00:00 When you use the information and perspectives you found in other sources, 00:04 citations give credit to the ideas of others and make you a more credible 00:08 author. They can also help your readers find the same sources again. 00:12 Citation styles are guidelines and conventions that different disciplines follow to 00:18 present writing and sources in a consistent way. 00:20 APA style from the American Psychological Association is a common 00:25 citation style used in the sciences and social sciences. 00:29 There are two main components of a citation. First, when you reference another source include an 00:36 in-text citation in the body of your paper. In APA style, this citation 00:41 includes the author's last name or organization comma and the year in 00:46 parentheses. If there are more than three authors, include the first author's last 00:51 name, then use the abbreviation et al., which means and others. 00:57 Then, include a complete citation in the reference list at the end of your paper. 01:02 Your in-text and reference list citations should match. 01:06 A reference list citation typically includes the author, the date, the title of the work, and the source, 01:14 or information about where you can get it including any URLs or other links. 01:19 Each part is separated with a period. 01:22 In the reference list, use a hanging indent and organize your references alphabetically by author's last name. 01:29 This helps your readers skim through the list to find the reference for an in-text citation 01:34 Reference list citations vary based on the type of source you're citing and the 01:38 information available. Use the official style manual or an online citation guide 01:44 to check which details about the source you should include. Let's take a look at one example. 01:50 In college, you'll probably be citing a lot of academic journal articles. 01:54 First, include the last names and initials of the authors. 01:58 Use the ampersand sign for "and" before the last author, then include the year the article 02:03 is published in parentheses. Next, include the title of the article in sentence case. 02:09 This means only the first word of the title and subtitle and any proper nouns are capitalized. 02:17 After that include the academic journal where the article was published, in italics. 02:22 Academic journals published collections of articles throughout the year. 02:26 A journal might have a volume for each year and publish a new issue every few months. 02:30 Separate the journal and the volume with a comma and italicize the volume number too. 02:36 If there is an issue number, include that in parentheses and add the page range. 02:42 Finally include the DOI, or digital object identifier, if it's available. 02:47 This is a direct link to the article on the publisher's site. 02:51 Formatting citations and your paper can require some attention to detail. 02:55 If you're not sure how to cite a source using APA style, ask a librarian!