WRITING & RESEARCH SUPPORT

Some of our courses require research papers, or papers involving presenting evidence with citations. Some also require participating in events like the Annual Student Showcase or offer the opportunity to participate in research conferences. We've put together a few pages of resources to help you succeed in these endeavors. (Don't forget our librarians and specialty tutors are always available to help you as well!)

• Academic Posters + Student Showcase

• APA Citing Tips

• Assessments/Scales for Student Use

• Read & Write Gold

More on APA

The American Psychological Association (APA) is the organization that guides the publication requirements (i.e. APA Style) of the field of psychology. As a society, APA has come to an agreement on formatting standards across a variety of publications, including how findings are reported, the structure of data tables and figures, the formatting of references, and much more!

Citing Articles

Referencing articles requires a few more components than books. This is because there is a little more that goes into finding an article within a journal than a standalone book.

In-text citation

1. Authors last name(s),

2. Year of publication

Example:

(Youker, 2013) or

Youker (2013)

Remember to add a page number if you directly quote (just like with books)!

Reference page

1. Authors last name and first/middle initials

2. (Year of publication)

3. Title of the article.

4. Title of the periodical, volume number (issue number)

5. Pages.

6. Digital object identifier (if your article doesn’t have one, simply add a link to where you found it).

Example:

Youker, B. W. (2013). Goal-free evaluation: A potential model for the evaluation of social work programs. Social Work Research, 37(4), 432–438. http://doi.org/10.1093/swr/svt032

Formatting

1. Only the first word in the article title or following a colon (“:”) is capitalized

2. The journal title is capitalized and italicized

3. The issue number is italicized (avoid italicizing the comma)

More information on referencing journal articles

Citing Interviews / Personal Communications

When you interview someone, you need to document the occurrence. However, since you can’t go back and reference a conversation, only an in-text citation is required.

A personal communication in-text citation must include the following:

1. First initial and last name of the interviewee (not you!)

2. Personal communication

3. Exact date of communication

Example:

(M. Rene, personal communication, August 10, 2018) or

M. Rene (personal communication, August 10, 2018)

More information on in-text citations for personal communication

UA Library Resource: Building APA Citations

After reading reviewing the references and in-text citation resources above, complete the following tutorial (linked below). It provides a great explanation of how to cite in APA and it's interactive! You'll need to turn in a screen shot of last page into the Assignment Dropbox in D2L to confirm you completed it.