• Topics: Agricultural Education and Communication | Myers, Brian E | Rhoades, Emily B | Writing

Who Said That? Citing Sources in Social Science Research¹

Researchers and educators are charged with disseminating their work to audiences in a manner that will be usable and understandable. This can be a daunting task when one imagines the variety of audiences they may try to reach with a piece of research. However, guidelines have been set for writers to not only help make their writing more consistent, but also easier to read for audiences. Throughout the educational process students are introduced with various methods of writing and citing sources in papers. In primary education and in many English departments students are taught to write in MLA format, while in the journalistic field students are introduced with AP and Chicago styles. However, in the social sciences, the American Psychological Associations APA style is closely followed as the writing and citation guideline of choice.

Why is it important that we understand guidelines like APA? Many academic journals require writers to follow APA style. Moreover, it helps to establish the writers credibility as a trustworthy source. By citing sources in documents correctly, you are showing that you have thouroughly researched the literature that has been published on your subject and are using it to form the opinion and information presented in the piece. It is also a way to write a document honestly. Many times as writers we read many other documents and will utilize the ideas and facts of other authors to support our own. In those cases it is imperative that such authors are given credit for their work.

So how does one go about utilizing a set of guidelines like APA? The following information provided in this article will give you a head start on successfully utilizing APA in your writing. When starting to research a piece it is important to take notes of quotations, paraphrased information, facts, and figures you feel will be important in your writing. While you have that source in front of you it is a good time to take down all of the information you will need for your citation section later on. When picking these quotes it is a good rule of thumb to save direct quotations for rare occasions. Quotes should be economical, memorable and authoritative. When using direct quotations in your piece you will need to note the author(s), date the piece was written, and the page number on which the quote can be found. Paraphrasing is a good way to cite others. In this the writer restates the information from a source in their own words; in doing so they make sure they keep the authors intent and context in mind. When paraphrasing one cites the author(s) name and date it was published in text.

Once all information and citations are gathered for a piece, one is ready to write. As the piece is written it is important to keep the following APA guidelines in mind (American Psychological Association, 2001):

• All sources used are cited in text where they occur and in a reference section at the end of the piece.

• If the source includes six or more authors, when citing it in text list only the first author's last name followed by et al. - Latin, et alia, means "and others".

• After the first in-text citation, sources with three to five authors are cited by including only theauthor's last name followed by the expression et al.

• In-text quotations more than 40 words long are indented 5-7 spaces from the left margin and require no quotation marks. These quotations include parenthetical citation after the end punctuation, which includes page numbers

• In-text quotations less than 40 words are enclosed in double quotation marks [with parenthetical citation before the end punctuation

• On the reference page cited sources must be listed alphabetically.

• Every reference is double-spaced.

• After the first line of a reference the following lines are indented 5-7 spaces using a hanging indent.

The following are the standard citing formats as well as examples of how you cite certain references in text and the reference/work cited page:

Reference for a single author book

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials. (year). Title. Publisher City: Publisher.

Jones, A.B. (1970). The multivariate analysis: A study of methods. New York: Random House.

In text:

. . . a multivariate analysis can be used to test a variety of hypotheses (Jones, 1970).

Reference for a book with more than one author

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials, & Last name, First initials. (Year). Title. Publisher City: Publisher.

Smith, R.G., & Jones, R.A. (1983). The Value of Figs. Hartford, CT: University of Hartford Press.

In text:

. . . the nutritional value of figs is greatly enhanced by combining them with the others (Smith & Jones, 1983).

Reference for a book with no author or editor

Works Cited Page:

Title. (year). Publisher City: Publisher.

Art students international. (1988). Princeton, NJ: Educational Publications International.

In text:

. . . the number of recent graduates from art schools in France has shown that this is a trend worldwide (Art Students International, 1988).

Reference for a chapter in an edited book

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials. (year). Title of chapter. In Editor initials. Last name (Ed.), Title of Book (pp. pages). Publisher City: Publisher.

Smith, H. F. (1958). The testing of a new theoretical model. In D. C. Jones (Ed.), Symposium on interdisciplinary research (pp. 239-252). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

In text:

The development of a new theoretical model must be supported through vigorous research (Smith, 1958).

Reference for a journal article

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume (issue), pages.

Smith, S.D. (1981). Psychological illness: Can biochemistry add to, mental illness, and pain? American Psychologist, 36(2), 807-818.

In text:

Smith (1981) found that illness can be traced back to...

Reference for a journal article with 6 or more authors

Works Cited Page:

First six last names, first initials, et al. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume (issue), pages.

Cates, A. R., Hardy, P.H., Mylavarapu, R.A., Lawrence, Cheung, X. H., Franklin, B.B., et al. (1991). Figs and dates and their benefits. Food Studies Quarterly, 11, 482-489.

In text:

Figs and dates have many benefits to the human nervous system (Cates et al., 1991).

Reference for a work cited in another piece

Works Cited Page:

Harry, J. X. (1982). Task-evoked learning: A case study on experiential learning. Education Bulletin, 91, 276-292.

In text:

Johnson's study (as cited in Harry, 1982) illustrates that . . .

Reference for a work cited in a magazine

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials. (year, month day). Title. Magazine, volume, issue.

Faler, B. L. (2003, August 29). Enabling the mobile work force. PC Magazine, 22, 46.

In text:

According to Faler (2003)...

Reference for a print article found online

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials. (year). Title of article [Electronic version]. Title of journal, volume (issue), pages.

Harry, D. F., & Smith, R. (2000). Breaking the global warming gridlock [Electronic version]. The Atlantic Monthly, 286(1), 54-64.

In text:

Harry and Smith (2000) pointed out that global warming...

Reference for a source found online

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials. (year, month found). Title. Journal title, volume (issue). Retrieved date, from web address.

Cast, P.G. (2000, January). Another island, another day: A source for tropical vegetation. Nature Forum, 5(1). Retrieved August 28, 2001, from http://www.nae.ac.uk/natforum/current.htm

In text:

The fichus plant can be found only in this particular region (Cast, 2000).

Reference for a source found online no author, no date

Works Cited Page:

Title. (n.d.). Journal title. Retrieved date, from web address

Talking about your choices. (n.d.). Partnership for caring. Retrieved January 15, 2004, from http://www.partnershipforcaring.org/Homepage/

In text:

The choice is an individual encounter with ones self (Talking about your choices, n.d.).

Reference for a source found in an online database

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials. (year, month). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue). Retrieved date, from database.

Sarewitz, D., & Pielke, R.K. (2000, July). Another island, another story: A source for Shakespeare's The Tempest. Renaissance Forum, 5(1). Retrieved August 28, 2001, from the Lexis Nexus Database.

In text:

Sarewitz and Pielke (2000) are considering the...

Reference for E-mail or Personal Communication

Works Cited Page:

Not included in this section.

In text:

R. Tobin (personal communication, November 3, 2004) supported his claims about music therapy with new evidence.

Reference for a Conference Proceedings

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initials. (Year). Title. In Conference. City, state of conference, page numbers.

Mama, A. (2001). Challenging subjects: New directions for media usage. In Proceedings of Communication Education Conference. Gainesville, Florida, 10-25.

In text:

Mama (2001) stated...

Reference for a Technical Report

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initial. (Year). Report title (Report number). City, state: Organization.

McCool, R. (2003). Semantic web tools for enhanced authoring (Report N. KSL-03-07). Stanford, CA: Knowledge Systems Laboratory.

In text:

McCool (2003) found that web tools are...

Reference for an unpublished doctoral dissertation or thesis

Works Cited Page:

Last name, First initial. (Year). Title. Unpublished doctoral dissertation/masters thesis, School, city of school.

Wilfrey, D.E. (1998). Interpersonal analyses of bulimia: Normal weight and obese. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville.

In text:

Wilfey (1998) found in his study that...

By following these APA guidelines, a writer can ensure their information will be warmly accepted as being trustworthy and credible. For more information on citing sources correctly in APA style or the other writing guidelines visit one of these resources:

http://www.apastyle.org

http://wwwold.ccc.commnet.edu/apa/

http://www.lib.usm.edu/research/guides/apa.html

Resources

American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5^th ed.). Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.

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