Citing Other Research in Your Paper: APA Style Guidelines
When writing research papers, it is important to cite any outside sources that have contributed to your own work. This helps to avoid plagiarism and gives credit to the authors whose work you have drawn from. The American Psychological Association (APA) citation style provides guidelines for citing research in the text of a paper and creating a reference list at the end. Following APA style correctly is important for acknowledging other authors and allowing readers to find the sources. This article will provide an in-depth look at how to cite another research paper within your own work according to APA style.
In-Text Citations
Any time you directly quote or paraphrase information from another paper, you need to include an in-text citation indicating the author(s) and date of publication. These citations appear in the body of your paper wherever a source has contributed to your own writing. For example:
Smith (2020) examined the relationship between exercise and mental health.
or
According to recent research, regular exercise is associated with improved mood and reduced stress (Jones & Brown, 2019).
When using APA style citations, include the last name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication. If there are two authors, include both last names separated by an ampersand (&). If there are three to five authors, include all last names in the first in-text citation. In subsequent citations, include only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” and the year. For example:
(Miller, Smith, Jones, Brown, & Williams, 2020)
(Miller et al., 2020)
If the author’s name is mentioned in the text, only include the year in parentheses:
As Miller et al. (2020) found in their study…
If the citation includes page numbers, include them after the year, separated by a comma:
(Thomas, 2019, p. 42)
If you are citing more than one source in the same in-text citation, separate them with a semicolon and list them alphabetically by the first author’s last name:
(Brown, 2021; Smith, 2020)
Reference List Entries
At the end of your paper, you’ll need to compile a reference list containing full citations for each source you cited within the text. These follow specific APA formatting guidelines to ensure all necessary information is included for readers.
For a research paper, the basic format is:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of work. Publisher.
Some key points about APA reference list entries:
List entries alphabetically by the first author’s last name. If an entry has no author, alphabetize by the article title.
Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, as well as any proper nouns.
Issue numbers are not necessary for newspapers and popular magazines citations.
Use the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) when available. If not, provide a URL or web address.
For sources with no date, place “n.d.” in place of the year.
If your paper directly cites another research study or draws from published results, both in-text citations and a reference list entry are required under APA style guidelines. Taking care with attribution of sources will help demonstrate your research is based on the work of experts in your field. Following these citation rules is also important to avoid plagiarism in your writing.