Off The Shelf

As we approach the end of the quarter, many of you are working on your final papers, so we’d like to remind you to be sure to cite your sources.   Yes, you’ve heard it before, but failure to include accurate citations is considered academic dishonesty—specifically, plagiarism.

To avoid accidental plagiarism, it’s helpful to keep track of which resources you’re using as you read them and take notes.   The library has several different tools that can help you organize and track your research and they’re all conveniently located in our guide Staying Organized & Keeping Track: Research Tools.

Several of our library databases allow you to get the APA-formatted citation for an article that you can copy and paste into a reference list.  These features are located in different places in the different databases, but keep your eyes peeled for them.  Generally, you will only see this feature once you have clicked on an article title from a results list and get to the “Article Record” page (where you can read the abstract and see the publication information, etc.).

In the Proquest databases – look for a “Cite” link above the article title on the Article Record page.

In the EBSCO databases, look for a “Cite” link (with an icon that looks like a yellow piece of paper) on the right side of the Article Record page.

If you used RefWorks to store your article citations, then you probably already know that RefWorks allows you to create APA formatted bibliographies.   If you need some reminders about using RefWorks, or if you want to find out more, check out the RefWorks home page.  It’s full of useful guides and includes four video tutorials that show you the basics of creating and using a RefWorks account.

NOTE: With any of the citing tools, remember that they are not always correct.  There are often punctuation or capitalization errors with any software-created citations.  It is up to you to take your APA manual in hand and double check the citations to verify that they are properly formatted.

If you still need some help, check out the APA Style and Format page (graduates) or the APA Citing & Referencing page (undergraduates) from the Online Writing Center.

Finally, though the librarians are not APA experts, if you still can’t figure out how to format a reference citation after using the above tools, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to look through the manual with you to help you find the best example for your citation.

-Kim & Jennie