APA CITATION HELP

Plagiarism and the Student Code of Academic Integrity

Most often, students find themselves guilty of plagiarism not because of an intentional and willful act of presenting the work of another as their own but because of a failure to properly document their sources. Simply, plagiarism encompasses a wide array of scenarios from blatant intellectual theft to good-intentioned or accidental failure to use proper documentation and style formatting.

Examples: The representing of the work of others as one's own, including the use of term papers written by others, is plagiarism. The use of another's words, ideas, or information without acknowledgment is also plagiarism. The student should seek guidance from the professor about acceptable methods to be used to acknowledge the work and ideas of others.

If you are found to have plagiarized or submitted unoriginal work in UA courses then you will automatically receive a zero for that assignment and may face more serious consequences based on the Student Code of Academic Integrity. Note: We use Turnitin throughout the D2L Dropbox to detect plagiarism.

When should you cite?

Anytime you write something you didn't know before you must cite your source(s). In fact, even if you knew it sometimes you should make that clear! (For example you can say 'According to my past studies', or 'In my experience', etc. to indicate that this was not information you gained from an outside source.)

Common knowledge (or things everyone should probably know if they attended public school) typically do not need to be documented. For example if you were writing about George Washington being the first President of the Unites States, and you read that fact during your studies you could skip citing it because this qualifies as common knowledge.

Basically it's best to cite vs. not cite - but lots of things only require parenthetical citations - which are references to the source at the end of a sentence where the information was used. More examples of how this works and how to do it properly are in the Citing using APA Formatting ⇓section. This can get complicated, but here's a simple example:

At the time of the controversy, Martin was living in Boston and attending Boston College (Smith, 2006).

Citing using APA Formatting

All assignments for this class need to cite relevant references. Often our decisions, observations, and actions should be neither arbitrary nor capricious. Citing experts in the field, current journal articles, credible websites, and other relevant sources reflects a level of professionalism expected at this level of education.

Tools

There are many tools to help you do this correctly, but here are 4 of our favorites:

1. Purdue's OWL Guidelines (easily searchable for the type of cite you need)
2. Microsoft Word added some amazing new features in their last two updates that will enter APA citations for you in the text AND generate your references list as well as you go! (But the rule Garbage In, Garbage Out applies.)
3. The amazing EasyBib (it also tells you how credible your cites are!) or Citefast (free) can help you build perfect APA citations. (Personally we use Paperpile and Mendeley, but it doesn't matter which you prefer - just pick one and stick to it.)
4. UA also licenses certain citation software and they provide some support for learning how to use it as well. If you intend to go on to graduate school or to a research-based position it is an excellent idea to get familiar and start using this type of software now.

Reference Management Tools

As a UA Student you have access to both free and discounted software - and any software provided by the UA is also supported by 24/7 IT!

• Microsoft Office and Windows Free & Discount Programs
• University Licensing: There's a cost but you can often get ahold of it on lab computers for free if needed and can check with your advisor etc. to see if you can get it cheaper/easier some other way.
  • Mendeley, etc.
  • EndNote, etc.
  • Reference Manager, etc.
• The UA Library has notes for each of the main methods for organizing and citing your sources.
• UA Library Resource: Building APA Citations Online Tutorial

APA Style

• When writing papers for school -- or business! -- it's always important to properly cite your sources. In the Organizational Leadership program, we require students to follow APA Style.
• 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!
• The tips provided below provide you with an overview of APA Style and how to properly use in in your papers.

APA RESOURCES

There are plenty of other resources at your fingertips too!

Here are some suggestions:

1. ThinkTank – They can help you with overall writing improvement and APA Style
2. The UA Library – Librarians are just waiting to help you!
   • They’re a phenomenal resource for help with APA Style, and can provide you with lots of additional resources to help you become an APA pro.
   • The Library also has an online interactive tutorial: http://www.library.arizona.edu/tutorials/building_apa_citations/

Citation Basics

Citing Books

When you paraphrase or mention a similar concept from a book without directly quoting, you still need to cite! However, there are differences. When you aren’t directly quoting, you need to include the following in your paper:

In-text citation (aka, the citation that goes in the body of your paper)

1. Author name(s)
2. Year of publication

Example:

(Patton, 2011) or

Patton (2011)

NOTE: If you're directly quoting a book, add the page number that your quote came from to your in-text citation.

Example:

(Patton, 2011, p. 32) or

Patton (2011, p. 32)

Reference (aka, your references page at the end of your paper)

1. Authors last name and first/middle initials
2. Year of publication
3. Title
4. Publishing company

Example:

Patton, M. Q. (2011). Essentials of utilization-focused evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Formatting

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

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• More on in-text citations for books
• More on references for books

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)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• 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)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• More information on in-text citations for personal communication