The American Psychological Association (APA) originally created a publication manual to provide a common structure for all journal manuscripts in the area of the social sciences.
Many other disciplines (including psychology, the behavioral sciences, nursing and other health professions, personnel administration, and education) have since adopted the APA writing and citation style as their professional writing standard.
In the academic environment, you may also be expected to conform to the APA standard when writing. This usually means that you should create an accurate reference list, using proper format, and provide citations within the text to give credit for an idea or concept to the source from which you obtained the information.
In APA style, capitalization, italicization, and punctuation are crucial components of citation. You must always check your citations against the APA Style Manual for these small, but important, details.
Many online databases provide citations in a variety of styles (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian) for the resources in their collection. There are also online citation generators that will create citations for your resources in your chosen style. While these can be useful tools, the citations they provide often have inaccuracies. Again, we recommend that you carefully review your citations before submitting your paper for grading or publication.
NSU Writing Center offers online or in-persona assistance with writing, proofreading, and citations. Walk-ins are welcome during regular business hours (these differ from library hours), or you can request services at any time through the website:
For physical copies of style guides and other writing resources, visit the Citation Station on the 2nd floor of the John Vaughan Library in Tahlequah, including:
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Plagiarism occurs when a writer uses the work of others without properly formatted reference and citation. Plagiarism - whether intentional or accidental - can have serious consequences, up to and including academic expulsion or professional discreditation. Avoid allegations of plagiarism through proper citation methods.
When using the work of other people, always remember to
The following resources provide additional information about plagiarism, fair use, copyright, and public domain:
Remember, if you get stuck or need additional help, you can always contact one of NSU's Writing Centers (see above) or your friendly librarian for assistance!
Reference, or citation, managers can be useful tools for keeping track of your information resources when writing. This tutorial will teach you how to use the free reference manager, Zotero. Follow the directions below to download and use Zotero to track and manage your citations.
Remember, citation managers are not infallible. Always carefully double-check your citations for errors before submitting your paper for grading or publication. Use the resources provided in this Course Guide to help you.
To begin, use the link below to download the Zotero app to your computer. Follow the prompts to install Zotero, then open the app to begin using it. You will need to sign in or create an account to use the app.
It is highly recommended that you create a separate collection in which to save your references for each individual project. Use the "new collection" button (symbol of a yellow file folder with a green circle and white plus sign) in the top left corner. Give your collection a relevant name to make it easier to locate later.
There are multiple ways to save items in Zotero. The most common method is to add an item by its unique identifier (DOI for articles, ISBN for books). If the DOI or ISBN is not available, the item may be added manually. You can also use the Zotero browser extension; see the "Zotero Support" link at the bottom of this tutorial for more information about the browser extension.
To add an item by its DOI or ISBN, click on the "magic wand" button at the top of the page, then type (or copy and paste) the number into the box. The item's metadata (information about the item, including title, author, and date) will be automatically added to your Zotero collection.
To add metadata manually, click on the green circle with the white plus sign at the top of the page and choose the type of item from the drop-down menu. Type (or copy and paste) the information about the item into the appropriate boxes under the "info" tab at the right of the page.
When you are ready, Zotero can create citations and a bibliography, or reference list, to add to your paper. Please note that not all citation styles are included in Zotero's basic list; however, you may add additional styles through a "Style Search" in the "Zotero Style Repository" using the following directions.
To add a new citation style to Zotero, click on "Edit" in the top left corner of the app, then select "Preferences" from the drop-down menu. In the pop-up box, select the "Cite" tab, then click on the blue "Get additional styles" link to go to the "Zotero Style Repository." In the "Title Search" box, type in the citation style you need. Choose the correct style from the results list to automatically add it to your Zotero Style Manager.
To create a citation, navigate to the folder you created for you project. Highlight your selected reference, or references, in the title list. Right click on the title and choose "Create Bibliography from Selected Item(s)." Select your preferred citation style, choose "citations" as your output mode, and decide on the output method you would like to use (note that "copy to clipboard" will allow you to paste directly into your document).
To create a bibliography or reference list, follow the steps for creating citations and choose "Bibliography" as your output mode.
Note that there are several methods for creating citations and bibliographies in Zotero. See the "Zotero Support" link below for additional information.
This tutorial only covers the basic functions of Zotero; many more options for customization and use are available. For more detailed instructions, click on the link below.
