References

Estimated time to complete: 10-15 minutes Supported Objective: CO2: Demonstrate an ability to find, evaluate and integrate academic sources into your research papers and presentations in a manner consistent with US academic culture and UW-Madison’s policy on academic integrity.

 

Read

Every source that you use in your paper for ESL 118 must be listed, in alphabetical order, on your References page. For the GRP and IRP, you will need to upload your sources, and your accuracy in referencing will be evaluated. Read this guide carefully and refer back to it when necessary. 

References are included in research papers because they provide more detail than a citation – allowing a reader to find your original source. At the very least, you will need to provide the following information:

• The author’s name
• The date of publication
• The title of the article
• The publication where you found the article.

Depending on the type of article, you may also need to include:

• The volume and issue number (of a journal)
• The page range (of the article within a journal)
• The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or the web address (for an online source)
• Publisher and place of publication (for a book).

They can look like this:

Hennigan, T. (2016, January 2). Rio Olympics will be a feast for the eyes—but a nightmare for the nose. Irish Times. Retrieved from http://www.irishtimes.com Herstein, R. & Berger, R. (2013). Hosting the Olympics: A city’s make-or-break impression. Journal of Business Strategy, 34(5): 54-59. doi: 10.1108/JBS-12-2012-0074

Presenting your references

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text. In text citations and sources in the references list must match.

Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page "References" (with an “s” at the end) centered at the top of the page (do NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay. Each entry uses a hanging indent of 0.5".

Watch

Formatting your references page can be a very difficult and time-consuming task. Take a few minutes to watch this tutorial about how to correctly format a references page.

For Windows Links to an external site.

For Mac Links to an external site.

Examples:

The information on this page has been adapted from https://owl.purdue.edu/ Links to an external site.(external link). If you find a situation that is not covered on this page, try looking at the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) first. Start here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html Links to an external site. (external link).  If that doesn't work, try a Google search: "How do I reference a blog in APA Links to an external site." (external link). If you can't find any answers, ask me and we can search together.

Here are some examples. In each case, notice the punctuation and capitalization used, and use of spaces and italics. 

Authors:

Single author:

Last name first, followed by author initials.

Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(7) 7-10. doi: 10.1111/1467-8721.00157

Two authors:

List by their last names and initials. Use the ampersand (&) instead of "and."

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(6), 1034-1048.

Three to seven authors:

List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, while the last author name is preceded again by ampersand (&).

Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., Harlow, T., & Bach, J. S. (1993). There's more to self-esteem than whether it is high or low: The importance of stability of self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1190-1204.

More than seven authors:

List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the sixth author's name, use ellipses in place of the author names. Then provide the final author name. There should be no more than seven names.

Miller, F. H., Choi, M. J., Angeli, L. L., Harland, A. A., Stamos, J. A., Thomas, S. T., . . . Rubin, L. H. (2009). Web site usability for the blind and low-vision user. Technical Communication, 57, 323-335.

Organization as author:

American Psychological Association. (2003). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Unknown author:

When no author is named, use the source's title instead of an author's name and alphabetize accordingly.

Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.).(1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster. Fair trade coffee explained. (2013). Trade and Commerce Today 18(1) p. 14-15.

Online Sources:

For scholarly articles, include a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if it is provided. For any other online article or document, whether it is a newspaper article, a web page, a graph, or a news report with video, providing a specific URL is best. It is generally unnecessary to include the date you retrieved the information, unless it is a wiki or some other source where information can change or is frequently removed.

Article from an online periodical:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number (issue number). Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/

Bernstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 149.Retrieved from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving

Article from an online periodical with DOI assigned:

Because URLs can change, APA recommends providing a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), when it is available, as opposed to the URL. DOIs are an attempt to provide stable, long-lasting links for online articles. They are unique to their documents and consist of a long alphanumeric code. Many, but not all, publishers will provide an article's DOI on the first page of the document.

Brownlie, D. (2007). Toward effective poster presentations: An annotated bibliography. European Journal of Marketing, 41(11), 1245-1283. doi:10.1108/03090560710821161

Article from an online periodical with no DOI assigned:

Online scholarly journal articles without a DOI require the URL of the journal home page.

Kenneth, I. A. (2000). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 8.Retrieved from http://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html

Article from a database:

APA states that including database information in citations is not necessary because databases change over time. Only if the article is difficult to locate should you provide database information. Name the database (e.g. PsychLit or NexisLexis); do NOT give the URL, since it is not useful in locating the article within the database.

When referencing a print article obtained from an online database (such as a database in the library), provide appropriate print citation information (formatted just like a "normal" print citation would be for that type of work). By providing this information, you allow people to retrieve the print version if they do not have access to the database from which you retrieved the article. Only use retrieval dates if the source could change, such as Wikis.

Smyth, A. M., Parker, A. L., & Pease, D. L. (2002). A study of enjoyment of peas. Journal of Abnormal Eating, 8(3), 120-125.

Newspaper article:

Author, A.A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/main/url

Parker-Pope, T. (2008, May 6). Psychiatry handbook linked to drug industry. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Graphic data (e.g. interactive maps and other graphic representations of data):

Give the name of the researching organization followed by the date. In brackets, provide a brief explanation of what type of data is there and in what form it appears. Finally, provide the project name and retrieval information.

Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment. (2007). [Graph illustration the SORCE Spectral Plot May 8, 2008]. Solar Spectral Data Access from the SIM, SOLSTICE, and XPS Instruments. Retrieved from http://lasp.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/ion-p?page=input_data_for_ spectra.ion

Non-periodical web document, web page, or report:

List as much of the following information as possible (you sometimes have to hunt around to find the information; don't be lazy).

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Retrieved from http://Web address

Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderland, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). Generalformat. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ Links to an external site.

Note: When an Internet document is more than one Web page, provide a URL that links to the home page or entry page for the document. Also, if there isn't a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.

Wikis:

Please note that the APA Style Guide to Electronic References warns writers that wikis (like Wikipedia, for example) are collaborative projects which cannot guarantee the verifiability or expertise of their entries. It’s a good idea to indicate retrieval dates for wikis, since the information can change.

OLPC Peru/Arahuay. (n.d.). Retrieved from the OLPC Wiki: http://wiki.laptop. Links to an external site. org/go/OLPC_Peru/Arahua. Retrieved August 17, 2016

 

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Ready to move on? Click "next" to test your understanding of this section. Don't worry, this is a low-stakes test to check your understanding. It will not have a big impact on your grades. APA References