phrase in the example below is "According to Jones." After the signal phrase list the year of  publication in parentheses. Finally, after the quote, list the page number or numbers in parentheses preceded by a "p." for a single page or a "pp." for multiple pages.

According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty  using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).

• Alternative to Using a Signal Phrase

If you do not use a signal phrase, then you would put the author’s last name along with the year of publication and page number preceded by a "p." or a "pp." in parentheses after the quote. For example: 

"Students often had difficulty  using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (Jones, 1998, p. 199).

References List Entry

List the complete citation information for the source listed in your in-text citation in the References list at the end of your paper. Please note that the examples below do NOT include hanging indent formatting, which is the standard for references list entries.

Format

Author's last name, First initial. (Publication year). Article title in sentence case: Subtitles are also in sentence case. Journal Title in Title Case, Volume#(Issue#), page range. DOI or "Retrieved from" statement.

Example with DOI

Jones, H. (1998). Why citation styles are challenging for students: A review of the literature. Journal of Education, 88(2), 199-201. doi: 10.1093/sf/77.1.123

Example without DOI

Jones, H. (1998). Why citation styles are challenging for students: A review of the literature. Journal of Education, 88(2), 199-201. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/journalofeducation/

NOTE: Databases will provide you with the DOI for an article if there is one (and not all articles have a DOI). These are also generally provided on the first page of the article itself. When there isn't a DOI, simply Google the name of the journal from which the article comes and copy and paste the URL for the home page of the journal's Web site.

APA Fill-In-The-Blank Citation Generators

Use the sites below to plug in the appropriate information and view your citation in APA format. Successful use depends upon entering correct information! Compare your results with an APA style handout available on this page.

Understanding the D.O.I

All citations are meant in part to serve as a kind of 'address' to help your readers find the sources that you use in your papers. The ordering of the citation is deliberate and precise. Several journal article citations ends with a "DOI" number.

What's a "D.O.I."?

• D.O.I. stands for "digital object identifier". D.O.I.s are assigned to every scholarly journal article that is published electronically. Each article has its own unique number. This number can help your reader locate information about the article you used even if they do not have access to the database you retrieved it from.
• Most articles published after 2010 have the D.O.I. printed somewhere on the first page. Since 2012 the D.O.I. is commonly displayed as a URL, prefaced with https://doi.org/
• APA requires that you use the D.O.I. as the retrieval link, presented as a live hyperlink, with no punctuation at the end
• If the D.O.I. you find for an article is not prefaced with https://doi.org, APA requires that you type in that root in front of the D.O.I yourself. See below.

Example: 

When a D.O.I. Can Be Found

Gordon, M., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y

What if I Can't Find a D.O.I. On the Article?

• If you cannot see a D.O.I. on the article itself, I recommend doing a Google search of the article title, locating information about the article, often on the journal's Website, and seeing if you can find the doi listed somewhere on the Website page.
• If you have exhausted all attempts to locate a D.O.I. for the article, APA requires that you leave that space blank.
• If you have exhausted all attempts to locate a D.O.I. for the article, but you then find that the article is freely available, in full-text, on the Web (not a library database), use the article's URL instead, formatted as an active hyperlink.

Example: 

When a D.O.I. Cannot Be Found, and the Article is Not Freely Available on the Web

Gordon, M., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771.

Example: 

When a D.O.I.  Cannot Be Found, but the Article is Freely Available on the Web:

Gordon, M., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mellissa_Gordon/publication/259634832_650e9.pdf

What if I Am Using a Print Journal Article?

• If you can find the D.O.I. on the article, go ahead and include it in your citation. Many articles are still published both in print and electronically.
• If you cannot find the D.O.I. on the article, treat it as above, leaving that space blank.

What is APA Style?

APA style refers to the rules created by the American Psychological Association for formatting papers, use of language, presentation of data,... as well as for how to do in-text citations and end-of-paper citations (References). APA style is used primarily by authors in social sciences and health sciences, but is used widely in many TCC courses.

See the boxes on this page for details.

What is APA?

"APA style" is the citation and paper formatting style used in health sciences and social sciences.
 

The American Psychological Association (APA) states:

"When editors or teachers ask you to write in "APA Style," they are referring to the editorial style that many of the social and behavioral sciences have adopted to present written material in the field. APA Style was first developed 80 years ago by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication. Since that time, it has been adopted by leaders in many fields and has been used by writers around the world."

What is APA Style?

You may be required to write all of your papers and presentations in this course in APA format. But, what is APA?!

APA is:

• A style manual published by the American Psychological Association
• Used in the health and social sciences
• Governs how we format our papers and ensures consistency
• Includes elements such as:
  • selection of headings, tone, and length;
  • punctuation and abbreviations;
  • presentation of numbers and statistics;
  • construction of tables and figures,
  • citation of references;
  • and many other elements that are a part of a manuscript.
• APA style refers to the physical appearance of our papers (type size, margins, running headers, tables, headings, punctuation, etc.); the way we cite our sources, both in text and in our References; and even the language we use when describing people.
• While there are similarities between MLA and APA citations, because APA is applied to different fields than MLA, the individual pieces that make up a citation are arranged differently.
• Remember than many of the Library's databases will provide an APA citation that you can copy and paste into your References page, however, you will need to correct any minor errors, and change the formatting to match that of your paper.

APA Style Handouts

Here are some handouts (in both .docx and .pdf formats) featuring examples citations for sources you might find through TCC's Library and the Web.

References

In-Text Citations

Citing Social Media

Citation Handouts

Here are some handouts (in both .docx and .pdf formats) featuring example citations for sources you might find through TCC's Library and the Web.

For the References Page

For the In-Text Citations

TCC Library Handouts for APA 7 Style Annotations 

APA 7 and MLA 8 Help for Citing Government Documents

Government documents or reports -- from local, county, state, and/or national government departments -- are cited a little differently in both APA and MLA citation styles. For government documents or data, in most cases the author will be the government department responsible for compiling or publishing the data/report/document.

Examples for Citing Government Documents

Click the links below for good guides, with examples, for how to cite Census data, tax forms and other government documents.

A Quick Look at The Two Parts of an APA Citation

Here's one sample “in text citation” and what its "references list citation" mate would look like. 

In-Text Citation:

In her 2017 article, Sproat claimed that she would “rather clean toilets than learn citation rules” (p.4); however, she eventually came to a better understanding of APA. 

Matching Reference List citation:

Notice the following common APA features in the reference list entry above:

1. Author surname/family name and initials (first/given names are never spelled out). Note: If there is no author listed, then use the title of the article as the first part of the citation.
2. Date is ALWAYS the second element and always in parentheses.
3. Article titles are not capitalized, except the first word in the title and subtitle and any proper nouns.
4. Titles of journals are always capitalized and italicized.
5. The journal volume number (17, in this example) is also always italicized.
6. The issue number (4, in this example) is NOT italicized and is always in parentheses.
7. The page number follows the volume and/or issue number—there is no “p.” or “pg.” preceding it  (although there IS a “p.” in the citation in text).
8. Reference list citations are alphabetized, with "hanging indent" formatting

Video Tutorial: Introduction to APA 6

Click on the image or link below to view an introduction to using APA style. This video tutorial was created by TCC librarians.

Video Tutorial: Introduction to APA 7

Watch the video below for an introduction to using APA style, 7th edition. To see it in a larger window, click on the link below. This video tutorial was created by TCC librarians.

Watch the following video for further guidance on APA in-text citations.

Get Additional Help with APA

A Quick Look at the Two Parts of a Citation

1. The brief in-text citation lets your reader know where the information in your paper came from, as you are using it. Usually, this means the author(s) and year.
2. The full References citation is on a separate References page, letting your reader know, in detail, where to find that source.

Below is an example of how the two citation pieces fit together in APA style:

The In-Text Citation

Gordon and Cui (2015) found compelling evidence suggesting that a person’s career outcomes in adulthood are more of a product of the quality of their childhood relationships with their parent(s), or other adult guardians, rather than the quality of the education they received.
 

References

Gordon, M. S., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y

Building a Scholarly Journal Article Citation

Here is the journal article, as you would see it presented through a database, or in the print version of the journal, showing you which elements that you need to collect to build your References citation, and your in-text citation.

References Page Citation

Author, Initial. Initial., & Author, Initial. (year). Article title typed in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, Italicized, volume#(issue#), page-range. doi presented as a hyperlink.

Gordon, M. S., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771. http:doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y

In-Text Citation

Gordon and Cui (2015) found compelling evidence suggesting that a person’s career outcomes in adulthood are more of a product of the quality of their childhood relationships with their parent(s), or other adult guardians, rather than the quality of the education they received.

OR

Compelling evidence suggests that a person’s career outcomes in adulthood are more of a product of the quality of their childhood relationships with their parent(s), or other adult guardians, rather than the quality of the education they received (Gordon & Cui, 2015).

What Does Citing Mean?

After you gather information from outside resources to add to your own ideas about a topic, you will quote, paraphrase, or summarize those sources within the body of your paper. Citing allows you to share with your readers where you got your information (so they can make judgments about its validity) and it protects you from any charges of plagiarism.

There are two parts to a proper citation:

1. The citation "in text" -- letting your readers know when an idea comes from someone other than yourself within the text of your paper.
2. The separate "References" page where you will list complete information about each of those sources, which comes at the end of your paper.

For this research assignment you will use APA.