STANDARD II.

ACCESS THE NEEDED INFORMATION EFFECTIVELY AND

EFFICIENTLY
CITATION

Citation can be defined as a formal reference to a published or unpublished

source that you consulted and obtained information from while writing your research
(Ballenger, 2012, p. 97). Citing sources means that you are orderly presenting the
information which you have quoted or paraphrased from another author’s work and
relaying where that information came from.
Whether you use a book, an Internet source, a sound recording, or any other
source of information in your report, you need to give credit to your source. Likewise,
information and ideas that you obtain from electronic mail, discussion lists, blogs and
Web sites should also be cited.

TYPES OF CITATION
There are several style of citation or documentation. Your writing style
depends on what your instructor wants or what is prescribed in the Research Manual
of your university or college. Examples of citation styles are:
American Psychological Association (APA),
Modern Language Association (MLA),
Chicago’s Manual of Style by the Chicago University Press,
Turabian, etc.
Take note that there are specific professions or disciplines that adopt their
own citation style like Law, Biology, Chemistry, etc.

The American University (2018) cites that each discipline tends to use one or
two styles:
● Anthropology – Chicago
● Art History – Chicago or Turabian
● Arts Management – Chicago
● Biology- CSE
● Business – APA, Chicago or Harvard
● Chemistry – ACS
● Communications – MLA
● Computing Science – MLA
● Criminology – APA or Chicago
● Education – APA
● History – Chicago or Turabian
● International Studies – APA or
Chicago
● Journalism – APA
 For this module, you will be studying on the APA and MLA citation styles since
these are the most often recommended styles for Education and Social Science
researches.

Purposes of Citing Your Sources

Citing your sources tell your readers the references where you obtained your
material, provide interested persons a means of analyzing or critiquing your research
based on the reference sources you used, and can serve as a bridge to obtain further
information about prior studies of the research. Citing your sources is the best shield
against alleged plagiarism.
According to Newton (2016, p. 482), citing the works of others is important
because:
1.) Proper citation allows readers to locate the materials you used. Citing the
sources may assist the readers to further enhance their knowledge about the topic.
2.) Citing your sources means that you as the researcher conducted an
intensive review of the literature regarding your topic
3.) The ideas of other researchers reinforce the arguments of your research.
Other sources support evidence to the argument of your research.
4.) The presentation of ideas of other researchers can be used to infer
alternative approaches. If you disagreed with an idea, or you have identified a gap in
a source, your citations can be sources from which to argue an alternative standpoint
or track a different course of action.
5.) Serious repercussions can result if you fail to cite since ideas are considered
intellectual property. Failure to cite one’s intellectual property may result in legal
action which can ruin your career or your reputation.
While you are in college, it is best that you will get the habit of acknowledging
and citing properly the ideas and works of others.

Note:
You should always acknowledge which ideas, thoughts, and concepts are
yours. Even if you summarize, paraphrase, or use direct quotes, ideas of others
should always be acknowledged. Nonetheless, Newton (2016, p. 483) iterates that
there are exceptions to this rule: if the information is considered to be a known fact.
Example: President Rodrigo Duterte is the 17th president of the Philippines.

Ways in which to cite sources vary from one field of study to another. Always
ask your professor what citing style you should use or check your university’s/
college’s Research Manual as to what citation style is recommended. If you are given
 the freedom to choose the style that you want, then be consistent from the in-text
citation to the list of references.

The American Psychological Association (APA, 2010) gives these reason on

why we should cite the work/s that we used in our research paper:
❑ To give credit to others’ work and ideas.
❑ To show readers the materials on which you base your analysis, your
narrative, or your conclusions.
❑ To guide readers to the materials you have used so they can examine it for
themselves.
❑ Failure to cite could result to charges of plagiarism

Further, the APA enumerates these instances when we need to cite/reference:

• Quoting, i.e. directly copying the words of another.
• Paraphrasing, i.e. putting the ideas of another in your own words.
• Summarizing, i.e. putting the main ideas of another in your own words.
We will discuss in this module the three (3) most common citation styles used in
universities and colleges.

5.1. AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (APA) FORMAT FOR CITATION

The APA defines citation as refers to any item (book, journal article,
dissertation, archival manuscript, newspaper editorial, report, website, musical
composition, etc.) which clearly identifies the source in which the full text of the item
is to be found. Citation provides sufficient information to acknowledge the author
and locate them.
The APA style manual has the following attributes (APA, 2010):
❑ developed by social and behavioral scientists to standardize scientific writing.
❑ widely used in psychology, education, technology, engineering, business, and the
social sciences.
❑ uses the author-date citation system.
❑ emphasizes year of publication, which comes immediately after the author’s name.
APA citation style refers to the rules and conventions established by the
American Psychological Association for documenting sources in a research paper. In
addition, the APA cites two areas when you can cite/ reference your sources:

1. In-text, i.e. in the text of your essay identifying the author surname only
(i.e. last name) and page number with parenthesis.
 (Rogers, 2013) Round brackets before period.

  Author/s Publication
Surname/s date

2. Reference list, corresponding entry with full publication details. Entries are
in alphabetical order. 
Rogers, T. (2013). Conferences and conventions: a global industry (3rd ed.). New York, NY:
Routledge.

Author Book title Edition Place of

Publication date Publication
Publisher

Basically, the information included in a Reference List are:

• Author/s / Editor/s or any other statement of responsibility
• Year
• Title
• Edition
• Place of Publication
• Publisher
 There are three options for placing in-text citations (Purdue Online Writing Lab, 2019):
• A. Idea –focused
Sample citation:
Researchers have pointed out that the lack of trained staff is a common barrier to
providing adequate health education (Fisher, 2008).

• B. Researcher- focused
Sample citation:
Santos (2005) recommended that health education be required for high school
graduation in the Philippines.
• C. Chronology-focused
Sample citation:
In 2001, Salvador proposed using the Child Planning Schema to analyze and develop
community mental health programs.
The APA published its 6th edition style manual last 2010 and updated it last 2019 (7 th
edition). Here are important guidelines from the APA 7 th edition which are salient for research
papers (APA, 2020):

IN-TEXT CITATION
APA has simplified in-text citations in regards to multiple authors. If there is one or two
authors, list their names.
(Salkind, 2016)
(Salkind & Hillier, 2016)

For three or more authors, list only the first author’s name and then et al.
(Kumar et al, 2012)
(Three authors: Kumar, V, Aaker, A. & Day, G. S.)
When citing in-text for e-books, it can be difficult if it does not have a page number
(most are in PDF). In this case, try to get as specific as possible by mentioning chapter, section,
and paragraph number.
One of the author’s main points is that “people don’t rise from nothing” (Gladwell,
2008, Chapter 1, Section 2, para. 3).
(Source: APA (2020) Publication Manual, 10.2)
For a book with an editor:
Andrews (2009)
Note: Andrews, F.M. is the editor of the book, there is no author.