What is a citation?
A citation is a description of a publication including pertinent information needed to find the full text of a publication.
What does a citation include?
For a book it generally includes: author(s), title, publisher, date.
For an article it generally includes: author, date, article title, source journal title, volume number, issue number, and pages.
For a web site it generally includes: author, date last updated, web site title, date retrieved, and web site address (URL).
Why is citing your sources important?
Helps the reader to locate the original sources.
Demonstrates that you have thoroughly researched your topic and/or argument.
Gives credit to the original author, avoiding plagiarism.
How can RefWorks help you?
RefWorks is a web based tool that allows you to create an online personal database to organize and manage your bibliographical references. You can import and store citations from online databases and then easily create bibliographies in APA format to use in your essays and papers. You can also download the RefWorks add-on, “Write-N-Cite”, which enables you to insert parenthetical references into your document as needed. Once the document is complete this tool will automatically generate a bibliography of all the sources cited within the document.
How to cite your sources
In Nursing the most widely used format for citing sources is APA (American Psychological Association). Below you will find common examples of in-text citations and references. For other examples please consult your APA manual. (Click here for the PDF printable version of these examples.)
| Article - 1 to 2 Authors |
Leipert, B. (1999). Women’s health and the practice of public health nursing in northern
British Columbia. Public Health Nursing, 16, 280-289.
In-text citation: Leipert (1999) found that nurses felt …..
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| Article - 3 to 6 Authors |
Dickerson, S. S ., Boehmke, M., Ogle, C., & Brown, J. K . (2005). Out of necessity:
Oncology nurses experiences integrating the Internet into practice. Oncology
Nursing Forum , 32, 355-362.
In-text citation: first citation (Dickerson, Boehmke, Oglem, & Brown, 2005)
subsequent citations (Dickerson et al. 2005)
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| Article - More than 6 authors |
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Stewart, N. J., D’Arcy, C., Pitblado, J. R., Morgan, D. G., Forbes, D., Remus, G.,
et al. (2005). A profile of registered nurses in rural and remote Canada. Canadian
Journal of Nursing Research, 37(1), 122–145.
(Note: If journal is paginated by issue, include issue number in brackets)
In-text citation: More details on the method of the national survey can be found in Stewart et al. (2005).
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| Article - More than one article with the exact same author (s) and year |
DeBourgh, G. (2001a). Evidence-based practice: fad or functional paradigm? AACN
Clinical Issues, 12, 463–467.
DeBourgh, G. (2001b). Champions for evidence-based practice: a critical role for
advanced practice nurses. AACN Clinical Issues, 12, 491–508.
(Note:
notice a & b are used to distinguish the articles)
In text citation:
The terms ‘evidence’ and ‘evidence-based practice’ can be interpreted in many ways and multiple definitions abound (e.g. DeBourgh, 2001a; French, 2002).
DeBourgh (2001b) argued that ‘Advanced practice nurses are ideally prepared and positioned … to serve as catalysts for optimizing patient care through evidence-based practice.’ (p. 491).
(Note: For an exact quote you need to state the exact page number in the in-text citation)
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| Article - If viewed only in electronic form (Note: many journals still have print and electronic form) |
Spenceley, S. M. (2005). Access to health services by Canadians who are chronically
ill [electronic version]. Western Journal Of Nursing Research, 27, 465-486.
In-text citation:
Spenceley, S. M. (2005) reported …
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| Article - Internet Only Journal |
Bernhardt, J. M., & Felter, E. M. (2004). Online pediatric information seeking among
mothers of young children: Results from a qualitative study using focus groups.
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 6 ( e7). Retrieved May 13, 2004, from
http://www.jmir.org/2004/1/e7/index.htm
In-text citation: Bernhardt and Felter (2004) described …
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| Article - Electronic copy retrieved from database e.g. Ebsco, Proquest, OVID |
Kavanagh, K., Absalom, K., Beil, W., & Schliessmann, L. (1999). Connecting and
becoming culturally competent: A Lakota example. Advances in Nursing Science,
21, 9-31. Retrieved March 26, 2001 from ProQuest Nursing Journals database.
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| Website |
National Lung Health Education Program. (2002, January). Lung – treatment of
COPD and asthma. Retrieved March 8, 2005, from http://www.nlhep.org/
lung_trtmnt.html
(Note: Whenever possible, reference specific documents rather than homepages. Provide URL’s that can open the web site you used. For the date, use all information including year, month and day, if available)
In-text citation:
The National Lung Health Education Program (2000, Clearing Your Lungs section, para. 1) recommends that “coughing has an important ‘cleaning action’ and is something …. "
(Note: page/chapter number or section heading should be included. If a direct quote the paragraph number should also be included.)
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| Website - Government Document |
Centers for Disease Controls. Division of Bacterial & Mycotic Diseases. (2003,
December). Drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae disease. Retrieved
March 14, 2005, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/
drugresisstreppneum_t .htm
(Note: Include the name of the smallest division responsible for authoring the site, rather than simply the umbrella governmental institution.)
In-text citation:
“Until 2000, S. pneumoniae infections caused 60,000 cases of invasive disease each year and up to 40% of these were caused by pneumococci non-susceptible to at least one drug.” (Centers for Disease Control, 2003, Incidence section)
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| Report - Author is an organization |
Canadian Institute for Health Information. (CIHI). (2002). Supply and distribution of
registered nurses in rural and small town Canada, 2000. Ottawa : Canadian
Institute for Health Information.
In-text citation:
In 2000 there were 399 communities in Canada where nursing care was provided by a “Sole RN” (Canadian Institute for Health Information [CIHI], 2002, p. 39).
recent Canadian report (CIHI, 2002) shows ….
(Note: Where abbreviations exist for organization, after the first in-text appearance, the full name is not needed for later in-text citations but remember to include the abbreviation in the first one. (see above)
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| Book |
Gilgun, J.F., Daly, K., & Handel, G. (1992). Qualitative methods in family research.
Newbury Park , CA : Sage.
In-text citation:
This allows the researcher to look at interactions and contexts from the combined perspective rather than each individual (Gilgun, Daly, & Handel, 1992).
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| Book – Chapter of Edited Book |
Rennie, D. C., Baird-Crooks, K., Remus, G., & Engel, J. (2000). Rural nursing in
Canada. In A. Bushy (Ed.), Orientation to nursing in the rural community
(pp. 217–242).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
In-text citation:
Rural nursing, practiced by highly respected and highly visible nurses working independently, was the staple in health-care services during the early development of this nation (Rennie, Baird-Crooks, Remus, & Engel, 2000).
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