How to Cite Your Resources
Part 1: In-text Citations
Part 2: References List
In-text citations and a references list are both required.
Part 3: Getting Started with Citation Management Applications
| How to include in-text citations | Example |
|
For a single author, use author's last name comma year |
Gelatinization of starch granules occur at 70 C (Green, 1960). |
| For 2 authors, use both names comma year (Author1 & Author2, Year). If mentioning in the sentence use "and". | There are over 500 species of bacteria that colonize the gut (Mowat & Agace, 2014). |
| For 3-5 authors, list all names upon first mention, (Author1, Author2, Author3, Author4, & Author5, Year). (Use Author1 et al., Year) for subsequent citations. |
First citation: (Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993). Second citation: (Kernis et al., 1993) |
| For 6 or more authors, use "et al." after the first author's name (Author1 et al., Year). |
Salmonella spp. survive well on raw produce (Beatles et al., 1960). |
| For 2 or more works by the same author, list the years of publication in sequence with the earliest first, (Author, Year, Year, Year). | Grape seed pomace is a rich source of polyphenols (Hoffa, 1956, 1962, 1975). |
| For authors with the same last name, use first initials with the last names. | (E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998) |
| For different articles by the same authors and same year, use lower-case letters (a,b,c) to distinguish between the articles. | Stale cookies recrystallize and harden (Belcourt, 2007a). Cookies stored with a slice of bread may reduce staling (Belcourt, 2007b). |
| For multiple sources, separate the citations with a semicolon. | The microbiota defends against infections (Brown, 1956; Birt et al., 2010). |
| It the name of the author was previously mentioned as part of the sentence, cite the page (optional) and year in parentheses. | White and others (p. 10) described the initial mechanism of cheese fermentation (2007). |
| Unknown author, cite the title of the source. Book titles and reports are italicized, while articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks. | A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using Citations," 2001). |
| For websites, include (Author, Year), or abbreviated organization name comma year (CDC, Year), or the first word of the web title comma year (Cancer, Year). | (Colbert, 2017) (CDC, 2017) (Cancer, 2017) (Colbert, n.d.) for no date |
| For organizations, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time mentioned, then use only the abbreviation in later citations. | First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000) Second citation: (MADD, 2000) |
| For lecture notes, include the instructor's last name comma year. | (Bernhard, 2017) |
| Books - Author name, first and middle initials, publication year, work title, publication city, and publisher. You must put punctuation marks in the appropriate spot as shown in the examples. |
| Conditions | Example |
| 1 Author | Pollan, M. (2006). The omnivore's lunch. New York, NY: Penguin Group. |
| 2 Authors | Pollan, M., & Chohn, A.B. (2008). The omnivore's dinner. New York: NY: Penguin Group. |
| 3-7 Authors: Include every author. An "&" comes before the last author's name. |
Kernis, M.H., Sun, C.R., Berry, A. & Bach, J.S. (1993). The science of self-esteem. New York: NY: Bear Group. |
| 7 or more Authors: Use an ellipses after the 6th author's name, then provide the final author name. |
Mills, F.H., Choi, M.J., Angel, L.L., Eland, A.A., Stamos, J.A., Tub, S.T.,... Russ, L.H. (2009). Chemesthesis. New York: NY: Penguin Group. |
| Chapter in an edited collection | Cashin, W.E. (1990). Students do rate different academic fields differently. In M. Theall, & J.L. Franklin (Eds.), Student ratings of instruction: Issues for improving practice. New Directions for Teaching and Learning (p 113-121). |
| Online Book | Delabastita, D., & D'hulst, D. (1990). European Shakespeares. Translating Shakespeare in the Romantic Age. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/purdue/deatial.action?docID=842928 |
| Journal articles - Author Last Name, Initials. (Year [use n.d. if not given]). Article title. Journal, Volume(Issue optional), inclusive pages. |
| Conditions | Example |
| 1 Author | Armstrong, J.S. (1998). Are student ratings of instruction useful? American Psychologist, 53(11), 1223-1224. |
| 2 Authors | Attiyeh, R., & Lumsden, K.G. (1972). Some modern myths in teaching economics: The U.K. experience. American Economic Review, 62(1), 429-443. |
| 3 - 20 Authors: List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, with an "&" before the last author name. |
Nguyen, T., Carnevale, J. J., Scholer, A. A., Miele, D. B., & Fujita, K. (2019). Metamotivational knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in goal-relevant task performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(5), 876–899. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000166 |
| More than 20 Authors: List by last name and initials; commas separate author names. After the first 19 authors' names, use an ellipsis then end with the final author (do not place an ampersand "&" before it). |
Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D. C., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R., DelSole, T., Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H., Gottschalck, J., Metzger, E. J., Barton, N. P., Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R. D.,… Kim, H. (2019). The subseasonal prediction (SubX): A multimodel subseasonal prediction experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100(10), 2043–2060. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-18-0270.1 |
| Websites - Reference .edu or .gov sites. No YouTube videos allowed. Images may be obtained from .com sources. |
| Conditions | Format |
| Author Provided: |
Author. (Year, Month Date [use n.d. if not given]). Page title. Website Title. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from http://url address Merriam-Webster. (n.d.) Braggadocio. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/braggadocio Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist. Medium. https://media.com/laziness-does-not-exist |
| No Author: Start with the title. Include a retrieval date when the page's content is likely to change over time (ie, citing a wiki that is publicly edited). |
Title of page. (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year from URL Tuscan white bean pasta. (2018, February 25). Budgetbytes. Retrieved March 18, 2020, from https://www.budgetbytes.com/tuscan-white-bean-pasta |
| Organization | The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U. (2008, March 23). The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. Retrieved July 16, 2018, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu.owl/ |
| Web Images | Goya, F. (1800). The family of Charles IV. Museo National del Prado. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goya.hd_goya.htm |
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Lecture Notes Instructor's last name, first and middle initials. (Year). Lecture Title [format type PDF, PPT, Word Doc]. Retrieved from course Title. Example: |
There are several free citation management applications which will help you organize, share, import, and export citations. They also work with Microsoft Word to allow you to easily cite sources and create reference sections within Word.
The most popular of these applications are Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote. There are desktop and online versions of all three.
Follow the links below to learn more about this applications or to download them.
The WSU Libraries do not endorse any particular citation management application. That said, from experience, I've found there to be a little less of a learning curve with Zotero and Mendeley as opposed to EndNote.