Don’t use full names without checking

• When is it OK to use full names?
  • YES: “However, an article written by Albert Einstein argued that dogs are the best pets”
  • NO: “However, an article written by Hiroko Suzuki argued that dogs are the best pets.”
• Why?
  • Full name means Famous enough that EVERYONE knows them
  • Solutions
    • Avoid the problem with bracket style:
      • “Dogs are the best pets (Suzuki, 2019).”
      • According to Suzuki (2019), dogs are the best pets
    • Explain who they are
      • (but only if the explanation shows that they know the topic)
      • (remember to cite them too)
      • “However, an article written by Hiroko Suzuki, Professor of Canine Behaviour at Harvard University, argued that dogs are the best pets (Suzuki, 2019)”

More than one author

• More than 1 author (APA7)
  • 1 author
    • Chocolate is great (Suzuki, 2010)
    • Suzuki (2010) says that English is great.
  • 2 authors.
    • Give both. Use “&” inside brackets but “and” outside
    • Chocolate is great (Suzuki & Smith, 2010)
    • According to Suzuki and Smith (2010), cats are great.
  • 3+ authors.
    • Give only first. Use “et al.”. Careful about period and comma.
    • Chocolate is great (Suzuki et al., 2010)
    • According to Suzuki et al. (2010), cats are great.
    • However, you can add more names to avoid using a/b
      • For example this:
        • (Suzuki, Yamazaki & Smith, 2010)
        • (Suzuki, Yamazaki & Tanaka, 2010)
      • Is better than this:
        • (Suzuki, et al., 2010a)
        • (Suzuki, et al., 2010b)

Handling Acronyms in APA references.

• First time you use the acronym, there are two options:
  • If it’s just a reference, and you’re not talking about the group
    • Use square brackets [] INSIDE bracket reference
    • e.g. (United Nations High Commission for Refugees [UNHCR], 2000)
  • If the group is your topic
    • Name them OUTSIDE bracket reference:
    • The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) helps refugees (UNHCR, 2000)
• Second time, just use acronym (UNHCR) for everything

Answer not on this site?

• There are LOTS of rules.
• If I cover them all here it gets confusing.
• Also, rules change - APA6 to APA7 recently broke all my worksheets
• Maybe your teachers wants MLA.

So if it’s not here try these ideas:

• Search Google (e.g. “How to cite YouTube in APA”).
• Best websites for clear examples and answers are:
  • Purdue Online: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
  • APA style blog: http://blog.apastyle.org/
• Copy from another article that uses the same or similar source.
• Read the actual APA manual (7th edition) - it’s probably in the library https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition

Citation managers

There are also some tools you can use, but they’re always full of mistakes. They get dates, page numbers, and online vs paper wrong all the time. Learn to do it manually first. However, if you’re doing a long dissertation with many citations and take the time to correct the mistakes, they’re great and integrate with Word or Google Docs. The main ones are:

• Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/ (recommended option)
• Mendeley: https://www.mendeley.com/

If you just want to check one citation, also try:

• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.jp/ (search, click “Cite” and choose APA)
• BibMe: http://www.bibme.org