(World Health Organization [WHO], 2020)
(WHO, 2020)
first reference:
World Health Organization (WHO, 2020)
subsequent references:
WHO (2020)
** Define the abbreviation for a group author only once in the text, choosing either the parenthetical or the narrative format. Thereafter, use the abbreviation for all mentions of the group in the text (see Section 8.21 of APA Style Manual , 7th edition)
Frequently Asked Questions about In-Text Citation:
When paraphrasing, how often should I cite a source? Do I need to include a parenthetical citation at the end of each sentence? (8.1)
"Avoid both undercitation and overcitation. Undercitation can lead to plagiarism (see Section 8.2) and/or self plagiarism (see Section 8.3). Even when sources cannot be retrieved (e.g. because they are personal communications; see Section 8.9), you still need to credit them in the text. Overcitation can be distracting and is unnecessary. For example, it is considered overcitation to repeat the same citation in every sentence when the source and topic have not changed. Instead, when paraphrasing a key point in more than one sentence within a paragraph, cite the source in the first sentence in which it is relevant and do not repeat the citation in subsequent sentences as long as the sources remains clear and unchanged (see Section 8.24)."
How do I cite a direct quote? (8.25)
"A direct quotation reproduces words verbatim from another work of from your own previously published work. It is best ot paraphrase sources (see Sections 8.23-8.24) rather than directly quoting them because paraphrasing allows you to fit material to the context of your paper and writing style. Use direct quotations rather than paraphrasing when reproducing an exact definition (see example in Section 6.22), when an author has said something memorably or succinctly, or when you want to respond to exact wording (e.g., something someone said)."
"When quoting directly, always provide the author, year, and page number of the quotation in the in-text citation in either parenthetical or narrative format (see Section 8.11). To indicate a single page, use the abbreviation "p.p" (e.g., p. 25, p.S41, p. e221); for multiple pages, use the abbreviation "pp." and separate the page range with an en dash (e.g., pp. 34-36). If pages are discontinuous, use a comma between the page numbers (e.g., pp. 67, 72). If the work does not have page numbers, provide another way for the reader to locate the quotation (see Section 8.28).
For help citing block quotations (40 words or more), see section 8.27 of the APA Manual.
What if the work doesn't have an author? (8.14)
"When the author of a work is not named, the author may be unknown (i.e., no author is listed on the work, as with a religious work) or identified specifically as "Anonymous". For works with an unknown author (see Section 9.12), include the title and year of publication in the in-text citation (note that the title moves to the author position in the reference list entry as well). If the title of the work is italicized in the reference, also italicize the title in the in-text citation. If the title of the work is not italicized in the reference, use double quotation marks around the title in the in-text citation. Capitalize these titles in the text using title case (see Section 6.17), even though sentence case is used in the reference list entry. If the title is long, shorten it for the in-text citation."
See Section 9.49 for how to order works with no authors in the reference list.
How do I cite more than one source in the same parentheses? (8.12)
"When citing multiple works parenthetically, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons. Listing both parenthetical in-text citations and reference list entries in alphabetical order helps readers locate and retrieve works because they are listed in the same order in both places."
(Fischer et al., 2011; Hasan, 2017; Polman et al., 2008)
"Arrange two or more works by the same authors by year of publication. Place citations with no date first, followed by works with dates in chronological order; in-press citations appear last. Give the authors' surnames once; for each subsequent work, give only the date."
(Drapalski, n.d., 2016, 2018)
How do I cite an indirect (secondary) source? (8.6)
An indirect or secondary source is one that is cited in another person's work. Whenever possible, find and cite the original work. In some cases, however, the original work may be unavailable, and so you must rely on the secondary citation. However, use this type of source sparingly! Consult a librarian for help finding the original source if needed. Provide the secondary source in the reference list, NOT the original source; in text, name the original work and give the citation for the secondary source (listed in your reference list):
Gunderson's research (as cited in Kuthrapali, 2017)
If the year of the primary source is unknown, omit it from the in-text citation.
Allport's diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003)
How do I cite a personal communication? (8.9)
Use personal communication citations only when a recoverable source is not available. Cite personal communications such as emails, letters, telephone conversations, personal interviews, etc. in the text only. Since you can't provide retrieval information for these sources, they are not included in the reference list. Give the initials as well as the surname of the communicator, and provide as exact a date as possible for when the communication occurred:
N.D. Tyson (personal communication, June 10, 2017)
(M. Gillespie, personal communication, May 15, 2018)
How do I cite a lecture or presentation? (8.9)
"If you learned about a topic via a classroom lecture, it would be preferable to cite the research on which the instructor based the lecture. However, if the lecture contained original content not published elsewhere, cite the lecture as a personal communication "
Apa quick citation guide 6th edition.
Include an in-text citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. For every in-text citation in your paper, there must be a corresponding entry in your reference list.
APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005). For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: (Field, 2005, p. 14). For sources such as websites and e-books that have no page numbers , use a paragraph number. More information on citing sources without pagination is given on the APA Style web page .
Example paragraph with in-text citation
A few researchers in the linguistics field have developed training programs designed to improve native speakers' ability to understand accented speech (Derwing, Rossiter, & Munro, 2002; Thomas, 2004). Their training techniques are based on the research described above indicating that comprehension improves with exposure to non-native speech. Derwing et al. (2002) conducted their training with students preparing to be social workers, but note that other professionals who work with non-native speakers could benefit from a similar program.
Derwing, T. M., Rossiter, M. J., & Munro, M. J. (2002). Teaching native speakers to listen to foreign-accented speech. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 23(4), 245-259.
Thomas, H. K. (2004). Training strategies for improving listeners' comprehension of foreign-accented speech (Doctoral dissertation). University of Colorado, Boulder.
Cite web pages in text as you would any other source, using the author and date if known. If the author is not known, use the title and the date as the in-text citation (for long titles just use the first few words). Your in-text citation should lead your reader to the corresponding entry in the reference list. For sources with no date use n.d. (for no date) in place of the year: (Smith, n.d.). Below are examples of using in-text citation with web pages.
Web page with author:
In-text citation
Role-play can help children learn techniques for coping with bullying (Kraiser, 2011).
Reference entry
Kraizer, S. (2011). Preventing bullying. Retrieved from http://safechild.org/categoryparents/preventing-bullying/
Web page with no author:
The term Nittany Lion was coined by Penn State football player Joe Mason in 1904 ("All things Nittany," 2006).
All things Nittany. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.psu.edu/ur/about/nittanymascot.html
Web page with no date:
Establishing regular routines, such as exercise, can help survivors of disasters recover from trauma (American Psychological Association [APA], n.d.).
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Recovering emotionally from disaster. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/recovering-disasters.aspx
In-text references should immediately follow the title, word, or phrase to which they are directly relevant, rather than appearing at the end of long clauses or sentences. In-text references should always precede punctuation marks. Below are examples of using in-text citation.
Author's name in parentheses:
One study found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic (Gass & Varonis, 1984).
Author's name part of narrative:
Gass and Varonis (1984) found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic.
Group as author: First citation: (American Psychological Association [APA], 2015) Subsequent citation: (APA, 2015)
Multiple works: (separate each work with semi-colons)
Research shows that listening to a particular accent improves comprehension of accented speech in general (Gass & Varonis, 1984; Krech Thomas, 2004).
Direct quote: (include page number and place quotation marks around the direct quote)
One study found that “the listener's familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 85).
Gass and Varonis (1984) found that “the listener’s familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (p. 85).
Note: For direct quotations of more than 40 words , display the quote as an indented block of text without quotation marks and include the authors’ names, year, and page number in parentheses at the end of the quote. For example:
This suggests that familiarity with nonnative speech in general, although it is clearly not as important a variable as topic familiarity, may indeed have some effect. That is, prior experience with nonnative speech, such as that gained by listening to the reading, facilitates comprehension. (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 77)
APA style has specific rules for citing works by multiple authors. Use the following guidelines to determine how to correctly cite works by multiple authors in text.
Note: When using multiple authors' names as part of your narrative, rather than in parentheses, always spell out the word and. For multiple authors' names within a parenthetic citation, use &.
One author: (Field, 2005)
Two authors: (Gass & Varonis, 1984)
Three to five authors: First citation: (Tremblay, Richer, Lachance, & Cote, 2010) Subsequent citations: (Tremblay et al., 2010)
Six or more authors: (Norris-Shortle et al., 2006)
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Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the MLA Handbook and in chapter 7 of the MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.
In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.
General Guidelines
MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:
Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:
Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.
For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.
These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:
Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.
When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.
If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:
The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).
Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.
When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.
Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.
Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .
If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:
In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:
"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.
If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.
Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.
Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:
When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in Nature in 1921, you might write something like this:
See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .
Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:
For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:
Corresponding Works Cited entry:
Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1
For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.
Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.
If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.
Citing two articles by the same author :
Citing two books by the same author :
Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):
If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)
In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:
If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:
John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).
Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:
Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.
Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.
Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.
Here is an example from O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh.
WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.
ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.
WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)
With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's Evaluating Sources of Information resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.
Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:
Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:
In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:
Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.
Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.
Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:
In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).
In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:
Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009.
"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.
To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:
When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).
Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.
The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.
In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.
You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.
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⚙️ Styles | APA 7 & APA 6 |
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📚 Source types | Websites, books, articles |
🔎 Autocite | Search by title, URL, DOI, or ISBN |
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APA Style is widely used by students, researchers, and professionals in the social and behavioral sciences. Scribbr’s free citation generator automatically generates accurate references and in-text citations.
This citation guide outlines the most important citation guidelines from the 7th edition APA Publication Manual (2020).
APA in-text citations include the author’s last name, publication date, and, if relevant, a locator such as a page number or timestamp. For example, (Smith, 2021, p. 170) . See it as a shorter version of the entry in the reference list .
You should include in-text citations every time you’re quoting or paraphrasing someone else’s ideas or words. In doing so, you give credit to the original author and avoid plagiarism .
The in-text citation can take two forms: parenthetical and narrative. Both types are generated automatically when citing a source with Scribbr’s APA Citation Generator.
The in-text citation changes slightly when a source has multiple authors or an organization as an author. Pay attention to punctuation and the use of the ampersand (&) symbol.
Author type | Parenthetical citation | Narrative citation |
---|---|---|
One author | (Smith, 2020) | Smith (2020) |
Two authors | (Smith & Jones, 2020) | Smith and Jones (2020) |
Three or more authors | (Smith et al., 2020) | Smith et al. (2020) |
Organization | (Scribbr, 2020) | Scribbr (2020) |
When the author, publication date or locator is unknown, take the steps outlined below.
Missing element | What to do | Parenthetical citation |
---|---|---|
Author | Use the source title.* | ( , 2020) |
Date | Write “n.d.” for “no date.” | (Smith, n.d.) |
Page number | Either use an or omit the page number. | (Smith, 2020, Chapter 3) or (Smith, 2020) |
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APA references generally include information about the author , publication date , title , and source . Depending on the type of source, you may have to include extra information that helps your reader locate the source.
It is not uncommon for certain information to be unknown or missing, especially with sources found online. In these cases, the reference is slightly adjusted.
Missing element | What to do | Reference format |
---|---|---|
Author | Start the reference entry with the source title. | Title. (Date). Source. |
Date | Write “n.d.” for “no date”. | Author. (n.d.). Title. Source. |
Title | Describe the work in square brackets. | Author. (Date). [Description]. Source. |
On the first line of the page, write the section label “References” (in bold and centered). On the second line, start listing your references in alphabetical order .
Apply these formatting guidelines to the APA reference page:
On the reference page, you only include sources that you have cited in the text (with an in-text citation ). You should not include references to personal communications that your reader can’t access (e.g. emails, phone conversations or private online material).
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Assistant Professor in Data Visualization, Linköping University
Professeur des universités, Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse
Directeur de Recherche Inria en charge de la médiation scientifique, Inria
Lonni Besançon receives funding from the Marcus And Amalia Wallenberg foundation.
Guillaume Cabanac receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC) and the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). He is the administrator of the Problematic Paper Screener, a public platform that uses metadata from Digital Science and PubPeer via no-cost agreements.
Thierry Viéville does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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A researcher working alone – apart from the world and the rest of the wider scientific community – is a classic yet misguided image. Research is, in reality, built on continuous exchange within the scientific community: First you understand the work of others, and then you share your findings.
Reading and writing articles published in academic journals and presented at conferences is a central part of being a researcher. When researchers write a scholarly article, they must cite the work of peers to provide context, detail sources of inspiration and explain differences in approaches and results. A positive citation by other researchers is a key measure of visibility for a researcher’s own work.
But what happens when this citation system is manipulated? A recent Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology article by our team of academic sleuths – which includes information scientists, a computer scientist and a mathematician – has revealed an insidious method to artificially inflate citation counts through metadata manipulations: sneaked references.
People are becoming more aware of scientific publications and how they work, including their potential flaws. Just last year more than 10,000 scientific articles were retracted . The issues around citation gaming and the harm it causes the scientific community, including damaging its credibility, are well documented.
Citations of scientific work abide by a standardized referencing system: Each reference explicitly mentions at least the title, authors’ names, publication year, journal or conference name, and page numbers of the cited publication. These details are stored as metadata, not visible in the article’s text directly, but assigned to a digital object identifier, or DOI – a unique identifier for each scientific publication.
References in a scientific publication allow authors to justify methodological choices or present the results of past studies, highlighting the iterative and collaborative nature of science.
However, we found through a chance encounter that some unscrupulous actors have added extra references, invisible in the text but present in the articles’ metadata, when they submitted the articles to scientific databases. The result? Citation counts for certain researchers or journals have skyrocketed, even though these references were not cited by the authors in their articles.
The investigation began when Guillaume Cabanac, a professor at the University of Toulouse, wrote a post on PubPeer , a website dedicated to postpublication peer review, in which scientists discuss and analyze publications. In the post, he detailed how he had noticed an inconsistency: a Hindawi journal article that he suspected was fraudulent because it contained awkward phrases had far more citations than downloads, which is very unusual.
The post caught the attention of several sleuths who are now the authors of the JASIST article . We used a scientific search engine to look for articles citing the initial article. Google Scholar found none, but Crossref and Dimensions did find references. The difference? Google Scholar is likely to mostly rely on the article’s main text to extract the references appearing in the bibliography section, whereas Crossref and Dimensions use metadata provided by publishers.
To understand the extent of the manipulation, we examined three scientific journals that were published by the Technoscience Academy, the publisher responsible for the articles that contained questionable citations.
Our investigation consisted of three steps:
We listed the references explicitly present in the HTML or PDF versions of an article.
We compared these lists with the metadata recorded by Crossref, discovering extra references added in the metadata but not appearing in the articles.
We checked Dimensions, a bibliometric platform that uses Crossref as a metadata source, finding further inconsistencies.
In the journals published by Technoscience Academy, at least 9% of recorded references were “sneaked references.” These additional references were only in the metadata, distorting citation counts and giving certain authors an unfair advantage. Some legitimate references were also lost, meaning they were not present in the metadata.
In addition, when analyzing the sneaked references, we found that they highly benefited some researchers. For example, a single researcher who was associated with Technoscience Academy benefited from more than 3,000 additional illegitimate citations. Some journals from the same publisher benefited from a couple hundred additional sneaked citations.
We wanted our results to be externally validated, so we posted our study as a preprint , informed both Crossref and Dimensions of our findings and gave them a link to the preprinted investigation. Dimensions acknowledged the illegitimate citations and confirmed that their database reflects Crossref’s data. Crossref also confirmed the extra references in Retraction Watch and highlighted that this was the first time that it had been notified of such a problem in its database. The publisher, based on Crossref’s investigation, has taken action to fix the problem.
Why is this discovery important? Citation counts heavily influence research funding, academic promotions and institutional rankings. Manipulating citations can lead to unjust decisions based on false data. More worryingly, this discovery raises questions about the integrity of scientific impact measurement systems, a concern that has been highlighted by researchers for years. These systems can be manipulated to foster unhealthy competition among researchers, tempting them to take shortcuts to publish faster or achieve more citations.
To combat this practice we suggest several measures:
Rigorous verification of metadata by publishers and agencies like Crossref.
Independent audits to ensure data reliability.
Increased transparency in managing references and citations.
This study is the first, to our knowledge, to report a manipulation of metadata. It also discusses the impact this may have on the evaluation of researchers. The study highlights, yet again, that the overreliance on metrics to evaluate researchers, their work and their impact may be inherently flawed and wrong.
Such overreliance is likely to promote questionable research practices, including hypothesizing after the results are known, or HARKing ; splitting a single set of data into several papers, known as salami slicing; data manipulation; and plagiarism. It also hinders the transparency that is key to more robust and efficient research. Although the problematic citation metadata and sneaked references have now been apparently fixed, the corrections may have, as is often the case with scientific corrections , happened too late.
This article is published in collaboration with Binaire , a blog for understanding digital issues.
This article was originally published in French .
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Provide a caption citation for all direct quotations and /or relevant images on your PowerPoint slides. Direct Quotations: These should be acknowledged in your speech or presentation either as "And I quote…" or "As [the source] put it…". Book: Include title and author: "According to April Jones, author of Readings on Gender…".
Solution #2: How to cite an article with more than 20 authors in APA style. If an article has more than 20 authors, all authors do not need to be listed in the reference. Instead, name the first 19, then use an ellipsis (…), then add the name of the final author listed. The ellipsis acts as a substitute for all the names between the first 19 ...
Better: "Margaret Brownwell, professor of nutrition at the Univeristy of New Mexico , writes in her book, Dieting Sensibly, that …" (The author's credentials are clearly described.) When citing Magazine, Journal, or Newspaper articles
To cite a paper presentation from an academic conference, use the following format. List the date as the range of dates across which the conference took place. APA format. Author name, Initials. ( Year, Month Day - Day ). Paper title [Paper presentation]. Conference Name, City, State, Country. URL.
In-text citations briefly identify the source of information in the body text. They correspond to a full reference entry at the end of your paper. APA in-text citations consist of the author's last name and publication year. When citing a specific part of a source, also include a page number or range, for example (Parker, 2020, p.
Also indicate the Author's credentials (why they are an authority on the subject). If there are two authors, use both names in your citation. If there are more than two authors, name the first author and use "and associates" or "and colleagues". Title (if author has multiple works in the cited source)
Answer. Most referencing style guides are designed for written works, so it is difficult to find advice on how to cite your sources in an oral presentation. For written work, citations come in two formats, "parenthetical" and "narrative". In parenthetical citations, the entire citation is included in the parentheses (brackets) in an author-date ...
Direct Quotations: These should be acknowledged in your speech or presentation ei-ther as "And I quote…" or "As [source] recommends…" Book: include title and author x Incorrect: "According to Burke, the principle of persuasion…" x Correct: "According to Kenneth Burke, author of Grammar of Motives…."
Author ; Author's credentials; Title of Work; Title of Publication; ... provides examples and tips on how to verbally cite information in a speech. Speaking a Verbal Citation. ... Listen to two verbal citations starting at the 5:30 mark and running until 6:50 mark in this YouTube video.
Citing Sources in an Oral Presentation. Citing your sources just means telling where you got particular ideas or bits of information that did not originate in your own head. Sometimes this is called giving credit, attributing, or referencing. When you cite sources in an oral presentation, there are 3 basic parts. Orally cite sources of what you say
One work, multiple authors. When a work has two authors, always cite both authors' names in your text: Significant findings in a study of Los Angeles (McCroskey & O'Keefe, 2000) When a citation has 3 or more authors, include the last name of the first author, followed by et al. (not italicized), and the year. (Nishimoto et al., 1998)
You will be perceived as a more credible speaker when you use multiple sources and cite these sources in the body of your speech. General Tips: • Tell the audience your source before you use the information (the opposite of in-text citations). • Do not say, "quote, unquote" when you offer a direct quotation. Use brief pauses instead.
If you are citing a source that has multiple authors, follow the directions below. ... Always cite both authors' names in-text every time you reference them. Examples: Johnson and Smith (2019) found.....was their conclusion (Johnson & Smith, 2019). APA Manual p.266, Section 8.17.
Your verbal citation should be brief but highlight the most important information: who, what and when. Author. Author Credentials. Title of work (article, report, etc.) Date of work (if relevant) Use an introductory phrase: "According to Professor Dumbledore at Hogwarts University..." "Rita Sketter, a journalist with the Daily Prophet, wrote in ...
When citing multiple works parenthetically, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons. (Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017) Arrange two or more works by the same authors by year of publication. Place citations with no date first.
To write a reference list entry for a work with two authors, follow this basic format when listing the authors: Last Name, A. & Last Name, B. List the authors by their last names and initials, and use a comma followed by an ampersand to separate the two names. Here's an example of what this might look like for a book entry:
The table below provides examples of how to cite your sources in text, whether you use the author's name as part of the narrative or you include the citation information in parentheses (called a parenthetical citation). For more information, refer to sections 8.17-21 of the APA Style Manual, 7th edition. Author Type. Parenthetical Citation.
Note: In the rare case that "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous, 2001).In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author. Organization as an Author. If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source, just as you would an ...
If the author is not known, use the title and the date as the in-text citation (for long titles just use the first few words). Your in-text citation should lead your reader to the corresponding entry in the reference list. For sources with no date use n.d. (for no date) in place of the year: (Smith, n.d.). Below are examples of using in-text ...
Citing a paraphrase in a speech The responsibility of a speaker when paraphrasing the work and/or ideas of others is the same as in citing direct quotations minus references to the beginning and end of the quotation. Again, concern for attribution as well as style is necessary. ... Author: kkerwin Created Date: 10/1/2003 1:52:50 PM ...
APA Reference List Entries for Multiple Authors. Now comes the time for creating your References page. Reference citation a bit different than the parenthetical citations. You can list all the authors unless you have more than twenty. In addition to the last name, you'll include the first and middle initial and separate the names by commas.
In-text citations: Author-page style. MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number (s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the ...
Parenthetical citation: According to new research … (Smith, 2020). Narrative citation: Smith (2020) notes that … Multiple authors and corporate authors. The in-text citation changes slightly when a source has multiple authors or an organization as an author. Pay attention to punctuation and the use of the ampersand (&) symbol.
Citation counts heavily influence research funding, academic promotions and institutional rankings. Manipulating citations can lead to unjust decisions based on false data.
Authorship verification is the task of determining if two distinct writing samples share the same author and is typically concerned with the attribution of written text. In this paper, we explore the attribution of transcribed speech, which poses novel challenges.The main challenge is that many stylistic features, such as punctuation and capitalization, are not informative in this setting.
A roster of Donald J. Trump's former rivals, including Nikki Haley, lined up to pledge their allegiance, and a party confident of its November fate drove home an aggressive law-and-order message.