Skip to Main Content

Social Work: APA Citation & Plagiarism

APA Manual 7th Edition

Writing & Academic Resources

Looking for additional resources for your research and academic goals? Take advantage of these services!

Writing Resource Center - You can make an appointment by contacting at wrc@csub.edu. Or, you may view their citation and writing resources online via their webpage.

Education Workshops - All students are welcome to attend to gain strategies and tips to improve their writing skills to succeed with integrity, decision-making skills, and/or get help with citation and writing styles from experts.

Tutoring Services - Provides information on the Writing Resource Center, the Math Tutoring Center, SSE Tutoring Center, Arts & Humanities Tutoring Center, and more.

APA Citation Style

APA Style originated in 1929, when a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers convened and sought to establish a simple set of procedures, or style guidelines, that would codify the many components of scientific writing to increase the ease of reading comprehension. They published their guidelines as a seven-page article in Psychological Bulletin describing a “standard of procedure, to which exceptions would doubtless be necessary, but to which reference might be made in cases of doubt” (Bentley et al., 1929, p. 57).

The current manual is, "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (2020)" or APA 7th edition. This guide will highlight information and resources for the APA 7th edition specifically.

*Adapted from apa.org

What is the purpose of APA citation?

Why do we use citations?

The use of citations helps you to avoid plagiarism and the consequences that come along with it. If you use others' ideas, work, or research without giving proper citation, this is essentially taking credit for their work. In using citations it will allow readers and researchers to locate your sources and can help facilitate scholarly conversation around a topic. Additionally, citing is a professional courtesy that will strengthen the credibility of your work.

The USC Libraries has published a short interactive tutorial on citation and plagiarism you can complete here.

Citation Resources

APA Formatting and Style Guide 7th Edition,  Purdue University - Purdue OWL provides a wealth of information APA citation style including information on in-text citations, APA style reference lists, sample papers, and legal references.

APA Style - includes information on style and grammar guidelines, as well as the history and need for APA style citation.

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association : the official guide to APA style - check OneSearch for current CSUB holdings. You may be able to access a physical reserve copy.

Student Paper Setup Guide 7th Edition -  This guide will help you set up an APA Style student paper.

Plagiarism

How is Plagiarism Defined?

Per the CSUB Undergraduate Academic Integrity Policy, plagiarism:  "...is claiming the published or unpublished work of someone else as your own. This includes handing in someone else’s work; turning in copied or purchased compositions; using paragraphs, sentences, phrases,
words, or ideas, including paraphrasing, written by another writer; or using data and/or statistics compiled by
someone else as your own without giving appropriate credit to the original writer. Plagiarism also includes using
work submitted in another class without permission of the instructor."

How Do I Avoid Plagiarism?

Take advantage of resources like Purdue OWL's Plagiarism Overview and familiarize yourself with the FAQs of plagiarism. If you are concerned about unintentionally plagarising a resource, there are a number of things to take into account to prevent this.

  • Make sure you understand the citation system you are using and use it correctly
  • Be certain you are actually paraphrasing and not quoting directly
  • Make certain you are attributing the quote to the proper person

You Quote It, You Note It!  -  an interactive module created by Acadia University's Vaughan Memorial Library, this tutorial explains what citation is as well as how to cite properly.