citation for research paper website

• Citation Generator
• Style Guides
• Chicago/Turabian Format

How to Cite a Website in APA, MLA and Chicago in Any Paper

Website citations have become common in academic papers. So, it’s essential to know how to cite a website in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. Get step-by-step instructions for online social media, blog, video, and website citations.

Table of Contents

• APA 7: How to Cite a Website
• MLA 8: How to Cite a Website
• Chicago: How to Cite a Website

How to Cite a Website in APA 7

Learn how to cite a website in APA in any paper. Break down how to cite full websites, online articles, blog posts, Facebook posts, tweets, and videos for your APA paper on gene therapy.

How to Cite a Website in APA: Entire Website

When it comes to citing a whole website, APA doesn’t need you to create a citation. Instead, you just include the website text and the URL in parenthesis. That’s pretty simple, right?

We work to create the best citations at Bibliography (www.bibliography.com).

How to Cite Online Articles in APA

When it comes to citing online articles in APA, you need more than the URL. Depending on the website type, the information you need to find includes:

• Author, if one is listed
• Title of article

Most of this information is found on the top or bottom of the website.

You’ll also come across issues like not having an author and missing dates. See how to format an APA online article even when you have no author or no date through these APA website examples .

Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies . (2019, October 31). HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/anxiety

How to Cite a Website in APA: Blog Post

How to cite a blog post in APA isn’t common knowledge for everyone. Therefore, it can be helpful to have a basic understanding of the different parts that go into citing a blog post including:

• the author or username
• name of the blog

When you put it all together, it looks like a fabulous APA blog citation.

Author, A. (2019, November 30). Title of the blog post in sentence case. Blog Name in Italics . https://websiteURL.com/science

How to Cite a Tweet, Facebook, and Instagram Posts in APA

Now, it’s time to look at a few examples of how to cite social media in APA . Typically, you need:

• the username or name
• first 20 words of the post in italics
• descriptor in brackets

Now, it’s time to see a social media post in action!

Username [@username]. (Year, Month Day). First Twenty Words of Post [Descriptor]. Website. URL

APA Databases [@APA_Databases]. (2020, August 11). APA is continuing to find ways to support #libraries during the #COVID19 pandemic. Bookmark our resources page to find a variety [Image attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/APA

News From Science. (2020, June 21). A galaxy found in the early universe turns out to look—well, remarkably like our own calm, well-ordered Milky [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNOW

Chicago Museum of Art [@chicmuseum]. (2020, August 3). It’s amazing to walk into work and see such an amazing collection of paintings and art from artists around the [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B89/  

How to Cite YouTube in APA

Do you need to cite a video in your APA paper? Well, it’s a good thing that APA gives clear instructions for how to cite a YouTube video in APA.

Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of Video [Descriptor]. Website. URL

How to Cite a Website In-Text APA

When it comes to in-text citations for a website, APA uses the author-date style. So, in the citation, you use the author, if one is available, and the date of the source. If you need to include an identifier for a quote, you include the paragraph number or section.

Date: (Jones, 2020)

Paragraph Number:  (Jones, para. 4)

Section Name: (Center of Disease Control, 2020, Key Facts section)

Back to Table of Contents

How to Cite a Website in MLA 8

Creating a website citation in MLA format is made more accessible by the nine core elements. However, there are different types of websites you might find yourself citing in your MLA paper on Shakespeare. To keep life simple, explore how to create a website, blog, social media, and online video citation.

Cite a Website and Web Page in MLA

When it comes to citing a website , it’s all about adapting the nine core elements system to fit your citation. Just as a reminder, the nine core elements include:

• “Title of the Source.”
• Title of the Container,
• Other Contributions,
• Publication Date,

Mathewson, Adrienne. “MLA Website Citation Examples.” Bibliography , 17 Aug. 2019, www.bibliography.com/mla/mla-website-citation-examples.

Mabillard, Amanda, and Jill Danica. “Shakespeare on Jealousy.” Shakespeare Online . 20 Aug. 2020, www.shakespeare-online.com/quotes.

Olito, Frank, et al. “Popular Conspiracy Theories in the US.” Insider . 4 May 2020, www.insider.com/popular-conspiracy-theories.

“Women in Archaeology.” Indian Art and Culture , Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, 9 Oct. 2020, www.miaclab.org/ID=4063.

How to Cite a Tweet, Instagram, or Facebook Post in MLA

Depending on the topic, you might find it helpful to add information from social media sites to your essay or paper. Be sure to double-check with your instructor first, but the basic format for a social media citation in MLA is pretty simple.

Last Name, First Name, or Account Name. Post Description. Social Media Platform , Day Month Year of Post, Time of Post, URL.

Between The Posts. “Europa League Trophy.”  Twitter , 12 Aug. 2020, 8:52 a.m., twitter.com/BetweenThePosts/1293.

The Library of America. “How Libraries of America Happened.”  Facebook , 12 Aug. 2020, 3:36 p.m., www.facebook.com/libraryofamerica/.

motherteresaquotes. Photograph of Mother Teresa. Instagram , 5 Sept. 2018, www.instagram.com/p/BnWmyjigAQt/.

Blog Post Citation Example MLA

Blogs are becoming all the rage on the internet; therefore, a blog post citation could easily make its way into your works cited. Learn the ins and outs of citing a blog post now.

Last Name, First Name or Username. “Blog Post Title.” Name of Blog , Blog Network/Publisher if given, Day Month Year, URL.

How to Cite an Online Video in MLA

Video citations are another standard website citation students can find tricky. However, it’s not as hard as you think. For a video citation, you need:

• the author, role (if available)
• contributors

Lauritzen, Jacob. “How to Cite Using MLA Style.” YouTube , uploaded by Read, Write, and Cite, 1 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG2.

How to Cite a Website In-Text MLA

Citing a website in-text in MLA gets even easier.  When it comes to the MLA in-text citation, you just use the author or creator’s name.

How to Cite a Website in Chicago

Looking to cite a website in Chicago style, you’ve come to the right place. Like MLA and APA, the Chicago Manual of Style has its own way to cite a website post. However, since you have two different citation types in Chicago/Turabian style, it’s essential to look at both when creating citations for websites, blogs, and video citations.

How to Cite a Website in Author-Date

When it comes to citing a website in the author-date style, you need a few different things. These include:

• publication date
• owner of the site

Make sure to end with a period.

Mathewson, Adrienne. 2019. “Chicago Author-Date Citations for Websites and Social Media.” Bibliography. https://www.bibliography.com/chicago/.

Bibliography. 2020. “Bibliography Citation Generator.” Last modified August 10, 2020. https://www.bibliography.com/generator/.

Mathewson, Adrienne. n.d. “Chicago Author-Date Citations for Social Media.” Bibliography. Accessed August 13, 2020. https://www.bibliography.com/chicago/.

How to Cite a Website in Notes-Bibliography

Author-date wasn’t so hard, so now it is time to look at citing a website in notes-bibliography style, too. The notes-bibliography citation includes the same core elements as the author-date style, but their orientation is a bit different. Additionally, for no date, you just add the date you accessed it. See how it works through examples.

Mathewson, Adrienne. “Creating Notes-Biblio Entries for Online Sources.” Accessed August 10, 2020, https://www.bibliography.com/chicago/.

Bibliography. “Bibliography Citation Generator.” Accessed August 13, 2020. https://www.bibliography.com/generator/.

How to Reference a Blog and Social Media Posts in Chicago

Blog and social media posts are unique in Chicago style , in the fact that you don’t have to include them in your reference or bibliography citations. The temporary nature of blog and social media posts make them hard to reference, according to Chicago. If you would like to keep a reference for your records, you can take a screenshot of the post.

How to Cite a Video in Author-Date Style

Chicago/Turabian style has you covered when it comes to your author-date video Chicago citations . For these citations, you include:

Barry, Chuck. “Interview With Toby Daniels.” YouTube Video, 1hr., 10 min. December 6, 2019, https://youtu.be/SofFSkwi.

How to Cite a Video in Notes-Bibliography Style

You can just include a video in your notes citation. However, if it makes a significant impact on your argument, you might consider adding a bibliography citation. See what this looks like through an example.

Garrett, Dale, and Sally Holmes “#951 – Homeless in America.” Recorded May 17, 2020 in Chicago, IL. NPR Planet Money. https://www.npr.org/episode-951.

The Art of Citing a Website

Faq how to cite a website properly in any paper, how do you cite a website in apa.

To cite a website article in APA, you need the author, date, title, website, and URL. An example of a website citation looks like: Betts, J. (2020). How to Cite a Website in APA, MLA, and Chicago in Any Paper. https://www.bibliography.com/citations/how-to-cite-a-website-properly-in-any-paper/

How do you cite a government website in APA?

To cite a government website in APA format, you include the name of the organization in place of the author with appropriate abbreviations. An example looks like: U.S. Census Bureau. (2020). Mortality statistics. U.S. Department of Commerce. https://www.census.gov/

How do you cite a website with no author?

When you need to cite a website with no author, you include the title of the article in place of the author's name. If the website is owned by a government entity, you use the name of the government entity in place of the author.

How do you cite website in MLA format?

To cite a website in MLA format, you use the author, title of work, website, date, and URL. For this website, it looks like: Betts, Jennifer. "How to Cite a Website Properly in Any Paper." Bibliography, 25 Aug. 2020, https://www.bibliography.com/citations/howtociteawebsiteinanyformat/.

How do you cite a government website?

To cite a government website, you use the name of the government entity running the website in place of the author for the different types of citations. For example, in MLA format, this looks like: U.S. Census Bureau. "Mortality Rates." U.S. Department of Commerce, 25 Aug. 2020, https://www.census.gov/mortalityrates.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 4.1 / 5. Vote count: 16

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

APA Image Citations for Photos and Digital Pictures

Using endnotes and a bibliography, how to add or insert citations in word quickly, how to do in-text citations in apa format.

• Plagiarism and grammar
• Citation guides

Citation Generator

- powered by chegg.

Keep all of your citations in one safe place

Create an account to save all of your citations

Check your paper before your teacher does!

Avoid plagiarism — quickly check for missing citations and check for writing mistakes., free bibme apa format guide & generator.

Welcome to a comprehensive guide on citing sources and formatting papers in the American Psychological Association style. Below are reference and in-text citation examples, directions on formatting your paper, and background information on the style.

What is APA?

APA stands for the American Psychological Association , which is an organization that focuses on psychology. They are responsible for creating this specific citation style. They are not associated with this guide, but all of the information here provides guidance to using their style and follows the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

What is APA Citing?

APA style is used by many scholars and researchers in the behavioral and social sciences, not just psychology. There are other citation formats and styles such as MLA and Chicago citation style , but this one is most popular in the fields of science.

Following the same standard format for citations allows readers to understand the types of sources used in a project and also understand their components.

The information in this guide follows the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association . It outlines proper ways to organize and structure a research paper, explains grammar guidelines, and how to properly cite sources. This webpage was created solely by BibMe to help students and researchers focus on how to create APA citations.

The 7th edition of the Publication Manual was released in 2020. We address differences between the 6th and 7th editions at the end of this guide.

For more information, please consult the official Publication Manual .

We cite sources for many reasons. One reason is to give credit to the authors of the work you used to help you with your own research. When you use another person's information to help you with your project, it is important to acknowledge that individual or group. This is one way to prevent plagiarism. Another reason why we create citations is to provide a standard way for others to understand and possibly explore the sources we used. To learn more about citations, check out this page on crediting work . Also, read up on how to be careful of plagiarism .

What Does it Look Like?

There are two types of citations:

• In-text/Parenthetical citations: Those that are found in the body of a project are called in-text/parenthetical citations. They're added into a project when a direct quote or paraphrase has been added into your work. These citations only include the name(s) of the author(s), date, and page number(s), if applicable.
• References: Those that are found on the final part of a project are called references. They're are found in the reference list (sometimes called APA works cited by some teachers), which is at the end of the assignment. It includes the full information of all sources used in a project. These types of references show the author's name, date published, title, publisher, URL, and other key pieces of information.

Depending on the types of sources used for your project, the structure for each citation may look different. There is a certain format or structure for books, a different one for journal articles, a different one for websites, and so on. Scroll down to find the appropriate APA format structure for your sources.

Even though the structure varies across different sources, see below for a full explanation of in-text citations and reference citations.

Still wondering, "What is APA format?" To learn more about APA referencing, including access to the American Psychological Association\'s blog, formatting questions, & referencing explanations, click on this link for further reading on the style . To learn more about using the BibMe service (BibMe.com) to help build APA citation website references, see the section below titled, "Using the BibMe Online Writing Center to Create Citations for your Reference List or APA Bibliography."

Citing Basics

In-text citations overview.

When using a direct quote or paraphrasing information from a source, include an in-text or parenthetical citation into the body of your project, immediately following it.

An APA in-text citation may look similar to this:

Author's Last name (Year) states that "direct quote" or paraphrase (page number).

Parenthetical citations look like this:

"Direct quote" or paraphrase (Author's Last name, Year, Page number).

These types of APA citations always have the author and the date together.

Only direct quotes need a page number. For paraphrased information, it isn't necessary, but helpful for the reader.

See the section below titled, "In-Text or Parenthetical Citations," for a full explanation and instructions.

Full References Overview

Each source used in your project is listed as a full citation on the APA reference page, which is usually the last part of a project.

The structure for each citation is based on the type of source used. Scroll down to see APA format examples of some common source formats.

Most print and offline citations include the following pieces of information, commonly in this order:

Author's Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Date published). Title of source . Publisher.

Most online citations include the following pieces of information, commonly in this order:

Author's Last name, First Initial. Middle initial. (Date published). Title of source . URL

To see how to format each section, scroll down to the appropriate areas of this guide. There is a section on authors, one on publication dates, another on titles, publishers, and on online information.

To determine the exact APA citation format for your full citations, scroll down to the section titled, "Common Examples."

For a detailed explanation on formatting your reference list, scroll down to the section titled, "Your Reference List."

Here's a quick snapshot of the basics:

All in-text citations included throughout the paper should have a corresponding full reference at the end of the project.

Full references go on their own page at the end of a project. Title the page "References"

References are listed in alphabetical order by the first word in the reference (usually the author's last name, sometimes the title).

• If the reference begins with the words A , An , or The , ignore them and alphabetize the reference by the word following it.

If you're looking for an easy way to create your references and citations, use BibMe's free APA citation machine, which automatically formats your sources quickly and easily.

Citation Components

How to structure authors.

Authors are displayed in reverse order: Last name, First initial. Middle initial. End this information with a period.

APA format example:

Kirschenbaum, M. A.

In an APA citation, include all authors shown on a source. If using the BibMe APA citation builder, click "Add another contributor" to add additional author names. Our free citation creator will format the authors in the order in which you add them.

Multiple authors, same last name:

If your reference list has multiple authors with the same last name and initials, include their first name in brackets.

Brooks, G. [Geraldine]. (2005). March . Viking.

Brooks, G. [Gwendolyn]. (1949). Annie Allen . Harper & Brothers.

When no author is listed, exclude the author information and start the citation with the title followed by the year in parentheses.

When citing an entire edited book in APA format, place the names of editors in the author position and follow it with Ed. or Eds. in parentheses. See below for examples of citing edited books in their entirety and also APA citation format for chapters in edited books.

Comparison chart:

Use this handy chart to determine how to format author names in citations and references.

How to Structure Publication Dates

General structure is:

• Year, Month Day
• Example: 1998, March 22

Place the date that the source was published in parentheses after the name of the author. In APA format for periodicals, include the month and day as well. If no date is available, place n.d. in parentheses, which stands for no date. For more details, see Section 9.14 of the Publication Manual .

How to Structure the Title

For book titles: Only capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title and the same for the subtitle. Capitalize the first letter for any proper nouns as well. Place this information in italics. End it with a period.

Gone with the wind.

For articles and chapter titles: Only capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title and the same for the subtitle. Capitalize the first letter for any proper nouns as well. Do not italicize the title or place it in quotation marks. End it with a period.

The correlation between school libraries and test scores: A complete overview.

For web pages on websites: Same as above. The web page title is italicized.

Simmons, B. (2015, January 9). The tale of two Flaccos . Grantland. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-tale-of-two-flaccos/

For magazine, journal, and newspaper titles: Each important word should start with a capital letter.

The Boston Globe

If you believe that it will help the reader to understand the type of source, such as a brochure, lecture notes, or an audio podcast, place a description in brackets directly after the title. Only capitalize the first letter.

New World Punx. (2014, February 15). A state of trance 650 [Audio file]. https://soundcloud.com/newworldpunx/asot650utrecht

How to Structure Publication Information

Publisher Location

In previous editions of the publication manual, books and sources that were not periodicals indicated the city and state of publication. However, in the 7th edition, the location of publication is no longer given except “for works associated with specific locations, such as conference presentations” (p. 297).

For conference presentations, give the city, state/province/territory, and country. If in the US, abbreviate the state name using the two-letter abbreviation. Place a colon after the location.

• Philadelphia, PA:
• Rotterdam, Netherlands:

Periodical Volume and Number

For journals, magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals, place the volume number after the title. Italicize this information. Place the issue number in parentheses and do not italicize it. Afterwards, include page numbers.

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 57 (1), 79-82.

If you're citing a newspaper article, include p. or pp. before the page numbers.

How to Structure the Publisher

The names of publishers are not necessary to include for newspapers, magazines, journals, and other periodicals.

For books and other sources: It is not necessary to type out the name of the publisher exactly as it is shown on the source. Use a brief, but understandable form of the publisher's name. Exclude the terms publishers, company, and incorporated. Include Books and Press if it is part of the publisher's name. End this information with a period (See Section 9.29 in the Publication manual for more details).

Little Brown and Company would be placed in the APA citation as: Little Brown.

Oxford University Press would be placed in the citation as: Oxford University Press.

How to Structure Online Sources

For sources found online:

• include the URL at the end of the citation
• do not place a period after the URL

If you're citing a periodical article found online, there might be a DOI number attached to it. This stands for Direct Object Identifier. A DOI, or digital object identifier, is a unique string of numbers and letters assigned by a registration agency. The DOI is used to identify and provide a permanent link to its location on the Internet. The DOI is assigned when an article is published and made electronically. If your article does indeed have a DOI number, use this instead of the URL as the DOI number is static and never changes. If the source you're citing has a DOI number, after the publication information add a period and then http://dx.doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx. The x's indicate where you should put the DOI number. Do not place a period after the DOI number. See sections 9.35-36 in the Publication manual for more details.

If you're using the automatic BibMe APA reference generator, you will see an area to type in the DOI number.

Lobo, F. (2017, February 23). Sony just launched the world's fastest SD card. http://mashable.com/2017/02/23/sony-sf-g-fastest-sd-card/?utm_cid=mash-prod-nav-sub-st#ErZKV8blqOqO

Chadwell, F.A., Fisher, D.M. (2016). Creating open textbooks: A unique partnership between Oregon State University libraries and press and Open Oregon State. Open Praxis, 8 (2), 123-130. http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.8.2.290

Looking for more help and clarification? Check out this great resource !

Citations and Examples

Citations for print books.

Author's Last name, First name initial. Middle name initial. (Year published). Title of book . Publisher.

Finney, J. (1970). Time and again . Simon and Schuster.

Looking for an APA formatter? Don't forget that the BibMe APA citation generator creates citations quickly and easily.

Notes: When creating an APA book citation, keep these in mind:

• Capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title and any subtitles, as well as the first letter of any proper nouns.
• The full title of the book, including any subtitles, should be stated and italicized.

Citations for Edited Books

Most edited books state on the cover or title page that they are edited by an author or multiple authors. The format is the same as a print book, except the editor's name is in the author's position. Include a parentheses afterwards with the abbreviation (Ed.) for an edited book by one author or (Eds.) for an edited book with two or more authors.

Editor, F. M. (Ed.). (Year published). Title of edited book . Publisher.

Gupta, R. (Ed.). (2003). Remote sensing geology . Springer-Verlag.

Citations for Chapters in Edited Books

Some edited books contain chapters written by various authors. Use the format below to cite an author's individual chapter in an edited book.

Chapter author's Last name, F. M. (Year published). Title of chapter. In F. M. Last name of Editor (Ed.), Title of book (p. x or pp. x-x). Publisher.

Notice that for APA style, the title of the chapter is not italicized, while the title of the book is. In addition, the chapter author's name is reversed at the beginning of the reference, but the editor's name is written in standard order.

Longacre, W. A., & Ayres, J. E. (1968). Archeological lessons from an Apache wickiup. In S. R. Binford & L. R. Binford (Eds.), Archeology in cultural systems (pp. 151-160). https://books.google.com/books?id=vROM3JrrRa0C&lpg=PP1&dq=archeology&pg=PR9#v=onepage&q=archeology&f=false

In the above example, Longacre and Ayers are the authors of the individual chapter and Binford & Binford are the editors of the entire book.

Citing an E-book from an E-reader

E-book is short for "electronic book." It is a digital version of a book that can be read on a computer, e-reader (Kindle, Nook, etc.), or other electronic devices. Include the DOI or URL if one exists for the e-book.

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year published). Title of work . https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx or URL

https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx is used when a source has a DOI number. If the e-book you're citing has a DOI number, use it in the APA citation. DOIs are preferred over URLs.

How to cite in APA (an e-book example):

Eggers, D. (2008). The circle . https://www.amazon.com

Citing an E-book Found in a Database and Online

Use this format when citing an e-book that is either found on a website, or found on a subscription database. APA formatting for this is very similar to the structure of a print book. The only difference? Instead of the publisher information, include the DOI number or URL.

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year published). Title of work . https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx OR URL

When citing an online book or e-book, keep in mind:

• A DOI (digital object identifier) is an assigned number that helps link content to its location on the Internet. It is therefore important, if one is provided, to use it when creating a citation. In place of the x's in the DOI format, place the 10 digit DOI number.
• Notice that for e-books, publication information is excluded from the citation.

Sayre, R. K., Devercelli, A. E., Neuman, M. J., & Wodon, Q. (2015). Investment in early childhood development: Review of the world bank's recent experience . https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0403-8

Citations for Chapters in E-books

Need to cite a chapter in an e-book? No problem! Citing a chapter in an e-book is very similar to citing a chapter in a print book. Instead of including the publisher information, include a DOI number (if one is displayed) or the URL.

Chapter author's Last name, F. M. (Year published). Title of chapter. In F. M. Last name of Editor (Ed.), Title of book (p. x or pp. x-x). https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx or URL

Epstein W. M. (1999). The ineffectiveness of psychotherapy. In C. Feltham (Ed.), Controversies in psychotherapy and counselling (pp. 65-73). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446217801.n8

Citations for Websites

How to cite a web page on a website in APA:

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year, Month Day published). Title of article or page . Site Name. URL

APA website citation example:

Citing a web page with a group author:

Group Name. (Year, Month Date published). Title of wep page . Saite Name included if different from Group Name. URL

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, February 3). Be prepared to stay safe and healthy in winter . https://www.cdc.gov/features/winterweather/index.html

National Park Service. (n.d.). Enchanting landscapes beneath the parks . https://www.nps.gov/subjects/caves/index.htm

Note: "n.d." stands for "no date" and is used when there is no publication date.

The above follows Section 10.16 of the Publication manual.

Still wondering how to cite a website in APA? Check out BibMe.com! It's quick, simple, and free! Our APA citation machine also builds references for many other styles as well!

Citations for Journal Articles Found in Print

Today, most journal articles are found online, but you may be lucky enough to score a copy of a print version for your research project. If so, use the structure below for your reference:

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year published). Article title. Periodical Title, Volume (Issue), pp.-pp.

Notice that the article's title is only capitalized at the beginning. If there are any proper nouns or subtitles, capitalize the first letter for those words as well. The journal article's title and the volume number are both italicized. In addition, the title of the journal is in title case form (all important words are capitalized).

Nevin, A. (1990). The changing of teacher education special education. Teacher Education and Special Education: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children,13 (3-4), 147-148.

Citations for Journal Articles Found Online

Databases are a popular place to find high quality journal articles. These references are formatted the same way as the print versions, except the DOI or URL is included at the end. If the article has a corresponding DOI number, use it instead of the URL. No URL? Use the homepage of the journal's website for the URL. See Section 10.1 in the Publication manual for additional examples.

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year published). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number (issue number), page range. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx OR URL

Spreer, P., & Rauschnabel, P. A. (2016). Selling with technology: Understanding the resistance to mobile sales assistant use in retailing. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 36 (3), 240-263. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2016.1208100

Notes: When creating your online journal article citation, keep in mind:

• This citation style does NOT require you to include the date of access/retrieval date or database information for electronic sources.
• Use the URL of the journal homepage if there is no DOI assigned and the reference was retrieved online. * If the journal article has a DOI number assigned to it, include that number in the citation instead of a URL.
• Don't forget, our free BibMe APA generator is simple to use! Check out BibMe Plus while you're at it! If you have a noun , conjunction , or preposition out of place, we'll flag it and offer suggestions for quick writing fixes!

Citations for a Newspaper Article in Print

Similar to journal articles, most individuals use online newspaper articles for research projects. However, if you're able to get your hands on a print version, use this structure for your reference:

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year, Month Day of Publication). Article title. Newspaper Title, pp. xx-xx.

Rosenberg, G. (1997, March 31). Electronic discovery proves an effective legal weapon. The New York Times, p. D5.

Notes: When creating your newspaper citation, keep in mind:

• Begin page numbers with p. (for a single page) or pp. (for multiple pages).
• Even if the article appears on non-consecutive pages, include all page numbers, and use a comma to separate them. Example: pp. C2, C5, C7-C9.
• Include the full date of publication, not just the year like in most references.

Citations for Newspapers found Online

Use this structure when referencing a newspaper article found on a website or database:

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year, Month Day of Publication). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. URL of newspaper's homepage

Rosenberg, G. (1997, March 31). Electronic discovery proves an effective legal weapon. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com

Notes: When citing a newspaper, keep in mind:

• If the article was found on the newspaper's website, include the URL for the newspaper's homepage. For databases, include whatever URL is provided.
• Multiple lines: If the URL runs onto a second line, only break URL before punctuation (except for http://).
• This style does NOT require you to include the date of access for electronic sources. If you discovered a newspaper article via an online database, the database's information is NOT required for the citation either. If you're using the BibMe APA formatter, we make it easy for you by only including what you need in your references!

Citations for Magazines

Citing a magazine article in print:

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year, Month of publication). Article title. Magazine Title, Volume (Issue), page range.

APA format citation:

Tumulty, K. (2006, April). Should they stay or should they go? Time, 167 (15), 3-40.

Notes: When citing a magazine, keep in mind:

• You can find the volume number with the other publication information of the magazine.
• You can typically find page numbers at the bottom corners of a magazine article.
• If you cannot locate an issue number, simply don't include it in the citation.

Citing a magazine article found online:

Author's Last name, F. M. (Year, Month of publication). Article title. Magazine Title, Volume (Issue). URL

Tumulty, K. (2006, April). Should they stay or should they go? Time, 167 (15). http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1179361,00.html

Notes: When creating an online magazine citation, keep in mind:

*The volume and issue number aren't always on the same page as the article. Check out the other parts of the website before leaving it out of the citation.

Citations for Blogs

Blogs are found on websites and display continuously updated content and posts by a single author, group, or company. A blog shows news updates, ideas, information, and many other types of entries. Similar to journal entries, a blog begins with the date the information was added followed by the content.

If you’re wondering how to cite a blog entry, look no further! Citing a blog is very similar to citing a website.

Citing a blog post:

Last name of Author, First initial. Middle initial. (Year, Month Day blog post was published). Title of blog post. Title of Blog . URL

Gonzalez, J. (2019, February 3). Let’s give our teaching language a makeover. Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/language-makeover/

Notice that the blog title only has a capital letter at the beginning. If there are any proper nouns in the title, capitalize the first letter for those as well.

Cite a blog post in the text of the paper:

(Author’s last name, Year)

Author’s last name (Year)

Citations for Research Reports

A research, or technical report, is a piece of work that provides insight into research done by an individual researcher, a group of researchers, or a company or organization.

Citing a research report in print:

Author’s Last Name, F. M. or Organization. (Year published). Title of research report (Report No.). Publisher.

Note: If the publisher is the same as the author, use the name as the the “Author” and don't list the publisher.

Michigan Venture Capital Association. (2018). Annual research report .

Citing an online research report:

Author’s Last Name, F. M. or Organization. (Year published). Title of research report (Report No.). URL

Newson, S. E. & Berthinussen, A. (2019). Improving our understanding of the distribution and status of bats within the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership Scheme area (BTO Research Report No. 716). https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/publications/bto rr 716 final website.pdf

Citations for Films

Producer's Last name, F. M. (Producer), & Director's Last name, F. M. (Director). (Release Year). Title of motion picture [Motion picture]. Studio.

Bender, L. (Producer), & Tarantino, Q. (Director). (1994). Pulp fiction [Film]. Miramax.

Citations for Online Films & Videos:

Person who posted the video's Last name, F. M. [User name]. (Year, Month Day of posting). Title of video [Video]. Publishing site. URL

If the name of the individual who posted the YouTube video is not available, begin the citation with the user name and do not place this information in brackets.

Smith, R. [Rick Smith] (2013, September 20). Favre to Moss! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOP_L6hBjn8

Note: If you're discussing a certain part of the film or video in the body of your project, include a timestamp in the in-text or parenthetical citation. (Pulp Fiction, 1994, 1:15:30). The time stamp is Hours:Minutes:Seconds.

Citations for Images

Citing an image found in a print publication (such as a book or magazine) or museum:

Creator's Last name, F. M. (Year of Publication). Title of image [Format]. Publisher/Museum.

Including the format helps the reader understand and visualize the type of image that is being referenced. It can be [Photograph], [Painting], or another medium.

Roege, W. J. (1938). St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue from 50th St to 51st Street [Photograph]. New York Historical Society.

Citing an image retrieved online:

Similar to citing an image in print, when citing an image found online, place the medium, or format, in the brackets. Capitalize the first letter.

Photographer, F. (Year of Publication). Title of photograph [Photograph]. Publisher. URL

Ferraro, A. (2014). Liberty enlightening the world [Digital image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/afer92/14278571753/in/set-72157644617030616

Citations for TV/Radio Broadcasts

Writer's Last name, F. M. (Writer), & Director's Last name, F. M. (Director). (Year of Airing). Episode title [TV series episode]. In F. M. Executive Producer's Last name (Executive Producer), TV series name . Channel.

Kand, K. (Writer), & Fryman, P. (Director). (2006). Slap bet [TV series episode]. In C. Bays (Executive Producer), How I met your mother. CBS.

TV/Radio Broadcasts found online:

Writer, F. M. (Writer), & Director, F. M. (Director). (Year of Airing). Episode title [Television series episode]. In F. M. Executive Producer's Last name (Executive Producer), TV series name . URL

Kand, K. (Writer), & Fryman, P. (Director). (2006). Slap bet [Television series episode]. In C. Bays (Executive Producer), How I met your mother. https://www.hulu.com/watch/1134858#i0,p30,d0

Note: When citing a TV show or episode, keep in mind:

• IMDB is a great resource for finding the information needed for your citation (Director, Writer, Executive Producer, etc.) * This information can also be found in the opening and closing credits of the show.

Type what you find into the BibMe APA formatter. We'll do the work for you and structure your references properly!

Citations for Songs

To cite in APA a song from an album listened to online, use the following structure:

Songwriter's Last name, F. M. (Copyright year). Title of song [Song recorded by F. M. Last name]. On Album title . Publisher. URL

• If the song is done by a band or group, include the band or group's name instead of an individual's name.
• Only include the "Recorded by F. M. Last name" portion if it's a different individual than the writer.
• The format can be CD, Online song, mp3, or any other simple description to allow the reader to understand the format.

Swift, T. (2008). Love Story [Song]. On Fearless . Big Machine Records.

If you're using the BibMe APA citation generator to build your references, choose "Music/Audio" from the source options.

Citations for Interviews

A personal interview should NOT be included in a reference list. They are not considered recoverable data (they cannot be found by a researcher). You should reference personal interviews as citations in the body of the project instead.

(J. Doe, personal communication, December 12, 2004)

Citations for Encyclopedia and Dictionary Entries

Encyclopedia/Dictionary in print:

Author's Last name, F. M. (Publication Year). Entry title. In F. M. Last name of Editor (Ed.), Title of encyclopedia or dictionary (pp. xx-xx). Publisher.

Kammen, C., & Wilson, A. H. (2012). Monuments. Encyclopedia of local history . (pp. 363-364). AltaMira Press.

Encyclopedia/Dictionary online with author(s) :

Author’s Last name, F. M. (Publication Year or n.d.). Entry title. In F. M. Last name of Editor (Ed.), Title of encyclopedia or dictionary . Publisher. Retrieved date, from URL

Encyclopedia/Dictionary online with group author:

Publisher or group name (Publication Year or n.d.). Entry title. In Title of encyclopedia or dictionary . Retrieved date, from URL

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Taciturn. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary . Retrieved February 10, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/taciturn

If an entry looks like it goes through many updates, use “n.d.” as the publication date and show the date you retrieved it. If using an archived version, no retrieval date is needed.

How to Reference a Lecture

This style of reference would be used if you were citing a set of notes from a lecture (e.g., PowerPoint or Google slides provided by your instructor).

Citing online lecture notes or presentation slides:

Author's Last name, F. M. (Publication year). Name or title of lecture [Lectures notes or PowerPoint slides]. URL

Saito, T. (2012). Technology and me: A personal timeline of educational technology [PowerPoint slides]. http://www.slideshare.net/Bclari25/educational-technology-ppt

Tip: If you want to cite information from your own personal notes from a lecture, this is considered personal communication. The notes may not be available online for others outside of the class to access. Refer to it only in the body of your essay or project. You can follow the style guide for personal communication available in the Interview section.

Citing Social Media

Social media is everywhere, even in research projects. Many influencers post thoughts, inspirational quotes, and intriguing stories in their profiles.

If you need to cite a post from a social media platform, use this structure:

Last name, F. M. or Group Name who posted the content [@Username]. (Year, Month Day posted). First 20 words of the post [Format]. Social Media Site Name. URL

A retrieval date (date you saw the page) is needed for profile pages since the contents are likely to change over time (e.g., Instagram profile, Facebook page etc.). The structure for that is:

Last name, F. M. or Group Name who posted the content [@Username]. (n.d.). Tweets or Home [Format]. Social Media Site Name. Retrieved from month day, year, URL

Some things to keep in mind:

• If the name of the individual or group is unknown, begin the citation with the handle and remove the brackets.
• If the post only includes an image or video without any text, instead of including the first 40 words of the post provide a description of the post and place it in brackets: [video of a NASA rocket leaving the atmosphere].
• The format, in brackets, can be [Tweet], [Facebook status update], [Facebook page], [Instagram photo], [Instagram video], or for a Reddit post, use [Online forum comment].

Citing a Tweet from Twitter:

BibMe [@BibMe]. (2020, January 22). How to cite primary sources ow.ly/fUb950vG3N5 [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/bibme/status/1219976780746043392

Citing a Twitter profile:

BibMe [@BibMe] (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved February 18, 2020, from https://twitter.com/BibMe

Citing a Facebook post:

DeGeneres, E. (2018, December 21). Holiday party goals [Facebook status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ellentv/photos/a.182755292239/10157188088077240/?type=3&theater

Citing a Facebook page:

Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. (n.d.) Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved July 22, 2019, from https://www.facebook.com/nationalzoo

Citing an Instagram post:

Lipa, D. [@dualipa]. (2018, December 2). A lil Hollywood glam brunch! Thank you @variety for by Breakthrough Artist of the Year award and thank you for [Instagram photo]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq33SC2BAsr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Since this citation style is commonly used in science-related disciplines, it makes sense that many students and scholars include tables in their projects.

It's a good idea to include a table in your project when:

• There is a good amount of quantitative information
• A table would promote understanding

Do not write out the information from the table in the text of your paper. Including the same information in two spots is repetitive. Either type out the quantitative information in your paper or use a table.

If you choose to include a table, make sure to:

• Refer to it in the text and provide a brief overview or snapshot of its contents.
• Refer to the table in the text using numbers. For example, "Table 3 shows the countries with the highest amount of spending per pupil."
• Every table should be numbered. The table mentioned closest to the beginning of the paper should be Table 1. The next table referred to in the paper is Table 2.
• If you're submitting your project for publication in a journal or elsewhere, place all of your tables, in number order, at the end of your project, after the reference list. If you're submitting your project for a class, most professors prefer tables to be situated close to mentions in text. Ask your teacher or professor which one they prefer.
• Each table needs a title. The title of the table should match the content displayed in it. Create a name for your table that is easy to understand. Italicize the title and capitalize the first letter of all major key words.
• Capitalize the first letter of every important word.
• Your table can either be single or double spaced. Keep the spacing in tables consistent throughout your project.
• A general note provides an overview of any information related to the table as well as an explanation of any abbreviations or unique characters. If you reproduced any portion of the table, include that information in the general note as well. Begin your general note with "Note." in italics and ending with period.
• A specific note explains information in a row, column, or individual cell. Place a tiny letter in the top right corner of the area to specify, and include information regarding it in the note below.
• A probability note displays the number of possibilities in the table. Use an asterisk symbol in the table, and show the probability in the notes.

Sample Table:

Prior to adding your table into your paper, use this handy checklist to confirm you have all of the requirements:

__ Is it necessary to include the table?

__ Are only horizontal lines included?

__ Did you include a simple, straightforward title? Is it in italics?

__ Did you use either single spaces or double spaces? APA paper format requires you to keep your tables consistent across your project.

__ Are column headings included?

__ Are notes included below the table to provide understanding? Are the notes in the proper order? Start with general notes, then include specific notes, and end with probability notes.

__ Did you refer to the table in the written portion of your paper?

Still have questions? See Chapter 7 of the Publication manual .

In-Text and Parenthetical Citations

What is an in-text citation or parenthetical citation.

The purpose of in-text and parenthetical citations is to give the reader a brief idea as to where you found your information, while they're in the middle of reading or viewing your project. You may include direct quotes in the body of your project, which are word-for-word quotes from another source. Or, you may include a piece of information that you paraphrased in your own words. These are called parenthetical citations. Both direct quotes and paraphrased information include a citation next to it. You also need to include the full citation for the source in the reference list, which is usually the last item in a project.

In-Text Citations for Direct Quotes

In-text and parenthetical citations are found immediately following any direct quotes or paraphrases. They should include the page number or section information to help the reader locate the quote themselves.

Buck needed to adjust rather quickly upon his arrival in Canada. He stated, "no lazy, sun-kissed life was this, with nothing to do but loaf and be bored. Here was neither peace, nor rest, nor a moment's safety" (London, 1903, p. 25).

Paraphrased Information

When taking an idea from another source and placing it in your own words (a paraphrase), it is not necessary to include the page number, but you can add it if the source is large and you want to direct readers right to the information.

At the time, papyrus was used to create paper, but it was only grown and available in mass quantities in Egypt. This posed a problem for the Greeks and Romans, but they managed to have it exported to their civilizations. Papyrus thus remained the material of choice for paper creation (Casson, 2001).

How to Format In-Text and Parenthetical Citations

An in-text citation in APA displays the author's name directly in the sentence, or text, of the paper. Always place the year directly after the author's name. Authors and dates stick together like peanut butter and jelly! If you're citing a direct quote, place the page number at the end of the quote.

Parenthetical citations display the author's name and year in parentheses after a quote or paraphrase. If you're citing a direct quote, include the page number as well. If you're paraphrasing, it is up to you whether or not you'd like to include a page number.

Example of various ways to cite in the body of a project:

Smith (2014) states that, "the Museum Effect is concerned with how individuals look at a work of art, but only in the context of looking at that work along with a number of other works" (p. 82). "The Museum Effect is concerned with how individuals look at a work of art, but only in the context of looking at that work along with a number of other works" (Smith, 2014, p. 82).

If your source has two authors, always include both names in each in-text or parenthetical citation.

Example: (Franks & Beans, 2019)

If your source has three or more authors, only include the first author's name and follow it with et al.

Example: (Gilley et al., 2015)

If your source was written by a company, organization, government agency, or other type of group, include the group's name in full in the first in text or parenthetical citation. In any APA citations following it, it is acceptable to shorten the group name to something that is simple and understandable.

1st citation:

(American Eagle Outfitters /[AEO/], 2017)

2nd and subsequent citations:

(AEO, 2017)

Still wondering how to in-text cite in APA? How about citing parenthetically? Check out this page to learn more about parenthetical citations. Also, BibMe writing tools can help create your in-text and parenthetical citations quickly and easily. Towards the end of creating a full reference citation, you'll see the option to create a citation for the body of your project (in-text) in the APA format generator.

Need help with your writing? Give the BibMe Plus paper checker a whirl! Upload your paper or copy and paste it into the text box on the page. We'll run it through our innovative technology and let you know if there is an adjective , verb , or pronoun out of place, plus much, much more!

Your Reference List

The listing of all sources used in your project are found in the reference list, which is the last page or part of a project. Included in this reference list are all of the sources you quoted or paraphrased in the body of your paper. This means that every reference found in the reference list should have a matching in-text or parenthetical citation in your project. Where there is one, there has to be the other. Here are general guidelines:

• Your reference page in APA should be titled "References"
• Place the title in the center of the page and bold it.
• It is not necessary to include personal communications in the reference list, such as personal emails or letters. These specific sources only need in-text citations, which are found in the body of your project.
• All references are listed in alphabetical order by the author's last name.
• The entire page should be double spaced.
• Use a hanging indent for all citations. The first line of each citation needs to be flush against the left margin. Any additional lines are indented in a half inch.
• If you have two sources by the same author, place them in order by the year of publication.
• Refer to the section titled, "How to Structure the Title," for rules regarding capitalization of source titles.

Thompson, H. S. (1971). Fear and loathing in Las Vegas: A savage journey to the heart of the American dream . Random House.

Thompson, H. S. (1998). The rum diary . Simon & Schuster.

If there are multiple sources with the same author AND same publication date, place them in alphabetical order by the title.

Dr. Seuss. (1958). The cat in the hat comes back . Random House.

Dr. Seuss. (1958). Yertle the turtle . Random House.

If a source does not have an author, place the source in alphabetical order by the first main word of the title.

Need help creating the citations in your APA reference list? BibMe.com helps you generate citations! Begin by entering a keyword, URL, title, or other identifying information. Try it out!

Sample Reference List:

Here's more information with sample papers and tutorials. Further information acan be found in Chapter 9 of the Publication manual .

How to Format Your Paper in APA:

Need to create APA format papers? Follow these guidelines:

In an APA style paper, the font used throughout your document should be in Times New Roman, 12 point font size. The entire document should be double spaced, even between titles and APA headings. Margins should be 1 inch around the entire document and indent every new paragraph using the tab button on your keyboard. See Chapter 2 of the Publication manual for more details on paper formatting.

Place the pages in the following order:

• Title page (Page 1)
• Abstract page (page 2)
• Text or body of research paper (start on page 3)
• Reference list
• Page for tables (if necessary)
• Page for figures (if necessary)
• Appendices page (if necessary)

Page numbers: The title page counts as page 1. Number subsequent pages using Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, 4...).

Title Page in APA

Your title page should grace the front cover of your paper. It's sometimes called an APA cover page. Included on this page are seven items:

• Page number
• Title of paper
• Name of authors
• Affiliation; name of your school or institution
• Course name
• Instructor's name
• Date paper is due

What is a running head?

The running head shows the title of your paper. It is only required for professional papers (e.g., dissertations, journal submissions, etc.).

Student papers do not need a running head (but do need the page number).

If you use one, place the running head in the top left corner of your project and place it in capital letters. Use your word processor's "header" option. It will automatically place your running head in the appropriate position, against the left margin.

Across from the running head, against the right margin, include the page number. The APA title page is 1.

Title page example:

• QUALITY LIBRARY PROGRAMS

Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and many other word processing programs allow you to set up page numbers and a repeated running head. Use these tools to make this addition easier for you!

Need help determining the title of your paper? Keep it simple and straight to the point. Exclude unnecessary terms such as "An Analysis of...." or "A Study of..." If your paper ends up being digitized and added to your school's research collection or a research database, a simple and effective title will help researchers locate it. It is recommended to keep it under 12 words and avoid abbreviations.

Order | Element | Format & Notes --- | --- | --- 0 | All elements, except page number | Centered, double-spaced lines 1 | Page number | Place “1” in the upper right corner of the page. Professional papers only: Include a running head. 2 | Title of paper | 3-4 lines from the top of the page; bolded, and title case 3 | Name of author(s) | Two double-spaced lines under the title. No font formatting (no bold italics, underline). Exclude any titles (such as Dr. or Ms.) and degrees (such as PhD). List all contributors; if there is more than one include the word “and” between the second to last and last names. 4 | Affiliation (school, department, etc.) | No font formatting. Usually includes the name of your department and university. 5 | Course name | No font formatting. Write the course name and number on your class materials: ENG 102, JPN301. 6 | Instructor | No font formatting. Show their name as they prefer, including titles and degrees. 7 | Date paper is due | Month Day, Year. Example: February 14, 2020

Example Title Page - Student Paper:

Example Title Page - Professional Paper:

If you're looking for an APA sample paper, check out the other resources found on BibMe.com.

Levels of Headings:

There are a lot of rules to follow when it comes to styling the header and title page, but there are even more rules when it comes to styling the various headings and sections in your research paper.

There are five sizes and styles, and they follow a top down approach.

In most cases, science-related papers and case studies have three sections: Method, Results, and Discussion. These three sections are considered “Level 1” and are aligned in the center of the page and in bold. Additional sections of the paper are styled as follows:

Overview of Levels

Level | Formatting --- | --- 1 | Center and bold. Use title case. 2 | Against the left margin and in bold. Use title case. Begin the next sentence on the next line, indented half an inch from the left margin. 3 | Against the left margin in bold and italics. Use title case. Begin your next sentence on the next line, and indented half an inch from the left margin. 4 | Indented half an inch from the left. Is in bold. Use title case. Begin your next sentence on the same line and immediately following the heading. 5 | Indented half an inch from the left. Is in bold and italics. Use title case. Begin your next sentence on the same line and immediately following the heading.

We’ve included a visual below to help you make sense of the five headings. Keep in mind, you do not need to have all five headings in your paper. You may only use the top two or three. It depends on the types of sections your paper includes.

Using the BibMe Online Writing Center to Create Citations for your Reference List or Bibliography

Looking to cite your sources quickly and easily? BibMe can help you generate your citations; simply enter a title, ISBN, URL, or other identifying information.

Click to see more styles , and if you'd like to cite your sources in MLA format , check out the BibMe MLA page. Other citation styles are available as well.

Not only will BibMe help you create your references quickly and painlessly, we'll also scan your paper with an innovative plagiarism checker . BibMe writing tools even helps to check your grammar, too! Improper usage of adverb ? Missing an interjection ? Determiner out of place? BibMe writing tools will highlight any areas of concern and offer suggestions to improve your writing. Try it out now!

Background Information and History of APA:

The American Psychological Association was founded in 1892 at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. APA style format was developed in 1929 by scholars from a number of different scientific fields and backgrounds. Their overall goal was to develop a standard way to document scientific writing and research.

Since its inception, the Style Manual has been updated numerous times and it is now in its 7th edition (2020). The previous 6th edition was released in 2009. In 2012, APA published an addition to their 6th edition manual, which was a guide for creating an APA style citation for any type of electronic resource.

Today, there are close to 118,000 members. There is an annual convention, numerous databases, and journal publications. Some of their more popular resources include the database, PsycINFO, and the publications, Journal of Applied Psychology and Health Psychology .

Changes Between the 6th and 7th Editions

Below is a selection of notable citing differences between the two editions.

For journal articles with a DOI number , include the DOI as a URL.

6th edition example:

Lee, C.-H., & Mackinnon, R. (2019). Voltage sensor movements during Hyperpolarization in the HCN Channel. Cell Studies . doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.006

7th edition example:

Lee, C.-H., & Mackinnon, R. (2019). Voltage sensor movements during Hyperpolarization in the HCN Channel. Cell Studies . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.006

For ebooks , you no longer need to identify the format.

Murakami, H. (2014). Kafka on the shore [Kindle].

Murakami, H. (2014). Kafka on the shore .

Full book references no longer need to show where the publisher is located.

Murakami, H. (2014). Kafka on the shore . London: Vintage Publishing.

Murakami, H. (2014). Kafka on the shore . Vintage Publishing.

In-text citations for sources with more than 3 authors can use the notation “et al.” for brevity.

(first author’s name et al., year published)

(Anaydike, Braga, Talfah, Gonzalez, 1980)

(Anaydike et al., 1980)

When including a website URL , do not include the words “Retrieved from” before the URL cited.

Elan, P. (2019, December 6). 'A reflection of inner life': show explores history of the hoodie. The Guardian . Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/dec/06/a-reflection-of-inner-life-show-explores-history-of-the-hoodie

Elan, P. (2019, December 6). 'A reflection of inner life': show explores history of the hoodie. The Guardian . https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/dec/06/a-reflection-of-inner-life-show-explores-history-of-the-hoodie

The citing format for tables and figures are now the same. For both, indicate a table number and name at the top, and a note at the bottom.

Here are a few important paper formatting changes: * Running head is only required for professional (not student) papers * Only a single space should be placed after punctuation. * The new style version endorses the use of the singular “they” as an option for a gender neutral pronoun. * The 7th edition promotes the use of “they” as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun. * In addition to the paper title, author name, and institutional affiliation, a cover page for a student paper should also have the course, instructor name, and due date

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/101037/0000165-000

Updated March 10, 2020

Edited and written by Elise Barbeau and Michele Kirschenbaum. Elise is a citation expert and has her master’s degree in public history/library science. She has experience in digital marketing, libraries, and publishing. Michele is a certified library media specialist who loves citations and teaching. She’s been writing about citing sources since 2014.

• Citation Guides
• Chicago Style
• Terms of Use
• Global Privacy Policy
• Cookie Notice
• DO NOT SELL MY INFO

• Plagiarism and grammar
• School access

The best papers start with EasyBib®

Powered by chegg.

Start a new citation or manage your existing projects.

Scan your paper for plagiarism and grammar errors.

Check your paper for grammar and plagiarism

Catch plagiarism and grammar mistakes with our paper checker

Wipe out writing errors with EasyBib® Plus

Double check for plagiarism mistakes and advanced grammar errors before you turn in your paper.

• expert check

Know you're citing correctly

No matter what citation style you're using (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) we'll help you create the right bibliography

Check for unintentional plagiarism

Scan your paper the way your teacher would to catch unintentional plagiarism. Then, easily add the right citation

Strengthen your writing

Give your paper an in-depth check. Receive feedback within 24 hours from writing experts on your paper's main idea, structure, conclusion, and more.

Find and fix grammar errors

Don't give up sweet paper points for small mistakes. Our algorithms flag grammar and writing issues and provide smart suggestions

Choose your online writing help

Easybib® guides & resources, mla format guide.

This is the total package when it comes to MLA format. Our easy to read guides come complete with examples and step-by-step instructions to format your full and in-text citations, paper, and works cited in MLA style. There’s even information on annotated bibliographies.

Works Cited | In-Text Citations | Bibliography | Annotated Bibliography | Website | Book | Journal | YouTube | View all MLA Citation Examples

APA Format Guide

Get the facts on citing and writing in APA format with our comprehensive guides. Formatting instructions, in-text citation and reference examples, and sample papers provide you with the tools you need to style your paper in APA.

Reference Page | In-Text Citations | Annotated Bibliography | Website | Books | Journal | YouTube | View all APA citation Examples

Chicago Format Guide

Looking to format your paper in Chicago style and not sure where to start? Our guide provides everything you need! Learn the basics and fundamentals to creating references and footnotes in Chicago format. With numerous examples and visuals, you’ll be citing in Chicago style in no time.

Footnotes | Website | Book | Journal

Harvard Referencing Guide

Learn the requirements to properly reference your paper in Harvard style. The guides we have provide the basics and fundamentals to give credit to the sources used in your work.

In-Text Citations | Books | Article | YouTube | View all Harvard Referencing Examples

Check Your Paper

Avoid common grammar mistakes and unintentional plagiarism with our essay checker. Receive personalized feedback to help identify citations that may be missing, and help improve your sentence structure, punctuation, and more to turn in an error-free paper.

Grammar Check | Plagiarism Checker | Spell Check

Learn From Our Innovative Blog

Our blog features current and innovative topics to keep you up to speed on citing and writing. Whether you’re an educator, student, or someone who lives and breathes citations (it’s not as uncommon as you might think!), our blog features new and exciting articles to discover and learn from.

Looking for Other Tools and Resources?

Our Writing Center is jam-packed with tons of exciting resources. Videos, infographics, research guides, and many other citation-related resources are found here. Check it out to find what you need to succeed!

• EasyBib® Plus
• Citation Guides
• Chicago Style Format
• Terms of Use
• Global Privacy Policy
• Cookie Notice
• DO NOT SELL MY INFO

• Plagiarism and grammar
• Citation guides

Cite a Website in SCIENTIFIC-REPORTS

Don't let plagiarism errors spoil your paper, consider your source's credibility. ask these questions:, contributor/author.

• Has the author written several articles on the topic, and do they have the credentials to be an expert in their field?
• Can you contact them? Do they have social media profiles?
• Have other credible individuals referenced this source or author?
• Book: What have reviews said about it?
• What do you know about the publisher/sponsor? Are they well-respected?
• Do they take responsibility for the content? Are they selective about what they publish?
• Take a look at their other content. Do these other articles generally appear credible?
• Does the author or the organization have a bias? Does bias make sense in relation to your argument?
• Is the purpose of the content to inform, entertain, or to spread an agenda? Is there commercial intent?
• Are there ads?
• When was the source published or updated? Is there a date shown?
• Does the publication date make sense in relation to the information presented to your argument?
• Does the source even have a date?
• Was it reproduced? If so, from where?
• If it was reproduced, was it done so with permission? Copyright/disclaimer included?
• Citation Machine® Plus
• Citation Guides
• Chicago Style
• Harvard Referencing
• Terms of Use
• Global Privacy Policy
• Cookie Notice
• DO NOT SELL MY INFO

Referencing Generator

Powered by chegg.

• Select style:
• Archive material
• Chapter of an edited book
• Conference proceedings
• Dictionary entry
• Dissertation
• DVD, video, or film
• E-book or PDF
• Edited book
• Encyclopedia article
• Government publication
• Music or recording
• Online image or video
• Presentation
• Press release
• Religious text

What Is Cite This For Me’s Reference Generator?

Cite This For Me’s open-access generator is an automated citation machine that turns any of your sources into references in just a click. Using a reference generator helps students to integrate referencing into their research and writing routine; turning a time-consuming ordeal into a simple task.

A referencing generator accesses information from across the web, drawing the relevant information into a fully-formatted bibliography that clearly presents all of the sources that have contributed to your work.

If you don’t know how to reference a website correctly, or have a fast-approaching deadline, Cite This For Me’s accurate and intuitive reference generator will lend you the confidence to realise your full academic potential. In order to get a grade that reflects all your hard work, your references must be accurate and complete. Using a citation machine not only saves you time but also ensures that you don’t lose valuable marks on your assignment.

Not sure how to format your citations, what citations are, or just want to find out more about Cite This For Me’s reference generator? This guide outlines everything you need to know to equip yourself with the know-how and confidence to research and cite a wide range of diverse sources in your work.

Why Do I Need To Reference?

Simply put, when another source contributes to your work, you have to give the original owner the appropriate credit. After all, you wouldn’t steal someone else’s possessions so why would you steal their ideas?

Regardless of whether you are referencing a website, an article or a podcast, any factual material or ideas you take from another source must be acknowledged in a citation unless it is common knowledge (e.g. Winston Churchill was English). Failing to credit all of your sources, even when you’ve paraphrased or completely reworded the information, is plagiarism. Plagiarising will result in disciplinary action, which can range from losing precious marks on your assignment to expulsion from your university.

What’s more, attributing your research infuses credibility and authority into your work, both by supporting your own ideas and by demonstrating the breadth of your research. For many students, crediting sources can be a confusing and tedious process, but it’s a surefire way to improve the quality of your work so it’s essential to get it right. Luckily for you, using Cite This For Me’s reference generator makes creating accurate references easier than ever, leaving more time for you to excel in your studies.

In summary, the citing process serves three main functions:

• To validate the statements and conclusions in your work by providing directions to other sound sources that support and verify them.
• To help your readers locate, read and check your sources, as well as establishing their contribution to your work.
• To give credit to the original author and hence avoid committing intellectual property theft (known as ‘plagiarism’ in academia).

How Do I Cite My Sources With The Cite This For Me Referencing Generator?

Cite This For Me’s reference generator is the most accurate citation machine available, so whether you’re not sure how to format in-text references or are looking for a foolproof solution to automate a fully-formatted bibliography, this referencing generator will solve all of your citing needs.

Crediting your source material doesn’t just prevent you from losing valuable marks for plagiarism, it also provides all of the information to help your reader find for themselves the book, article, or other item you are citing. The accessible interface of the reference generator makes it easy for you to identify the source you have used – simply enter its unique identifier into the citation machine search bar. If this information is not available you can search for the title or author instead, and then select from the search results that appear below the reference generator.

Don’t know how to reference a website? The good news is that by using tools such as Cite This For Me’s reference generator, which help you work smarter, you don’t need to limit your research to sources that are traditional to cite. In fact, there are no limits to what you can cite, whether you are referencing a website, a YouTube video or a tweet.

To use the reference generator, simply:

• Select your style from Harvard, APA, OSCOLA and many more*
• Choose the type of source you would like to cite (e.g. website, book, journal, video)
• Enter the URL , DOI , ISBN , title, or other unique source information to find your source
• Click the ‘Cite’ button on the reference generator
• Copy your new citation straight from the referencing generator into your bibliography
• Repeat for each source that has contributed to your work.

*If you require another style for your paper, essay or other academic work, you can select from over 1,000 styles by creating a free Cite This For Me account.

Once you have created your Cite This For Me account you will be able to use the reference generator to create multiple references and save them into a project. Use Cite This For Me’s highly-rated iOS or Android apps to generate references in a flash with your smartphone camera, export your complete bibliography in one go, and much more.

What Will The Reference Generator Create For Me?

Cite This For Me’s reference generator will create your citation in two parts: an in-text citation and a full citation to be copied straight into your work.

The reference generator will auto-generate the correct formatting for your bibliography depending on your chosen style. For instance, if you select a parenthetical style the reference generator will generate an in-text citation in parentheses, along with a full citation to slot into your bibliography. Likewise, if the reference generator is set to a footnote style then it will create a fully-formatted citation for your reference list and bibliography, as well as a corresponding footnote to insert at the bottom of the page containing the relevant source.

Parenthetical style examples:

In-text example: A nation has been defined as an imagined community (Anderson, 2006).* Alternative format: Anderson (2006) defined a nation as an imagined community.

*The reference generator will create your references in the first style, but this should be edited if the author’s name already appears in the text.

Bibliography / Works Cited list example: Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined Communities. London: Verso.

What Are Citation Styles?

A citation style is a set of rules that you, as an academic writer, must follow to ensure the quality and relevance of your work. There are thousands of styles that are used in different academic institutions around the world, but in the UK the most common are Harvard, APA and Oscola.

The style you need to use will depend on the preference of your lecturer, discipline or academic institution – so if you’re unsure which style you should be using, consult your department and follow their guidelines exactly, as this is what you’ll be evaluated on when it comes to marking. You can also find your university’s style by logging into your Cite This For Me account and setting your institution in ‘My Profile’.

Citing isn’t just there to guard against plagiarism – presenting your research in a clear and consistent way eases the reader’s comprehension. Each style has a different set of rules for formatting both the page and your references. Be sure to adhere to formatting rules such as font type, font size and line spacing to ensure that your work is easily legible. Furthermore, if your work is published as part of an anthology or collected works, each entry will need to be presented in the same style to maintain uniformity throughout. It is important to make sure that you don’t jump from one style to another, so follow the rules carefully to ensure your reference list and bibliography are both accurate and complete.

If you need a hand with your citations then why not try Cite This For Me’s reference generator? It’s the quickest and easiest way to cite any source, in any style. The reference generator above will create your citations in the Harvard referencing style as standard, but it can generate fully-formatted references in over 1,000 styles – including university variations of each style. So, whether your lecturer has asked you to adopt APA referencing , or your subject requires you to use OSCOLA referencing , we’re sure to have the style you need. To access all of them, simply go to Cite This For Me’s website to create your free Cite This For Me account and search for your specific style such as MLA or Vancouver .

How Do I Format A Reference List Or Bibliography?

Drawing on a wide range of sources greatly enhances the quality of your work, and reading above and beyond your recommended reading list – and then using these sources to support your own thesis – is an excellent way to impress your reader. A clearly presented reference list or bibliography demonstrates the lengths you have gone to in researching your chosen topic.

Typically, a reference list starts on a new page at the end of the main body of text and includes a complete list of the sources you have actually cited in your paper. This list should contain all the information needed for the reader to locate the original source of the information, quote or statistic that directly contributed to your work. On the other hand, a bibliography is a comprehensive list of all the material you may have consulted throughout your research and writing process. Both provide the necessary information for readers to retrieve and check the sources cited in your work.

Each style’s guidelines will define the terminology of ‘reference list’ and ‘bibliography’, as well as providing formatting guidelines for font, line spacing and page indentations. In addition, it will instruct you on how to order each list – this will usually be either alphabetical or chronological (meaning the order that these sources appear in your work). Before submitting your work, be sure to check that you have formatted your whole paper according to your style’s formatting guidelines.

Sounds complicated? Citing has never been so easy; Cite This For Me’s reference generator will automatically generate fully-formatted citations for your reference list or bibliography in your chosen style. Sign in to your Cite This For Me account to save and export your bibliography.

How Do References Actually Work?

Although the reference generator will create your bibliography for you in record time, it is still useful to understand how this system works behind the scenes. As well as saving you time with its referencing generator, Cite This For Me provides the learning resources to help you fully understand the citing process and the benefits of adopting great citing standards.

The referencing process:

• Find a book, journal, website or other source that will contribute to your work
• Save the quote, image, data or other information that you will use in your work
• Save the source information that enables you to find it again (i.e. URL, ISBN, DOI etc.)
• Format the source information into a citation
• Copy and paste the citation into the body of the text
• Repeat for each source that contributes to your work.
• Export or copy and paste the fully-formatted citation into your bibliography.

Manage all your references in one place

Create projects, add notes, cite directly from the browser and scan books’ barcodes with a mobile app.

Sign up to Cite This For Me – the ultimate reference management tool.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the  MLA Handbook  and in chapter 7 of the  MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.

In-text citations for print sources with known author

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for sources with non-standard labeling systems

If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).

Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's  The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the  internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in  Nature  in 1921, you might write something like this:

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .

Citing authors with same last names

Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author :

Citing two books by the same author :

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.

Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.

Here is an example from O'Neill's  The Iceman Cometh.

WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.

ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.

WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's  Evaluating Sources of Information  resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like  CNN.com  or  Forbes.com,  as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:

In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

Time-based media sources

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

Other Sources

The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers⁠ —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.

Ask A Librarian Help

The links in the MLA Style Center reflect MLA Style 9th Edition. 

The links in Purdue OWL reflect MLA Style 9th Edition. 

• Citation Style Chart via Purdue OWL:
• MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications) Websites, pages on websites, eBooks, images, eArticles, social media...
• MLA Works Cited: Other Common Sources Interviews; speeches, lectures, or presentations; panel discussions; painting, sculpture, or photograph; conference proceedings, song or album; film or movie; podcasts; digital files
• MLA Works Cited Page: Books in Print
• MLA Works Cited Page: Periodicals in Print (Journals, Magazines & Newspapers)
• MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics
• MLA Style Sample Paper
• MLA Style Sample Works Cited
• MLA 9th PowerPoint Presentation

• << Previous: Finding and Accessing eBooks Tutorial
• Next: Library Instruction Recap >>
• Last Updated: May 20, 2024 1:54 PM
• URL: https://libguides.ggc.edu/ENGL_4412_Weiss

Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.

• Why Scientific Fraud Is Suddenly Everywhere

Junk science has been forcing a reckoning among scientific and medical researchers for the past year, leading to thousands of retracted papers. Last year, Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne resigned amid reporting that some of his most high-profile work on Alzheimer’s disease was at best inaccurate. (A probe commissioned by the university’s board of trustees later exonerated him of manipulating the data).

But the problems around credible science appear to be getting worse. Last week, scientific publisher Wiley decided to shutter 19 scientific journals after retracting 11,300 sham papers. There is a large-scale industry of so-called “paper mills” that sell fictive research, sometimes written by artificial intelligence, to researchers who then publish it in peer-reviewed journals — which are sometimes edited by people who had been placed by those sham groups. Among the institutions exposing such practices is Retraction Watch, a 14-year-old organization co-founded by journalists Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus. I spoke with Oransky about why there has been a surge in fake research and whether fraud accusations against the presidents of Harvard and Stanford are actually good for academia.

Give me a sense of how big a problem these paper mills are. 

I’ll start by saying that paper mills are not the problem; they are a symptom of the actual problem. Adam Marcus, my co-founder, had broken a really big and frightening story about a painkiller involving scientific fraud , which led to dozens of retractions. That’s what got us interested in that. There were all these retractions, far more than we thought but far fewer than there are now. Now, they’re hiding in plain sight.

That was 2010. Certainly, AI has accelerated things, but we’ve known about paper mills for a long time. Everybody wanted to pretend all these problems didn’t exist. The problems in scientific literature are long-standing, and they’re an incentive problem. And the metrics that people use to measure research feed a business model — a ravenous sort of insatiable business model. Hindsight is always going to be 20/20, but a lot of people actually were predicting what we’re seeing now.

Regarding your comment that paper mills are symptoms of a larger problem, I read this story in Science and was struck by the drive for credentialing — which gets you better jobs, higher pay, and more prestige. In academia, there aren’t enough jobs; are the hurdles to these jobs impossibly high, especially for people who may be smart but are from China or India and may not have entry into an American or European university? 

I actually would go one step higher. When you say there aren’t enough jobs, it’s because we’re training so many Ph.D.’s and convincing them all that the only way to remain a scientist is to stay in academia. It’s not, and that hasn’t been true for a long time. So there’s definitely a supply-and-demand problem, and people are going to compete.

You may recall the story about high-school students who were paying to get medical papers published in order to get into college. That’s the sort of level we’re at now. It’s just pervasive. People are looking only at metrics, not at actual papers. We’re so fixated on metrics because they determine funding for a university based on where it is in the rankings. So it comes from there and then it filters down. What do universities then want? Well, they want to attract people who are likely to publish papers. So how do you decide that? “Oh, you’ve already published some papers, great. We’re gonna bring you in.” And then when you’re there, you’ve got to publish even more.

You’re replacing actual findings and science and methodology and the process with what I would argue are incredibly misleading — even false — metrics. Paper mills are industrializing it. This is like the horse versus the steam engine.

So they’re Moneyballing it. 

Absolutely. They’ve Moneyballed it with a caveat: Moneyball sort of worked. The paper mills have metricized it, which is not as sexy to say. If you were to isolate one factor, citations matter the most, and if you look at the ranking systems, it’s all right there. The Times Higher Education world-university rankings , U.S. News — look at whichever you want, and somewhere between like 30 percent and 60 percent of those rankings are based on citations. Citations are so easy to game. So people are setting up citation cartels: “Yes, we will get all of our other clients to cite you, and nobody will notice because we’re doing it in this algorithmic, mixed-up way.” Eventually, people do notice, but it’s the insistence on citations as the coin of the realm that all of this comes from.

Your work gets to the heart of  researchers’ integrity. Do you feel like you’re a pariah in the scientific community?

I’m a volunteer. Adam is paid a very small amount. We use our funding to pay two reporters and then two people work on our database side. We approach these things journalistically; we don’t actually identify the problems ourselves. It’s very, very rare for us to do that. Even when it may appear that way on a superficial read — we’ve broken some stories recently about clear problems in literature — it’s always because a source showed us the way. Sometimes those sources want to be named, sometimes they don’t.

We’ve been doing this for 14 years. There are various ways to look at what the scientific community thinks of us. We’re publishing 100 posts a year about people committing bad behavior and only getting, on average, one cease-and-desist letter a year. We have never been sued, but we do carried defamation insurance. Our work is cited hundreds of times in the scientific literature. I definitely don’t feel like a pariah. Me saying I’m a pariah would be a little bit like, you know, someone whose alleged cancellation has promoted them to the top of Twitter.

People are unhappy that we have do what we do. If you talk to scientists, the things we’re exposing or others are exposing are well known to them. Because of the structures, the hierarchies, and the power differentials in science, it’s very difficult for them as insiders to blow the whistle. There’s a book out by Carl Elliott about whistleblowers , mostly in the sort of more clinical fields. That’s the vulnerable position. That’s where you end up being a pariah even though you should be considered a hero or heroine.

Are some fields better at policing their own research than others?

Yes. Going back to the origin story of Retraction Watch, Adam broke a story about this guy named Scott Reuben, who came from anesthesiology. We have a leaderboard of the people with the most retractions in the world, and at least three out of the top ten right now are anesthesiologists. That is a much higher percentage than one might expect. Some people may say, “Oh, does anesthesiology have a problem?” No, in fact, anesthesiology has been doing something about this arguably longer than any other field has.

What is it about anesthesiology that makes it so anesthesiologists are more willing to scrutinize the work in their own field?

It had a crisis earlier than others, and it’s small. Journal editors are generally considered pretty august personages, leaders in the field. They got together and it was like a collective action by the journal editors when they realized they had problems. I’m not saying anesthesiologists are better, but they’re a more tight-knit community, which I do think is important. The same thing happened in social psychology and in psychology writ large. There’s a higher number than you would expect of people on leaderboards in that field. So it’s a question of, When did they get there, and how did they react to it? There are fields that haven’t actually gotten there, even though it’s been a while. So maybe there are some sociologists who could tell you better than me why that might be the case.

That wasn’t the reason I expected. I thought you would say something along the lines of, well, it’s life or death and anesthesiologists don’t want to see people dying on the table. 

If anything, sometimes when the stakes are higher, fields are more resistant.

There’s a guy named Ben Mol. Ben is an OB/GYN, and he is a force to be reckoned with. Fascinating character. He’s a pit bull, and he has found tons and tons of problems in the OB/GYN literature. I would characterize the leaders in that field now as still a bit more reluctant to engage with these issues than some of the other fields I mentioned.

Can you tell me how you go about authenticating real language from AI, especially in papers that can be hard to parse and are laden with jargon to begin with? 

We rely on experts. We’re not really doing that ourselves. You don’t need to be an expert; you just need to know how to use Ctrl+F if you see certain phrases in a paper. And by the way, a lot of journals are perfectly fine with people using chat GPT and other kinds of AI. It’s just whether you disclose it or not. These are cases where they didn’t disclose it.

With the resignation of Stanford’s and Harvard’s presidents, do you worry about the way the general public has been using these tools?

The fact that they’re giving speeding tickets to certain groups of people doesn’t mean we’re not all speeding. It means they’re getting targeted in, I would argue, an unfair way. We’re in a great reckoning with Harvard’s Claudine Gay being the key example. Former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne is not an example of that. The targeting is a concern. And clearly, there are false positives. The flip side of this is that AI is being used to find these problems.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The story was updated to include that a probe found that Tessier-Lavigne didn’t manipulate data.

• just asking questions

Most Viewed Stories

• ‘How Many Politicians Curl Up With Their Wife on the Floor?’
• Why Does the New Kate Middleton Portrait Look Nothing Like Her?
• The Package King of Miami  
• Nvidia’s CEO Could Be the World’s Richest Man Sooner Than You Think
• The Time Trump Baselessly Accused Joe Scarborough of Murder
• Will Miriam Adelson Spend Her Billions on Trump Again?  
• Who’s the Trump VP Pick? Latest Odds for Every Shortlist Candidate.

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

• ‘How Many Politicians Curl Up With Their Wife on the Floor?’ By Dan Merica
• Why Does the New Kate Middleton Portrait Look Nothing Like Her? By Margaret Hartmann
• The Package King of Miami   By Ezra Marcus
• Nvidia’s CEO Could Be the World’s Richest Man Sooner Than You Think By Kevin T. Dugan
• The Time Trump Baselessly Accused Joe Scarborough of Murder By Margaret Hartmann
• Will Miriam Adelson Spend Her Billions on Trump Again?   By Elizabeth Weil
• Who’s the Trump VP Pick? Latest Odds for Every Shortlist Candidate. By Margaret Hartmann
• Why Scientific Fraud Is Suddenly Everywhere By Kevin T. Dugan

What is your email?

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

• Lower case letters (a-z)
• Upper case letters (A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

Help | Advanced Search

Computer Science > Machine Learning

Title: a systematic review and meta-analysis on sleep stage classification and sleep disorder detection using artificial intelligence.

Abstract: Sleep is vital for people's physical and mental health, and sound sleep can help them focus on daily activities. Therefore, a sleep study that includes sleep patterns and disorders is crucial to enhancing our knowledge about individuals' health status. The findings on sleep stages and sleep disorders relied on polysomnography and self-report measures, and then the study went through clinical assessments by expert physicians. However, the evaluation process of sleep stage classification and sleep disorder has become more convenient with artificial intelligence applications and numerous investigations focusing on various datasets with advanced algorithms and techniques that offer improved computational ease and accuracy. This study aims to provide a comprehensive, systematic review and meta-analysis of the recent literature to analyze the different approaches and their outcomes in sleep studies, which includes works on sleep stages classification and sleep disorder detection using AI. In this review, 183 articles were initially selected from different journals, among which 80 records were enlisted for explicit review, ranging from 2016 to 2023. Brain waves were the most commonly employed body parameters for sleep staging and disorder studies. The convolutional neural network, the most widely used of the 34 distinct artificial intelligence models, comprised 27%. The other models included the long short-term memory, support vector machine, random forest, and recurrent neural network, which consisted of 11%, 6%, 6%, and 5% sequentially. For performance metrics, accuracy was widely used for a maximum of 83.75% of the cases, the F1 score of 45%, Kappa of 36.25%, Sensitivity of 31.25%, and Specificity of 30% of cases, along with the other metrics. This article would help physicians and researchers get the gist of AI's contribution to sleep studies and the feasibility of their intended work.

Submission history

Access paper:.

• Other Formats

References & Citations

• Google Scholar
• Semantic Scholar

BibTeX formatted citation

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Code, data and media associated with this article, recommenders and search tools.

• Institution

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs .

Generative Camera Dolly: Extreme Monocular Dynamic Novel View Synthesis

1 Columbia University

2 Stanford University

3 Toyota Research Institute

We present GCD (for G enerative C amera D olly), a framework for synthesizing large-angle novel viewpoints of dynamic scenes from a single monocular video. Specifically, given any color video, along with precise instructions on how to rotate and/or translate the camera, our model can imagine what that same scene would look like from another perspective. Much like a camera dolly in film-making, our approach essentially conceives a virtual camera that can move around freely, reveal portions of the environment that are otherwise unseen, and reconstruct hidden objects behind occlusions, all within complex dynamic scenes, even when the contents are moving. We believe our framework can potentially unlock powerful applications in rich dynamic scene understanding, perception for robotics, and interactive 3D video viewing experiences for virtual reality.

We train a neural network to predict all frames corresponding to the target viewpoint, conditioned on the input video plus relative camera pose parameters that describe the spatial relationship between the source and target extrinsics. The camera transformation is simply calculated as \( \Delta \mathcal{E} = \mathcal{E}_{src}^{-1} \cdot \mathcal{E}_{dst} \). In practice, we encode these parameters as a rotation (azimuth, elevation) and translation (radius) vector. We teach Stable Video Diffusion, a state-of-the-art diffusion model for image-to-video generation, to accept and utilize these new controls by means of finetuning.

Representative Results

Despite being trained on synthetic multi-view video data only, experiments show promising results in multiple domains, including robotics, object permanence, and driving environments. We showcase a mixture of in-domain as well as out-of-distribution (real-world) results. While zero-shot generalization is highly challenging and not the focus of our work, we demonstrate that our model can successfully tackle some of these videos.

Amodal Completion and Object Permanence

Partial and total occlusions are very common in everyday dynamic scenes. Our network is capable of inpainting the occluded parts of objects and scenes. In the two examples below, the input camera resides at a low elevation angle, such that the higher output viewpoint implies having to correctly reconstruct the objects lying further in the back. Note the paper towel roll and the brown bucket in particular.

A more advanced spatiotemporal reasoning ability is needed for objects that become completely occluded throughout the video. Our model successfully persists them in the next two examples, which is a skill known as object permanence. In the first video, both the blue duck and the red duck disappear behind a hand and teabox respectively.

In this second video, the brown shoe falling to the left is temporarily hidden by the purple pag, but the output reflects an accurate continuation of its dynamics, shape, and appearance before it reappears in the observation.

Driving Scene Completion (Color + Semantic)

In embodied AI, including for autonomous vehicles, situational awareness is paramount. In this environment, we trained our model to synthesize a top-down-and-forward perspective that can give the ego car (on which only a single RGB sensor has to be mounted) a much more complete, detailed overview of its surroundings. Note how the white car on the left and the two pedestrians on the right are still visible in the generated video, despite going out-of-frame with respect to the input camera.

Our framework is in principle capable of running any dense predictive computer vision task as long as training annotations are available. In this example, we classify every pixel from the novel viewpoint into its corresponding semantic category.

Similarly as before, we can also control the camera viewpoint here in a fine-grained fashion. The angles are chosen randomly for demonstration purposes.

The above driving scenarios are in fact synthetic (from the ParallelDomain engine) -- next, we qualitatively visualize a couple real-world results (from the TRI-DDAD dataset, which was unseen during training).

Gradual vs. Jumpy Trajectories

• Gradual (top row): Linearly interpolates the camera path between the source and target viewpoints.
• Jumpy (bottom row): Direct camera displacement, which synthesizes the entire video from the desired viewpoint.

Real-World Success Cases

Fine-grained camera control and extreme view synthesis.

We contribute two new multi-view video datasets for training and evaluation: Kubric-4D and ParallelDomain-4D . More details coming soon!

BibTeX Citation

More results, success cases, failure cases, video presentation.

Acknowledgements

This research is based on work partially supported by the NSF CAREER Award #2046910 and the NSF Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) under NSF Cooperative Agreement No. EEC-2133516. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the sponsors. The webpage template was inspired by this project page .

• Free Tools for Students
• Harvard Referencing Generator

Free Harvard Referencing Generator

Generate accurate Harvard reference lists quickly and for FREE, with MyBib!

🤔 What is a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator is a tool that automatically generates formatted academic references in the Harvard style.

It takes in relevant details about a source -- usually critical information like author names, article titles, publish dates, and URLs -- and adds the correct punctuation and formatting required by the Harvard referencing style.

The generated references can be copied into a reference list or bibliography, and then collectively appended to the end of an academic assignment. This is the standard way to give credit to sources used in the main body of an assignment.

👩‍🎓 Who uses a Harvard Referencing Generator?

Harvard is the main referencing style at colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also very popular in other English-speaking countries such as South Africa, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. University-level students in these countries are most likely to use a Harvard generator to aid them with their undergraduate assignments (and often post-graduate too).

🙌 Why should I use a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator solves two problems:

• It provides a way to organise and keep track of the sources referenced in the content of an academic paper.
• It ensures that references are formatted correctly -- inline with the Harvard referencing style -- and it does so considerably faster than writing them out manually.

A well-formatted and broad bibliography can account for up to 20% of the total grade for an undergraduate-level project, and using a generator tool can contribute significantly towards earning them.

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's Harvard Referencing Generator?

Here's how to use our reference generator:

• If citing a book, website, journal, or video: enter the URL or title into the search bar at the top of the page and press the search button.
• Choose the most relevant results from the list of search results.
• Our generator will automatically locate the source details and format them in the correct Harvard format. You can make further changes if required.
• Then either copy the formatted reference directly into your reference list by clicking the 'copy' button, or save it to your MyBib account for later.

MyBib supports the following for Harvard style:

🍏 What other versions of Harvard referencing exist?

There isn't "one true way" to do Harvard referencing, and many universities have their own slightly different guidelines for the style. Our generator can adapt to handle the following list of different Harvard styles:

• Cite Them Right
• Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
• University of the West of England (UWE)

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.