Online Tools & Resources: APA Citations

What is APA?

APA style was created by the American Psychological Association. It is a set of rules for publications, including research papers.

In APA, you must "cite" sources that you have paraphrased, quoted or otherwise used to write your research paper. Cite your sources in two places:

1. In the body of your paper where you add a brief in-text citation.
2. In the Reference list at the end of your paper where you give more complete information for the source.

This highly regarded APA resource is from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.

Citing: The process of acknowledging the sources of your information and ideas.

DOI (doi): Some electronic content, such as online journal articles, is assigned a unique number called a Digital Object Identifier (DOI or doi). Items can be tracked down online using their doi.

In-Text Citation: A brief note at the point where information is used from a source to indicate where the information came from. An in-text citation should always match more detailed information that is available in the Reference List.

Paraphrasing: Taking information that you have read and putting it into your own words.

Plagiarism: Taking, using, and passing off as your own, the ideas or words of another.

Quoting: The copying of words of text originally published elsewhere. Direct quotations generally appear in quotation marks and end with a citation.

Reference: Details about one cited source.

Reference List: Contains details on ALL the sources cited in a text or essay, and supports your research and/or premise.

Retrieval Date: Used for websites where content is likely to change over time (e.g. Wikis), the retrieval date refers to the date you last visited the website.

APA format is preferred by the American Psychological Association and is typically used in behavioral and social sciences such as psychology, sociology, history, and communication. It’s also used in business courses.

MLA is the style preferred by the Modern Language Association, and it is used most often in the humanities, including literature, art, and theatre. At universities where the administration has decided to adopt just one documentation style across all courses, APA is often the style of choice because it is an effective style for multiple areas of academic study.

All Pennsylvania Institute of Technology courses require the use of APA formation. 

Below is a summary of the major changes in the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

Essay Format:

• Font - While you still can use Times New Roman 12, you are free to use other fonts. Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans 10, and Georgia 11 are all acceptable.
• Headers - No running headers are required for student papers.
• Tables and Figures - There is a standardized format for both tables and figures.

Style, Grammar, Usage:

• Singular "they" required in two situations: when used by a known person as their personal pronoun or when the gender of a singular person is not known.
• Use only one space after a sentence-ending period.

Citation Style:

• Developed the 'Four Elements of a Reference" (Author, Date, Title, Source) to help writers to create references for source types not explicitly examined in the APA Manual.
• Three or more authors can be abbreviated to First author, et al. on the first citation.
• Up to 20 authors are spelled out in the References List.
• Publisher location is not required for books
• Ebook platform, format, or device is not required for eBooks.  
• Library database names are generally not required
• Hyperlinks -
  • No "doi:" prefix, simply include the doi.
  • All hyperlinks retain the https://
  • Links can be "live" in blue with underline or black without underlining

Please be aware that automatically generated citations may not provide accurate results.

If you choose to use a citation generator, then take the time to make the necessary corrections using this APA guide.

Remember: It is your responsibility to double-check the results!