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PolyU ELC Reference Guides
APA Style
| What is a citation? | What is a citation style and which one should I use? | |||||||||||||||||||||
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A citation is a way of identifying and giving credits to others' published works that you used to support your own research. Citations can also be used to locate sources of works, as well as avoid plagiarism. A citation consists of two parts: in-text citation and reference list. In-text citations are brief references of sources within the text of the paper, while reference list is a complete list of references at the end of the paper.
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A citation style defines the necessary information for a citation, how the information is ordered, and what format citations should follow. Generally, the citation style you use depends on your discipline. If you're not sure, check with your instructor. In PolyU, citation styles commonly used by various disciplines are listed below:
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Two parts of a citation:
1. In-text citation
2. References list
A Reference list should be provided by the end of an article, showing the citation details of all references related to the article contents. And the list should be
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APA Style (7th edition) Example 1 (Print Book) |
APA Style (7th edition) Example 2 (Journal article) |
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Book - with author(s) Hereford, J. M. (2014). Sleep and rehabilitation : a guide for health professionals. SLACK Incorporated. |
Print article Findik, U. Y., Unsar, S., & Sut, N. (2010). Patient satisfaction with nursing care and its relationship with patient characteristics. Nursing & Health Sciences, 12(2), 162–169. |
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Book chapter - in an edited ebook (with DOI) Richardson, M., & Allison, K. (2019). Affect and the Unsaid: Silences, Impasses, and Testimonies to Trauma. In A. Murray & K. Durrheim (Eds.), Qualitative Studies of Silence (pp.236-253). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108345552.014 |
Online article - without DOI Kwok, S. T., Capra, S., & Leveritt, M. (2016). Factors Influencing Changes in Eating Patterns Among Hong Kong Young Adults Transitioning to Tertiary Education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, 28(4), 347–355. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539516641500 Online article - with DOI Byrne, M, Root, S. & Culbertson, L. (2016). Integrating perioperative content in nursing curricula: A case study approach. AORN Journal, 103 (6), 597-604. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2016.03.013. |
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To learn more about details in applying APA Style on Reference List, please visit the American Psychological Association (APA) website at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references. More reference examples are provided.
Or, see the "APA Referencing Guide" in the PolyU English Learning Centre website at https://www.polyu.edu.hk/elc/independent-learning/language-resources/apa/
2 Ways to avoid plagiarism
Citation is the key to avoid plagiarism, but that doesn't mean you can simply copy-paste from others' works as long as you cite the source. To avoid plagiarism, here are two ways:
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Paraphrase + Cite Paraphrasing means to rewrite the sentence from a source in your own words without changing the meaning of the sentence. You still need to cite the source properly. |
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Direct Quote + Cite Quoting, or direct quoting, means to copy the exact words of a sentence from a source. You need to put the copied words in quotation marks " " and cite the source properly. |
Watch the videos below to learn more about plagiarism, paraphrasing and quoting. Refer to Citation Guides by Subject to learn how to cite in your research discipline.
Source: ProQuest Research Companion
Good practices to avoid plagiarism:
If you want to learn more about how to avoid plagiarism, please visit the full Library guide: Library Support for Academic Integrity.
Apart from manually entry of citations, a number of databases subscribed by the Library support direct export of citations to EndNote (or other reference management tools such as Mendeley, Zotero, & JabRef). This means, when you choose the appropriate export option, the citation of the items you have selected will automatically be imported into the EndNote (or other reference management tools of your choice) installed on your computer.
Here below are some examples of commonly used databases that offer citation direct export. The steps are quite similar, and the main difference is the name of the button to export.
The exporting process varies by database and by the database-provider's platform. See the various operations in a few commonly used databases (see other tabs in this section).
Step 1. Click into the article you wish to cite. Then click on "EndNote RIS" button.
Step 2. Choose Encoding as "UTF-8".
Step 3. Click "Download".
If needed, you can batch-export to Endnote from OneSearch as well.
Step 1: On the results list or on detail record page, click on the
pin icon to add results to your Favorite list.
Step 2: Go to the Favorite list from thepin icon at the top right corner of the main screen.
Step 3: 1/ Check the items you need, 2/ click on the 3-dots icon on the menu bar, and 3./select action "Endnote(RIS)".
Step 1. Select the article(s) you wish to cite by clicking on the envelope icon.
Step 2. Click "Folder View".
Step 3. Select the items to export.
Step 4. Click "Export".
Step 5. Choose to export to EndNote or BibTeX format (for LaTeX).
Step 6. Click "Save".
Step 1. Click into the article, or select multiple articles on the result page you wish to cite.
Step 2. Click "Send to".
Step 3. Select "Citation manager".
Step 4. Click "Create File". The downloaded file can be opened in both EndNote and LaTeX reference tools.
Step 1. Click into the article, or select multiple articles on the result page you wish to cite.
Step 2. Click "Export".
Step 3. In the pop-up window, select "RIS Format (EndNote, Reference Manager)". To export BibTeX, select "BibTeX".
Step 4. Click "Export".
Step 1. Click into the article, or select multiple articles on the page you wish to cite.
Step 2. Click "Save to EndNote desktop". To export BibTeX, click on "Save to Other File Formats" and then select "BibTeX".
Step 3. Click "Send".
