Citations:

MLA and APA Styles

Once you have gathered, evaluated and chosen your sources, you will need to identify them. Citing references is an important step in the research process. Although you may add your own twist by reorganizing, restating, or supplementing certain information, you still must acknowledge others' work. You need to tell your audience where your information came from. The following are some additional reasons for citing references:

1. To give your own work creditability.
2. To allow your audience access to original source materials.
3. To give the appropriate credit to those whose ideas and information you use.

Basic Elements

All citations have the same following elements:

1. Author. The person who wrote the thought, book or website. The resource may have one or more authors (a person or entity may be cited as the author). Sometimes, there is no author is listed.
2. Title. This is the title of the book or article. The title of a Web page may be harder to determine. If there is a title, it is usually at the beginning of the page.
3. Date. For print material, the copyright date will do. For electronic material, use the date you last accessed the site. Since the Internet changes so frequently, with pages and sites disappearing, your last access is important.
4. Publisher, publication, or URL. For books, include the publisher. For journals and magazines, use the name of the publication. For electronic references, include the URL.

Let's look at a list of journal references to see how these elements are used:

Citation Styles

There are basically two main formats used today. The Modern Language Association (MLA) is often used for literature and humanities. The American Psychological Association (APA) is used for social science and scientific research. The differences between these two styles are in the punctuation. Both styles have specific formats for citing references in your text as well as in your bibliography. To be sure of which style to use, ask your instructor.

The following descriptions of both styles will use the same sources we previously found. These examples are by no means exhaustive of either style. For more details, check Online Resources listed at the end of this section, or a print copy of the style manual available at your local library

MLA Style

In-Text Citations

The MLA recently changed its format for in-text references. Before, in-text citations included the author's last name and the page cited in parentheses, i.e. "(Love 123)." However, since most online documents don't have page numbers, the MLA now uses direct references in the text to the name of the author or sponsoring organization. For example:

• Dr. Susan Love's, "Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book" is an excellent overview of breast health and diseases.
  
  
• Pollan et al's article in the American Journal Indian Medicine gives possible causes of male breast cancer.
  
  
• Dana Evans', "Cancer Statistics" in the Librarians' Index to the Internet subject directory points us to the most current information.
  
  
• Bob Stafford's, "Breast Cancer in Men: Yes It Happens" gives us valuable insight into how one patient coped with this deadly disease.

MLA Bibliography Format

The formatting for the MLA bibliography uses:

• Exact spacing
• Five spaces indentation for second and following lines
• Double spacing between the citations
• Alphabetized list by author or title (if no author)

Books:

Author(s). Title: Subtitle. Place: Publisher, Date.

Love, Susan M.

Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Journal:

Author(s). "Article title." Journal Title Volume. issue (date): start page - end page.

Pollan M, P. Gustavsson, and B. Floderus.

"Breast cancer, occupation, and exposure to electromagnetic fields among Swedish men."American Journal Indian Medicine. 39.3 (2001): 276-285.

Online database:

Author (if given). "Title of material." Name of database. Sponsor. Access date <URL>.

Pollan M, P. Gustavsson, and B. Floderus.

"Breast cancer, occupation, and exposure to electromagnetic fields among Swedish men." PubMed. National Library of Medicine. December 5, 2001. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi>

Websites:

Author. Title of website. Sponsor. Access date <URL>.

Evans, Dana. "Cancer Statistics."

Librarians' Index to the Internet. Library of California. December 5, 2001 <http://lii.org/>

Stafford, Bob. Breast Cancer in Men: Yes It Happens.

December 5, 2001 <http://interact.withus.com/interact/mbc/>

Sample MLA Bibliography

Evans, Dana. "Cancer Statistics."

Librarians' Index to the Internet. Library of California. December 5, 2001 <http://lii.org/>

Love, Susan M.

Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Pollan M, P. Gustavsson, and B. Floderus.

"Breast cancer, occupation, and exposure to electromagnetic fields among Swedish men." PubMed. National Library of Medicine. December 5, 2001. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi>

Stafford, Bob. Breast Cancer in Men: Yes It Happens.

December 5, 2001 <http://interact.withus.com/interact/mbc/>

APA Style

In-Text Citations

To cite a source in-text, indicate the author and date. For quotations, always give page numbers as well. For websites, give as much title and section identification as possible, as well as the whole URL.

• Susan Love (1995) is an excellent overview of breast health and diseases.
  
  
• The American Cancer Society provides us with current cancer statistics (Evans, 2001, Cancer Statistics).
  
  
• There are many possible causes for male breast cancer (Pollan et al, 2001).
  
  
• Some websites (Stafford, 2001, Home Page, http://interact.withus.com/interact/mbc/) give us valuable insights into how patients cope with this deadly disease.

APA References Format

The formatting for an APA style reference list requires:

• Exact spacing
• The first line of each citation is indented five spaces
• Each author's last name is followed by first and middle initials. Corporate authors names are listed completely. Add "Ed." for editors.
• The title of the book, journal, newspaper etc. is underlined or italicized. Include the volume (not issue number). Add the page numbers.

Books:

Author (date). Title(edition). Place: Publisher.

     Love, S. M. (1995) Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book (2nd ed.). Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

Journal:

Author(s) (date). Article title. Journal Title, Volume, pages.

     Pollan M, Gustavsson, P., & Floderus, B. (2001). Breast cancer, occupation, and exposure to electromagnetic fields among Swedish men. American Journal Indian Medicine, 39, 276-285.

Online Database:

Entry Title.
Retrieved date from SOURCE/PUBLISHER database (name of database) on the World Wide Web: http://www.url.com

     Pollan M, P. Gustavsson, and B. Floderus. "Breast cancer, occupation, and exposure to electromagnetic fields among Swedish men."
Retrieved December 5, 2001 from NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE (PubMed) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

Websites:

Websites are not listed in the reference list. Instead, give the address (URL) of the site in the text.

Sample APA Reference List

References

     Love, S. M. (1995) Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book (2nd ed.). Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

     Pollan M, P. Gustavsson, and B. Floderus. "Breast cancer, occupation, and exposure to electromagnetic fields among Swedish men."
Retrieved December 5, 2001 from NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE (PubMed) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

Shortcut:

Those of you who have come this far deserve a reward. Click on the following link as a shortcut method for building your citations:

http://www.bluewillowpages.com/rightcite/

Please send us your feedback.

This module is in field test version. We need to hear from you as to what parts worked well for you. We especially need to know those parts that need improvement. You can give us feedback online at:

Student feedback for Online Research

Online Resources:

How to Cite Information Resources
http://www.santarosa.edu/library/Refs/cite.shtml

Citing Electronic Sources
p http://memory.loc.gov/learn/resources/cite/index.html

APA Style
http://www.apastyle.org/

APA Style: Paper and Electronic
http://www.nhmccd.edu/contracts/lrc/kc/apastyle.htm

Modern Language Association
http://www.mla.org/

MLA Style Guide
http://www.newark.ohio-state.edu/~osuwrite/mla.htm

Formatting your Bibliography (MLA Handbook Style)
http://www.mlaformatting.com/

MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources
http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html