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GEN / APA Citation Style: How to Cite? (Drop-Down Menu)

Introduction

This guide is for the APA Style Seventh Edition, which was published in October 2019. TP is adopting this style from April 2020 onwards. APA 7th edition has introduced some simplifications to the style, making citations easier! There are also guidelines on more online sources.

Cite to Avoid Plagiarism

Whenever you use ideas, words or content from someone else, you will need to cite the source. These may be in various forms including but not limited to text, data, charts, images, and videos. Note that using answers from AI-powered chatbots (e.g. Chatgpt) can also be considered as plagiarism

Even when you paraphrase, summarise or quote directly from someone else's work, you will need to cite the source. Failure to cite is considered plagiarism, which is a form of academic theft and a serious offence for students!

Citing your sources is important because citations:

  • acknowledge the author of the original content
  • support your arguments by providing clear evidence
  • point the reader to related research that they can check out
  • show good academic values and practice on your part
     

Note: ASC, BUS, DES, HSS and IIT use the APA (American Psychological Association) citation style. ENG and Chemical Engineering students should use the IEEE citation style.

Introduction to APA Style

Main changes in APA 7th Edition

  1. The publisher location is no longer required for books or similar mediums.
  2. For in-text citation, any reference with three or more authors can now be shortened to the first author and "et al". Previously only references with six or more would be shortened this way.
  3. For reference list, up to 20 authors can now be included before needing to omit others with an ellipsis. Previously, only seven would be displayed before omitting the rest with an ellipsis.
  4. DOIs are now displayed as urls, without the “DOI:” prefix.
  5. Webpage URLs no longer need to be preceded with “Retrieved from” unless there is also a retrieval date (see point 6).
  6. A retrieval date is needed only when the contents of a page are meant to be updated over time but are not archived.
  7. E-books no longer require the type of format, platform or device to be listed (e.g. PDF, Kindle etc)
  8. Blog posts no longer have to include “[Blog post]” or “Retrieved from”. 
  9. For articles from news websites that do not publish daily or weekly newspapers (e,g, BBC, CNN, CNA), use the webpage format. 
  10. For articles from newspaper websites, use the newspaper article format.

APA cheat sheet

Save this cheat sheet as a quick guide for citing various sources.

How to avoid plagiarism in 5 easy steps

Links

Use APABot to help you navigate the official APA Style site.

Tools for APA style

Free citation tools help you by saving time, but they do not always generate perfect citations. Make sure you check and correct any mistakes. This means you will still need to know APA citation style!

 

 

Mendeley is a powerful tool that allows you to manage your references and cite them. You may want to try this tool if you have many references. Refer to the guide below for more information.