citation review

You might need a refresher on how to cite your sources so this week we review the five most commonly used citation styles used by Harcum College students. 

Let's review why we cite our sources:

  • To give proper credit to the original authors.
  • To avoid plagiarism. It is wrong to take the ideas of others and claim it as our own. It is a serious offense in academia. Read more on plagiarism and how to avoid it.
  • To allow our reader to follow up on our claims and learn more about a topic. 
  • Check the Cite Sources guide if you would like to read more on why we cite sources.

How do we cite our sources? Citing sources involves two steps:

  1. List your sources in a properly formatted bibliography at the end of the paper. This is called "List of Works Cited" or "References" depending on the style (i.e. MLA, APA, NLM, AMA, ASA) you are using. 
  2. Within the body of the paper, you must refer to all sources listed in your bibliography. This is also known as in-text citation. 

When do we cite?

  • Anytime we use information from another source. 
  • If you summarize, paraphrase or directly quote a source, you must cite.
  • In-text citations are placed at the end of the sentence before the punctuation. 

What style should you use? Your instructor will often request that you use a specific style. Often that style is a standard in the field of study. For example, APA is used in psychology, MLA in composition, ASA in sociology, and NLM or AMA in dental or allied health. 

Here are links to library guides on the most commonly used citation styles at Harcum College:

APA - Currently in the 7th edition. Although the 6th edition is still used by some instructors. For this reason, the library has guides for both the 6th and 7th editions of the APA manual on our Cite Sources guide. Check with your instructor to confirm which edition of APA they would prefer. Each guide has details and examples of both in-text citations and references. 

ASA - Currently in the 6th edition. Note that this style requires the place of publication to be identified. Once again, see the guide for detailed examples of references and in-text citation. 

MLA - See the Cite Sources MLA guide for instructions on this style along with examples for the most common sources. MLA also uses in-text citations with specific formatting. Be sure to check our MLA guide for details on how to format in-text citations.

AMA - Often used in allied health programs like PTA and OTA. There are few things to pay attention to when using AMA. One is that you must abbreviate journal titles. The National Library of Medicine catalog has a comprehensive database of medical journals with abbreviated journal titles.  In-text citations are also organized differently than most other styles. Use superscript numbers within the text to refer to your references. Your reference list will then be organized by appearance in the text rather than alphabetically. To insert a superscript number in Google Docs, first place your cursor where you want the superscript number. Then click Format > Text and select "Superscript".    

NLM - Citing Medicine, 2nd edition is open source and free from the National Library of Medicine. It is the ultimate guide on the NLM citation style. NLM leaves many formatting decisions up to the writer. NLM does not specify a single method of referring to references in the text. Writers may use either superscript numbers or in-text citations. In-text citation uses a "name-year" system. When using this method, the author includes the author of the work and the year of publication, enclosed in parentheses, such as (Williams 2010). Similarly, the list of references may be titled "references", "end references", "literature cited", or "bibliography".  If you use superscript numbers to identify references in your text then the list of references must appear in numerical order.  If you use the name-year system the reference list should be in alphabetical order by author. Journal titles must be abbreviated. Check our NLM guide for examples of references, in-text citations and links to journal title abbreviation instructions. 

Finally, remember to pay close attention to punctuation, indentation, capitalization, italics and underlining in any style. APA, MLA and ASA require the list of references to be formatted using "hanging indentation". Read step-by-step instructions on creating hanging indentations in MS Word and Google Docs. 

As always, please ask us if you are not sure how to cite or format your references. See our library homepage for all the ways you can reach us.

 

 

Roxanne Sutton

Reference and Special Collections Librarian

rsutton@harcum.edu

610-526-6022