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How To Cite A Research Paper: Creating Well-Formatted Citations In Your Writing

To write a good research paper, you need to incorporate sources. This means that you have to be familiar with how to format the sources in your academic paper. A citation is the use of someone else’s thought with reference to the author. Knowing how to cite a research paper prevents you from stealing others’ works and plagiarizing. As there are different formats of academic papers, as well as various types of sources, you need to know how to cite them correctly. Keep reading to learn more about how to create citations in your research paper.

How To Use Citations In A Paper?

What are the most popular types of sources in a research paper? Although you can buy college research paper, you still need to know how to cite a research work properly. Each of the sources you use has particular features that affect how you quote a research paper. Here are some of the most frequently used types of sources:

  • Research papers
  • Scientific journals and articles
  • Web references
  • Books and their chapters
  • Magazines
  • Documents

When you think of how to cite a scholarly article or cite a scientific paper, keep in mind that research papers and scientific journal articles can be very helpful and informative. However, remember that only a peer-reviewed academic article should be included in a paper. Using books shouldn’t be challenging if you learn how to cite literature well.

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Web sources, in turn, require you to be careful because information must be credible. Therefore, stay away from blogs and independent encyclopedias, such as Wikipedia. The same with magazines and documents: ensure that the information is valid when you’re going to quote a paper. For all sources, you use and cite in your research paper, check whether they were published within 5 recent years.

How To Cite A Research Paper In Various Formats Properly?  

When you start to make a bibliography, you need to know how to make citations. A number of formats have been developed for you and for your colleagues around the world for convenience, accuracy, and to standardize the publication process by reputable European and American institutions.

APA Style

APA stands for American Psychological Association, and the formatting style was first introduced in 1929 by a number of psychologists, businessmen, and anthropologists so there would be some rules for scientific writing that would help others read and understand text better. When you need to cite a paper in APA style, start with the last name of the author and the first letter of their first name. Then, include the year of publication and the name of the work. After that, add other information depending on the type of reference.

It consists of conventions, which ensure readers understand presented material, and it makes documentation in different fields easier. This editorial style includes:

  1. selection of headings, tone, and length;
  2. punctuation and abbreviations;
  3. presentation of numbers and statistics;
  4. construction of tables and figures;
  5. citation and references, etc.

As a result, many universities require students to use this style of formatting, and undergraduates start wondering about how to cite an APA style paper.

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Short quotations in APA research papers

Apart from writing a title page in APA format, you should also know how to use short quotations and how to cite text in paper APA style. This helps prove your point or include some additional information. Short quotations are usually no longer than 40 words. The best way to include them in your text is to use introductory words and phrases that provide some context and are surrounded by a paragraph. A quotation should be inserted between quotation marks. The author’s details about a quotation should be placed before it in a signal phrase:

However, Jones (1950) points out, “knowledge is a value” (p. 236).

You can also place all the details afterward:

However, it was pointed out, “knowledge is a value” (Jones, 1950, p.236).

Long quotations in APA style

Long quotations are more than 40 words and are also called block quotations. Their usage has a set of unique rules:

  1. long quotations are not surrounded by quotation marks;
  2. they start from their own line;
  3. the long quotation is indented 0.5 inches and has double spacing as a new paragraph;
  4. the ending citation is included after the last line of long quotation, and the punctuation goes before the citation.

Look at the example of a long quotation below. She explained by saying that

Macs are often the best option for users who wish to work with video or picture manipulation. Macs are also very user-friendly, which may benefit consumers who are new to computers. PCs, however, run Microsoft Office Suite the best. (Oyler, 2010, p. 48)

How to Cite Authors in APA paper?

You may be wondering how to cite in APA style paper. Most of the time, citing authors in your essay is an easy task if you already know how to create a research paper outline APA. Overall, the information includes the author’s surname, year of publication, and a page number if it’s a direct citation. You need to use an in-text citation meaning it usually appears before the period and has other rules. If the name of the author is not included in the sentence, state their name after it. Work that includes two writers needs an in-text citation with both their names, separated by an ampersand. In case there are three or more authors, include all of them in the beginning citation, separated by commas and the final two by an ampersand. For all later in-text citations use only the first author, followed by “et al.” and the year of publication.

Main Tips How Cite different sources in APA paper?

Main points to include while citing sources in a paper are the writer's name and initials, the title of the work, and year published. You can find more detailed structures below. It may be challenging to cope with the challenge of how to cite text in a paper APA style. If you need help with citation or title page, you can visit online citation generators or buy an apa research paper.

  • Scientific Journals and Articles

Sample, J. (2017). Title of the Article. Title of Journal5(6), 5-12. doi: 10.1111/bc.111111

(5 – journal volume, 6 – journal issue, 5-12 – journal pages)

  • Web references

Sample, J. (2018). Custom Essay Writing Service Online of High Quality. Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/

  • Books and their chapters

Sample, J. (2016). Title of the Book (3rd ed.). London: Publisher.

  • Magazines

Sample, J. (2017). Title of the Article. Title of Magazine, (5).

(5 – magazine issue)

  • Documents

Sample, J. (2017). Title of the Document [PDF]. New York: Publisher. Retrieved from http://link.com

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MLA Style

Writing citations in MLA is quite simple since you include a full name of the author and then the title of the work.

  • Scientific Journals and Articles

Sample, James. "Name of the Article". Name of Journal, vol 5, no. 6, 2017, pp. 5-12., doi:10.1111/bc.111111. Accessed 20 Apr 2019.

  • Web references

Sample, James. "Custom Essay Writing Service Online of High Quality". Papersowl.Com, 2018, https://papersowl.com/. Accessed 20 Apr 2019.

  • Books and their chapters

Sample, James. Name of the Book. 3rd ed., Publisher, 2016.

  • Magazines

Sample, James. "Name of the Article". Name of Magazine, 2017, Accessed 20 Apr 2019.

  • Documents

Sample, James. Name of the Document. Publisher, 2017, http://link.com. Accessed 20 Apr 2019.

Chicago Style

To learn how to cite a paper in Chicago, look at it as a combination of MLA and APA styles: write the author’s name as in MLA style and add the publication date similarly to APA referencing.

  • Scientific Journals and Articles

Sample, James. 2017. "Name of the Article". Name of Journal 5 (6): 5-12. doi:10.1111/bc.111111.

(5 – journal volume, 6 – journal issue, 5-12 – journal pages)

  • Web references

Sample, James. 2018. "Custom Essay Writing Service Online of High Quality". Papersowl.Com. https://papersowl.com/.

  • Books and their chapters

Sample, James. 2016. Name of the Book. 3rd ed. London: Publisher.

  • Magazines

Sample, James. 2017. "Name of the Article". Name of Magazine, 2017.

  • Documents

Sample, James. 2017. Name of the Document. PDF. New York: Publisher. http://link.com.

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Turabian Style

Citing sources in a paper according to the Turabian formatting is similar to the MLA style references. You include the author’s full name and the name of the work in brackets.

  • Scientific Journals and Articles

Sample, James. "Title of the Article". Title of Journal 5, no. 6 (2017): 5-12. doi:10.1111/bc.111111.

(5 – journal volume, 6 – journal issue, 5-12 – journal pages)

  • Web references

Sample, James. "Custom Essay Writing Service Online of High Quality". Papersowl.Com, Last modified 2018. https://papersowl.com/.

  • Books and their chapters

Sample, James. Title of the Book. 3rd ed. London: Publisher, 2016.

  • Magazines

Sample, James. "Title of the Article". Title of Magazine, 2017.

  • Documents

Sample, James. Title of the Document. Ebook. New York: Publisher, 2017. http://link.com.

ASA Style

Citing research papers in ASA style is similar to Chicago style referencing.

  • Scientific Journals and Articles

Sample, James. 2017. "Name of the Article." Name of Journal 5(6):5-12.

(5 – journal volume, 6 – journal issue, 5-12 – journal pages)

  • Web references

Sample, James. 2018. "Custom Essay Writing Service Online of High Quality." Papersowl.com. Retrieved April 20, 2019 (https://papersowl.com/).

  • Books and their chapters

Sample, James. 2016. Name of the Book. 3rd ed. London: Publisher.

  • Magazines

Sample, James. 2017. "Name of the Article." Name of Magazine.

  • Documents

Sample, James. 2017. Name of the Document. New York: Publisher. Retrieved April 20, 2019 (http://link.com).


Citing a referencing paper may be a long process since you have to format different types of sources according to a particular referencing style. To make things easier and cite sources properly, use online citation generators. As a result, you’ll receive a full bibliography in the style you need.

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