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Nursing: Citing

Cite, you must...

    To give credit to authors and acknowledge their ideas (whether you quote them or not).

    To avoid plagiarism.

    To allow others to track  the sources you consulted, so scholars can have conversations about your topic.

 

"Paw Print Cat Free Photo" by George Hodan is licensed under CC0 Public Domain

 Watch the 2 minutes video Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction, created by NCSU Libraries. This video is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license.

APA Citing -- 7th edition

A citation or reference is the information given in a bibliography or a database about a particular title, which often includes:

  • article title or chapter title
  • periodical title or book title
  • author(s) or editor(s)
  • date of publication
  • publisher name
  • volume/issue (articles) or edition (books)
  • page range
  • electronic access (URL or DOI)

There are many ways to format citations. The style you choose depends on your field and the requirements set by your Instructor.

Template

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of Publication). Title of article: no capital after colon. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), Page Range. URL or DOI

Examples

Print Article

Ellery, K. (2008). Undergraduate plagiarism: a pedagogical perspective. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(5), 507-516.

Online Article

Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.24.225

Adapted from UWM Libraries

You can often find all the information you need for a journal article citation on the first page of that article.

**click on image to enlarge it**

Adapted from UWM Libraries

Paragraph alignment APA style

Instructions from the APA blog.

Example:

Reference List

Williams, J., & Nieuwsma, J. (2020). Screening for depression in

adults. UpToDate. Retrieved August 30, 2021, from 

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/screening-for-depression-in-adults
In-text (Williams & Nieuwsma, 2016)

Components of the reference:

  • Use the authors of the article as the authors in the reference.
  • For the year in the reference, use the year listed after “this topic last updated.”
  • For the title, use the title of the article.
  • Use the name of the deputy editor(s) for the article as the editor(s) of the reference work. Section editors do not need to be listed in the reference.
  • Write UpToDate in italics as the name of the reference work.
  • Provide a retrieval date because the content will change over time.
  • Provide a URL for retrieval of the article.

A Generic template:

Author, A., & Author, B. (2020). Title of article. UpToDate. Retrieved

Month numeric day, numeric year, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/title-of-article

Style the reference as follows (examples from Auburn University):

  • Sommers, M. S. & Fannin, E. F. (2015). Pancreatitis. In Diseases and disorders: A nursing therapeutics manual (5th ed.). In Nursing Central for Apple iOS (Version 1.31) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from https://nursing.unboundmedicine.com/nursingcentral
  • Vallerand, A. H., Sanoski, C. A., & Deglin, J. H. (2017). Acai berry. In Davis’s drug guide for nurses (15th ed.) In Nursing Central for Apple iOS (Version 1.31) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from https://nursing.unboundmedicine.com/nursingcentral

In text:   (Sommers & Fannin, 2015)

More from APA on citing mobile apps.

1. Database Citation Tools

Many library databases have built-in citations tools that auto-create a citation. The major citation styles are available choices in the databases citation tools.

These citations tools should only be considered a starting point, as they may contain formatting errors - always review auto-created citations to ensure they are correct.

 

2. Citation managers are tools that can help with your research process, including:

Organize and save citations/articles.

Create in-text citations.

Share citations/articles with colleagues.

Generate Reference Lists in a wide range of styles.

with thanks to MCPHS University

DOI stands for digital object identifier and it is a unique alphanumeric string that is used to identify a certain source (typically journal articles).  Not all journal articles or books have DOIs but per APA style if there is a DOI you must use it in the citation. 

APA 7th edition standardizes DOI formatting to begin with https://doi.org/

Most databases provide DOI information, for articles that have them, in the articles' descriptions record. DOI are sometimes placed above or at the top or bottom of an article's first page. 

From https://hpu.libguides.com/ph/apa

Plagiarism

Citation Managers

Both Mendeley and Zotero have group sharing options.yesAdapted from University of Florida Library

Mendeley logo

Mendeley is both a reference manager and an academic social network.  A free account will provide you with 2GB of online storage; additional storage may be purchased for your account.  All you ever wanted to know about Mendeley can be found with their helpful online guides or by watching the Mendeley training videos

Zotero logo

ZoteroBib quickly generates a citation and then converts it to APA, MLA, etc.

Zotero is a flexible reference manager.  All the information for learning Zotero is provided through their online documentation or their screencast tutorials.

  • It's free, so you'll be able to use it forever, even after you leave BCIT.
  • It saves your digital files to your computer and backs them up in the cloud.
  • It works seamlessly with Microsoft Word.
  • It can also be used with Google Docs, LibreOffice, LaTeX, and other text editors.
  • It automates a lot of processes, like attaching PDFs, that require extra steps in RefWorks.