Agricultural Communications

A guide for researchers in Agricultural Communications

Library Research Guide

APA Citations

Keep track of the sources you use for your research so you can cite them in your paper and bibliography. It is very important to cite your sources to provide appropriate credit for the ideas of other researchers to avoid plagiarism. You will create a citation whenever you use the words (direct quote) or ideas (paraphrase) from another author. Failing to do so is a violation of the K-State Honor Code.

You will use APA format to cite the articles you find. 

Many databases have a "cite" link on the records that will help you create a citation in the appropriate format, like this one in ERIC:

Example of citation from ERIC

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) is an excellent resource for APA and other citation formats.

Find more citation tools on our Citations and Bibliographies research guide.

Consider using Zotero if....

Zotero logo: grey hexagon with three dimensional red Z inside... you often save references from different databases or websites while researching.

... you use sources in a variety of formats, including video, audio, art, etc.

... you keep formatted notes, i.e., they contain bold or italic text, superscripts, bulleted lists, and/or you like to keep multiple notes.

... you like using tools that are customizable and configurable.

For more details about Zotero at K-State, visit our slide presentation "Grad Workshop Zotero."

We also host workshops for graduate students (although attendance is not limited to graduate students only), including sessions on citations and Zotero.