In recent years, with the increasing frequency of international educational exchanges, more and more people choose to study abroad for further education. During the process of study, participating in academic research and writing academic papers and reports will become one of the important learning tasks for international students.
However, respecting the intellectual property rights of those who deserve it and writing in accordance with the citation style of the American Psychological Association (APA) has become a topic that every responsible international student should not ignore.
The APA citation style, also known as the “Chicago style”, guarantees strict academic legal standards and a scientific and prudent environment for academic discussions. Now, we will reveal the specific rules and usage of the citation rules in order to be helpful to international students.
As an internationally recognised academic standard, the main purpose of APA citation rules is to accurately label the sources of documents to ensure the academic validity and authenticity of theses and reports. In practical application, specific citation formats should be adopted according to the differences in the nature of citations, such as authorship, citation position, and arrangement of references.
First, in the main text, when directly citing an author’s opinion, it should be written according to the format of “(author’s name, year)”;
If the citation is a research conclusion or viewpoint, then according to the “(author’s name, year) shows that …” If the citation is a conclusion or idea from a study, it will be in the format “(author’s name, year, …”.
At the same time, if there is only one author in the text, you can omit the year and just write “(author’s place, ……”. When dealing with two or more authors, their names can be separated by a comma; and when the document involves an organisation, group or unit, it should be expressed in the form of “(name of organisation, year)”. When the exact author cannot be identified, it can be written in the form of “(author not stated, year)”.
Next, in the references section, more detailed information is required.
This includes, but is not limited to, article number, author’s name, article title, journal name, year, volume, page number, etc.
For example, when the cited text has its own number (e.g., journal article), then this number should be used in the reference section when citing.
Using APA citation format may seem trivial and complicated, but it is actually a rigorous and serious academic attitude. Through this popular science, I believe that all international students have already had a preliminary understanding of the APA citation rules. If you are still confused or have questions in the actual writing process, you may refer to the official guidelines of APA format or use the APA format generation tool to get effective help. We hope this helping hand can light up a bright light for your academic road.
