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BIOL 350 Ecology Class Guide

Introduction

Outside sources are often a requirement for your papers and projects. The library can help you locate books, articles, and other materials to meet your needs, but that's only the first step.

Once you have located them, you still have to use the sources responsibly. The main component to this is citing the sources correctly. This tutorial will help you understand the purpose of a citation and how to create one for a bibliography or work cited page. The resources on this page focus specifically on the American Psychological Association (APA) style which is the style that you will be using for this class.

Where to Start

The purpose of each citation is to indicate where the information came from, and to provide the reader with enough information to access the original source. The type of source can effect the citation, but typically every citation requires the following information:

  • Author
  • Title (of book, article, or journal)
  • Publisher
  • Publication date
  • Page numbers
  • Volume and issue number (for journals)
  • URL (if a web source)
  • Database name (if from a library database)
  • Access date (if it's an electronic source)

In a print book or journal, most of this can be found at the beginning of the source:

 

Title page of the book The World Without Us

 

 Image of the publication information inside a book

 

 

In online databases, the article's record (what you see when you first discover the article) should contain all the necessary information:

Citation information from article

The Basic Formula for APA Style

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Example:

  • Written by one author: Kurtz, T. G. (1972). A random trotter product formula. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 35(1), 147–148. https://doi.org/10.1090/S0002-9939-1972-0303347-5
  • Written by multiple authors: Zhang, X., Moore, C., & Newman, M. E. J. (2017). Random graph models for dynamic networks. The European Physical Journal B : Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 90(10), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2017-80122-8
  • Written by no authors: Random thoughts: "hose stuff". (1999). Fire Engineering, 152(6), 140–140.

Traditional Print books:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name.

Examples: 

  • Anderson, C. (2016). White rage: The unspoken truth of our racial divide. Bloomsbury.
  • Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One World.
  • Oluo, I. (2018). So you want to talk about race. Seal Press.

Electronic books:

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL

*It is only necessary to denote format when the electronic version differs from the traditional print version.*

Audiobooks:

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Publisher.

*It is only necessary to denote format when the audiobook version differs from the traditional print version in some way (is abridged or has additional content).*

Traditional print news article:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, pages.

  • Collins-Hughes, L. (2020, August 1). Provincetown: Go for the mask compliance: Stay for the show. New York Times, C1. 

Online news article (from a publisher with a physical newspaper):

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Publication. URL

Online news article (from a publisher wihtout a physical newspaper):

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Name of publishing website. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL

Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL

Title of page. (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

Photographer, P. (Year of publication). Title of image [Image type]. Source. URL

Examples:

If the author isn't a person, but a group, use the groups name:

If you don't know the title of the image, use a short description in brackets as the title:

Blogpost:

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of post. Publisher. URL

Facebook:

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Type of post]. Site Name. URL

Instagram:

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Type of post]. Site Name. URL

Twitter:

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words[Tweet]. Site Name. URL

YouTube (or other streaming video):

Last Name, F. M. [Username]. (Year, Month Date). Title of video [Video]. Streaming Service. URL

Citation Generators

To transform the above information into a proper citation, you'll need to consult the appropriate style guide. The library has copies of each guide available for use. You also may want to use one of the many citation management/generator tools that are available either for free or a subscription fee.

A word of caution when using tools such as those listed below. Don't assume that the citation is correct, instead always verify the citation before turning in your paper. Glitches and uncommon formatting can cause trouble for these automatic generators.

 

Many library databases also include an automatic citation option. This is normally indicated by a quotation mark symbol. If you're using the library's Discovery system to find articles, you are able to use the citation function directly through there. This is a great resource, but remember to proofread the citation. Notice here how the citation created reads "INSERT-MISSING-URL". 

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