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APA Style Citation

2 What Is a Citation?

A citation is a reference to a source of information. You may think that this is something specific to academic writing only, but we actually use references informally in our daily lives all the time. You are doing this to show the other person where you found the information.

Everyday referencing examples

two text balloons in the left balloon is this text: I just read that getting vaccinated for shingles can lower my risk of dementia! and the right balloon reads: Carla told me, she is worried about the chemicals in vaccine shots. She wants to boost her kid’s immune system naturally with good food and a healthy lifestyle.

In academic writing, we are doing a similar type of referencing, but it happens in a more formal and prescribed way through a process called citation. In a citation, you will give  specific key information.

 

Academic referencing examples 

The in-text citations gives brief information, usually the author and the year of publication. Each in-text citation must also have an entry in the reference list at the end of your writeup with more information, so the reader can find the source.

image shows two examples of in-text citation and reference citation in four boxes connected with vertical arrows the top two have the in-text citations and the bottom show the reference citations. the left box: Taquet, M., Dercon, Q., Todd, J. A., & Harrison, P. J. (2024). The recombinant shingles vaccine is associated with lower risk of dementia. Nature Medicine, 30(10), 2777–2781. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03201-5 and the right box Carstairs, C., & Hughes, K. (2025, March 18). Combatting the measles threat means examining the reasons for declining vaccination rates. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/combatting-the-measles-threat-means-examining-the-reasons-for-declining-vaccination-rates-252168

 

Key Takeaways

A citation:

  • is a reference to a source of information
  • gives specific key information about the source, so the reader can find it
  • gives brief information in the text and more detailed information in a reference list at the end

 

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APA Style for Nursing Copyright © 2025 by University of Regina and Saskatchewan Polytechnic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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