Resources for Research and Citations

Learn APA format using Microsoft Word in only four minutes. I recommend watching this in full screen mode begin with a blank Word document then set a consistent font such as Times New Roman and size such as 12. Then set the paragraph to double-spaced with no indent and remove the additional spacing that Microsoft Word adds by default. To add you're running hand double-click at the top of the page to enter the header area and select different first page. The other pages will have a different heading than this one. Now type the words running head followed by a colon and then the title of your paper all in uppercase. Then tab to the right margin and we'll insert a page number. Select insert page number current location and in plain text double click in the page to leave the header. The title page information is to be centered in the upper half of the page so space down three or four times and then select home and center the text. Now type the title of your paper in title case followed by your name and your institution. Your instructor may require additional information but this is the minimum APA requirement. Now insert a page break and we'll begin writing your content. Insert page break. Now on the second page, we'll click in the header area and add the next running head. The running head on all pages except for the title page has only your title all in uppercase and then tab to the right margin and insert a page number again. That's insert page number current location and as a plain number. Double-click in the page body to leave the header area. Large research papers may include an abstract page following a title page. It summarizes the research in a single paragraph. For our purposes we will omit the abstract page and continue to the content. The first line of your content will always be the title of your paper. Following that select home and left align so that your paragraphs will begin on the left margin. I recommend using the tab key to indent the first line of each paragraph to avoid centering problems. If using the paragraph setting of first line to indent. The centered text will be offset to the right by the indent. At the end of your content, insert a page break and we'll add the references page. Insert a page break in the references section. The word references is centered at the top of the page so select, home centered, and type the word references. Then press ENTER and left align so that your paragraphs will be on the Left margin. Select paragraphs and an indent of hanging so that the first line will be on the Left margin and all subsequent lines will be indented, which is the APA requirement for references. The following steps are how we did it. You may pause the playback and screen print or copy them down. You have now learned to make APA documents using word in only four minutes. If this helps you feel free to share with others.

Citation styles are guidelines and conventions that different disciplines follow to present writing and sources in a consistent way. APA style from the American Psychological Association is a common citation style used in the sciences and social sciences.

There are two main components of a citation. First, when you reference another source include an
in-text citation in the body of your paper. In APA style, this citation includes the author's last name or organization comma and the year in parentheses. If there are more than three authors, include the first author's last name, then use the abbreviation et al., which means and others. 

Then, include a complete citation in the reference list at the end of your paper. Your in-text and reference list citations should match. A reference list citation typically includes the author, the date, the title of the work, and the source, or information about where you can get it including any URLs or other links. Each part is separated with a period. In the reference list, use a hanging indent and organize your references alphabetically by author's last name. This helps your readers skim through the list to find the reference for an in-text citation. Reference list citations vary based on the type of source you're citing and the information available. Use the official style manual or an online citation guide to check which details about the source you should include. Let's take a look at one example.

In college, you'll probably be citing a lot of academic journal articles. First, include the last names and initials of the authors. Use the ampersand sign for "and" before the last author, then include the year the article is published in parentheses. Next, include the title of the article in sentence case. This means only the first word of the title and subtitle and any proper nouns are capitalized. After that include the academic journal where the article was published, in italics. Academic journals published collections of articles throughout the year. A journal might have a volume for each year and publish a new issue every few months. Separate the journal and the volume with a comma and italicize the volume number too. If there is an issue number, include that in parentheses and add the page range. Finally include the DOI, or digital object identifier, if it's available. This is a direct link to the article on the publisher's site.

Formatting citations and your paper can require some attention to detail. If you're not sure how to cite a source using APA style, ask a librarian!

You're probably familiar with Google as a tool for finding information. Google crawls through pretty much the entire free Internet, searching for what you're looking for, and since it's searching for so many things, that means in that big pile of stuff, you may find some sources written for academic publication by experts in the field. Things we call scholarly. Especially if you look for them by name, but you might also find a lot of resources that are much less worthwhile. To use all the power of Google, while limiting your results to the scholarly resources, we have Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a free web resource that allows users to search for a variety of scholarly sources, including journal articles, citations, theses, and other content from academic publishers. This allows you to focus your search, weeding out a bulk of less reliable information. In fact, certain Google searches will automatically bring up Scholar results, and further results can be found by clicking on "Scholarly articles for," which will be above those results. But if you're looking for reliable information, especially these scholarly resources, it's best to just start in Google Scholar itself. If you're not on a Penn State computer, it's a good idea to click on settings, on the top right, then "Library links" on the left. Search for "Pennsylvania" in the search box, then select Pennsylvania State University Get It @ Penn State, and save. This links Scholar to Penn State University Libraries so that you can find the full text of any article you search for by clicking on the Get It button. As when searching for any scholarly content, Google Scholar tends to give you the best results when your keywords are focused. As you can see, if I search Google Scholar for the broad concept "transgender," my results vary greatly in subject. But focusing my search on something like "health care," greatly streamlines my results. If I do this same search in Google alone, insurance companies and other less reliable sources creep into my results. So Google Scholar is the better option here. To read an article, I simply click on the title or click on "Get It @ Penn State." Occasionally, results will be unlinked citations. These can be found using the library's other resources. Feel free to use "Ask a Librarian" on the Library's homepage for assistance with your search or locating articles on Google Scholar that you're having trouble finding. Good luck!