Citing Sources

There are two main goals of citations: to give credit to the originators of the ideas in your work and to allow the reader to find/access the same information. Therefore, it is important to give as much detail about the source of information as possible. Although the order varies by style guide, if available every citation needs to include: name of the creator (author), title of the work, where the work can be found (i.e. title of book collection, journal or website), edition information (if not the first edition), and publication data (who published, when and where). 

Check out the following title for support writing for social work. 

APA Style

APA Style originated in 1929 and covers the aspects of scholarly writing mostly pertaining to:

• Social Sciences (i.e. Psychology, Sociology, and Education), 
• Nursing,
• Business,
• and related fields 

Check out the following resources for more information about APA Style. 

• Official APA Style and Grammar Guidelines Page

  An American Psychology Association hosted website with information on APA citation and related resources.

• Multiple Authors

  Examples of how to format and list multiple authors.

• Missing Reference Information

  Tips on adapting the basic structure of a reference to a published work that has missing information, along with the corresponding in-text citations.

• In-Text Citations Without Page Numbers

  For written material that does not contain page numbers (e.g. websites, some e-books).

• Clip Art or Stock Image References

  Special requirements for using clip art and stock images in APA Style papers.

APA Style Examples

• A book (If an e-book, provide the DOI or Permalink) 
  • In-text Citation
    • (Sapolsky, 2017)
  • Bibliography or Reference 
    • Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books.
• An article in an electronic journal 
  • In-text Citation
    • (Grady et al., 2019)
  • Bibliography or Reference
    • Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
• A webpage on a website with a government agency group author
  • In-text Citation
    •  (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018)
  • Bibliography or Reference
    • National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). Anxiety disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

 These examples came from the Reference Examples page on the APA Style website.

Acknowledgements and resources for more information: 

• Librarian, U. L. S. (2024, Aug 19,). Guides: Citation Styles: APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, IEEE: APA 7th Edition. University of Pittsburgh Library System. Retrieved Aug 26, 2024, from https://pitt.libguides.com/citationhelp/apa7