Webster University North Florida Region
RESEARCH PAPER REFERENCE GUIDELINES
Effective Date: 08/11/01                     Fall Term, 2001

Purpose:   The purpose of this handout is to provide every Webster student and faculty member with a standardized interpretation of the APA format (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2001), which is to be used for all research papers written for Webster University North Florida.

 A.     FORMAT

1. Title Page must include title of work, student name, instructor name, course number, course name, term, university name, and date. Use a font size between 12 and 18 and use the same font as used in the rest of the paper. Bold is optional. Include the signed Certificate of Authorship at the bottom of the title page. (See example paper.)
2. Place page numbers on all pages except the title page (bottom center). Include the title page in the count, but don't show a number on the title page. (Please note: Title page and reference pages do not count toward pages required for assignments.)
3. Use 1.25-inch margins on left and right side and 1-inch margins on top and bottom. For bound documents, use 1.5-inch left and 1-inch right margins.
4. Preferred fonts are Times New Roman, Arial, Gill Sans, and Courier. Use 12-point font size for all pages except title page. (Please note: Instructors may require specific fonts based on the nature of the assignment.)
5. Paper is to be double-spaced and left-justified. No additional spacing with headings and subheadings.
6. Indent first line of each paragraph five spaces or use the tab (be consistent).
7. Separate each sentence with one or two spaces (be consistent).
8. When using bullets, choose a professional bullet character (be consistent).
9. The instructor may require additional formatting (e.g., abstract, table of contents, or topic headings).

 B.     THE BASICS OF CITATIONS

1. All academic papers must include documented citations referencing intellectual property to the author by name, not to name of publication. If the author is unknown, cite the organization. If no author or organization is known, cite the title.

2. All quotes and paraphrased information must be cited to page number. 

3. For personal communications (which are only cited in-text), please include the following information about your source: name, title, company or organization, type of medium (speech, interview, e-mail, etc.), and date.

4. As a general rule, use an average of at least two citations per page. The number and type of resources are at the instructor's discretion.

5. As a general rule, no more than 15% of the paper should be direct quotes.

6. No paragraph should be made up entirely of quotes and paraphrases. Use research to support your original thoughts.

C.     IN-TEXT CITATIONS from traditional written materials, books, periodicals, and publications from electronic resources:

1.      Quotes and paraphrases are listed one of these TWO ways:
(reminder: list the exact page number(s) where the cited information is found).

a)      Within the sentence:

According to Smith (1999) the sky stays blue seven hours each day in most parts of the world (p. 7).

b)      End of the sentence:

Research indicates that the sky stays blue for seven hours per day in most parts of the world (Smith, 1999, p. 7).

Additional Examples of in-text citations:

i.           One Work by a Single Author:

Smith (1983) compared reaction times…

In a recent study of reaction times (Smith, 1983, p. 8) …

ii.         One Work by Two or More Authors:

Williams, Jones, and Smith (1983) found…  (first citation)

Williams et al. (1983) found…  (second citation)

iii.       Two or More Works within the Same Parentheses:

Several studies (Drow & O'Neal, 1979, p. 15; Mullaney, 1978, pp. 98-101; Talpers, 1981, p. 6) have found…

iv.       Author Unknown:

Florida offers an average of seven hours of sunlight per day in the winter ("Blue Skies Return," 2001, pp. 12-15).
Note: When using an article title for an in-text citation, capitalize all significant words.

v.         Personal Communications:

Fred Schmidt, C.E.O of XYZ Corp. (personal communication, April 20, 2001) indicated in an e-mail…
Note: Personal Communications are not included in the reference list.

2. If a quote is 40 or more words, use typed single-spaced block with no quotation marks. Indent five spaces on left and right margins.
3. Punctuation around citations will differ depending on where the quotation falls within the sentence or the text.

a)      When the quote ends in midsentence, end the passage with quotation marks, cite the source in parentheses immediately after the quotation marks, and continue the sentence.

b)      When the quote ends at the end of a sentence, close the quoted passage with quotation marks, cite the source in parentheses immediately after the quotation marks, and end with the period or other punctuation outside the final parenthesis.

c)      At the end of a block quote, cite the quoted source in parentheses after the final punctuation mark.

D.    REFERENCES

1. Start the reference list on a new page. Type the word References at the top of the page, centered. Bold is optional.
2. Alphabetize entries by author (last name, first initial, second initial). If author is unknown, use organization, then title. Alphabetize works with no author by the first significant word in the title.
3. Entries must be double-spaced with no extra spaces between each entry. Indent the first line of each entry five spaces or use the tab (be consistent).
4. Italicize book titles and periodical titles, but not article titles.
5. Include the volume number of periodicals (if available) in italics immediately following the periodical title.
6. Every in-text citation must correspond to an entry in the reference list. Conversely, each entry in the reference list must be cited in the text. (Note: Personal communications are not included in the reference list.)
7. For situations beyond those noted, be consistent with the following examples.

General Forms:

Periodical:

     Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (1994). Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx, xxx-xxx.

Periodicals include items published on a regular basis: journals, magazines, scholarly newsletters, etc.

Nonperiodical:

     Author, A. A. (1994). Title of work. Location: Publisher.

Part of a nonperiodical (e.g., book chapter):

     Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (1994). Title of chapter. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xxx-xxx). Location: Publisher.

Nonperiodicals include items published separately: books, reports, brochures, certain monographs, manuals, and audiovisual media.

Examples:

a)      Periodicals:

     Becker, L. J., & Seligman, C. (1981). Welcome to the energy

crisis. Journal of Social Issues, 37, 63-69.

b)      Magazine Article:

     Gardner, H. (1981, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today, 70-76.

c)      Entire Book:

     Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style (3^rd

ed.). New York: Macmillan.

d)      Edited Book:

     Letheridge, A., & Cannon, C. R. (Eds.). (1980). Bilingual

education: Teaching English as a second language. Elmsford,

New York: Praeger.

e)      Newspaper Article, No Author:

     New drug appears to sharply cut risk of death from heart

failure. (1993, July 15). The Washington Post, p. A12.

 References from Electronic Sources:

 Webster University Passports databases

When referencing material obtained by searching a Webster University Passports database, follow the format appropriate to the work retrieved and add a retrieval statement that gives the date of retrieval, identifies Passports and the specific database used. If the database is divided into sections, identify the section your reference was obtained from in parentheses following the name of the database.

Sample references for articles found in Passports databases:

      Powell, E. (2000, April). Videoconferencing: The next best thing to being there? Office Solutions, 17, 40-42. Retrieved July 12, 2001, from Webster University Passports, Infotrac database (OneFile).

     Greenard, S. (2000, February 7). It's about time. Industry Week, 249,  47-50. Retrieved June 30, 2000, from Webster University Passports, Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe database (Business News).

Other Electronic Sources (non-Passports)

 At a minimum, a reference of an Internet source should provide a document title or description, a date, and an address (URL). Whenever possible, identify the authors of a document as well. Use a chapter or section identifier (if available) along with paragraph numbers in place of page numbers.

 Stand-alone document, no author identified, no date:

      GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from

 http:www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-1997-10/

 Page Numbers of Electronic Articles: Electronic sources may not have page numbers noted. If the start page of an article is given, print the article and count forward from the known start page to estimate. If there is no indication of page numbers, count paragraphs and use the paragraph number, preceded by the paragraph symbol (¶) or the abbreviation para. If neither paragraph nor page numbers are visible, cite the heading and the number of the paragraph following it to direct the reader to the location of the material.

 Examples:

 a) (Myers, 2000, ¶ 5)

 b) (Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para. 1)

For additional formats and examples of non-Passports electronic references, please visit the Electronic Resources section of the APA Style website: http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

NOTE: PLEASE USE EXAMPLE PAPER AS A MODEL.