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:
