APA Citation Help, 7th Edition for Medicine, Nursing, & Health Sciences

APA Overview

Citing your sources is advantageous.

Using citations will help preserve your:

  • Honesty: When you fail to give credit for ideas that are not your own, your readers will assume that the ideas are yours. This is misleading.
  • Academic Integrity: It will protect your academic career from negative consequences.
  • Credibility: The citations will show your readers that your information came from reliable sources.
  • Time: When you need to refer back to a source it will be easy to find.

You need to cite when:

  • You use a direct quotation, even if it is in quotation marks.
  • You use facts that are not common knowledge.
  • You paraphrase the author’s idea(s).
  • You have changed some of the author’s words (i.e., used synonyms).
  • You use the key words or phrases from the author.
  • You mention the author’s name in your sentence.
  • You have written a sentence that mostly consists of your own thoughts, but you have made a reference to another author’s idea.

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