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APA (7th Edition) Referencing Guide

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How do I cite my own work?

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How you cite your own work depends on what it is, and whether or not it has been published.

Published work

If you are citing a published work, you cite it as per normal for the work (e.g., photograph, book chapter, etc). For the citation (both in-text and in the reference list) you refer to yourself by name just as you would any other author. When discussing your work in-text, the general convention is to talk about yourself in the third person, but make it clear that it is your own work you are discussion:

Previous research undertaken by this author has shown... (Bloggs, 2018).

But it may be appropriate to refer to yourself using first person pronouns, particularly if you are writing a reflective piece, so check with your lecturer.

In my previous research I found... (Bloggs, 2018)

Unpublished work

If the work can be found or sourced online by the public, it is informally published and should be treated as a web page. If it cannot be found by the public and can only be accessed by people who have been given access to the private link or sent a copy in person, then it is an unpublished work.

Photographs, illustrations, art

Unpublished photographs and works of art created for the assignment (or appearing only in the assignment/paper and no where else) are not cited - so they do not have a formal in-text citation or an entry in the reference list. Treat it as a figure, and add any necessary details in the Note section under the image.

Add "Own work" to the image if you feel it needs to be made clear that this is an image you created yourself.

Hong Kong before 2019/2020

Note . Photograph of Hong Kong taken in early 2000s. Own work.

If you are using your own image for an illustration in a PowerPoint presentation, you don't have to cite it, but you can put "Own work" on or under the image somewhere unobtrusive if you wish to avoid confusion.

When referring to your own artistic work in text, you need to make it clear that you are talking about your own work, but you do not cite it.

Previous assignments

Assignments submitted for other subjects are regarded as unpublished manuscripts, and are cited as such.

Reference list:

Bloggs, J. (2020). Lancelot does not deserve your love: Critiquing the "heroes" of Arthurian legends [Unpublished assignment submitted for EL1006]. James Cook University.

(Bloggs, 2020).

However, your past assignments are not usually considered to be a scholarly source, and most lectures do not want you to cite your previous assessment . You should only refer to past assignment work if you have been explicitly asked to do so (e.g. for a reflective assignment).

It would be much better to update your research and conclusions from the past assignment (and use new words to express your thoughts) than to refer to it or cite it.

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Reusing Your Work and Citing Yourself: Reusing Your Work and Citing Yourself

As you progress in your Walden program, you may find that you research and write about a topic more than once. This is typical as you engage with key concepts and specialize in your field of study. See the information and best practices on this page to ensure you follow APA citation guidelines and Walden policy if you plan to reuse past written work.

Your Published Writing

If you have published your writing outside of the Walden classroom—in a journal or even in a local newsletter or blog—and would like to reuse portions of it or refer to the findings or ideas in that work, you will need to cite yourself.

Follow APA’s guidelines for citing and referencing published works.

Your Previous Coursework

If you are considering reusing your previously submitted Walden coursework in a new course or term, review the following best practice and policy sections.

Best Practices for Reusing Work

• During your studies at Walden, you may write on the same topic for a second, third, or fourth time; regardless, your writing should reflect new approaches and insights into that topic to demonstrate intellectual growth.
• Your writing submitted for previous Walden courses will show up in the Turnitin Similarity Report when reused. Contact your faculty if you plan to reuse your work to avoid concerns about possible plagiarism. Additionally, you could cite your unpublished writing (see How to Cite Your Unpublished Work below).
• Your faculty for your current course can guide you about whether reusing your previous writing seems appropriate for a particular assignment or writing task.

Walden University’s Policy on Reusing Work

The following comes from the Walden Student Code of Conduct :

Walden Students’ Use of Their Own Scholarly Work

• Students may reuse their work without an expectation that previously awarded grades or credit will attach to the new assignment. Any work previously published by the student must be appropriately cited if reused. 
• Field Experience Exception: Any assignments or documentation submitted related to field experience (work, hours, client or patient logs, etc) must be new, current, accurate, and relate to clients or patients seen during the term and in direct reference to the assignment.

How to Cite Your Unpublished Work

Although not required in the policy above, in rare instances, you may need to or want to cite your unpublished Walden coursework.

If you cite or quote your previous work, treat yourself as the author and your own written document as the source. For example, if Marie Briggs wanted to cite a paper she wrote at Walden in 2022, her citation might look like this:

Briggs (2022) asserted that previous literature on the psychology of tightrope walkers was faulty in that it "presumed that risk-taking behaviors align neatly with certain personality traits or disorders" (p. 4).

And in the reference list:

Briggs, M. (2022). An analysis of personality theory [Unpublished manuscript]. Walden University.

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APA Citations (7th edition)

Citing journal articles.

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APA: Citing Journal Articles  from  Lawrence W. Tyree Library  on  Vimeo . View a transcript  here.

In this tutorial, you will learn the basics for citing journal articles with and without a DOI and how to cite open access journal articles.

Every APA reference needs four parts:  author, date, title,  and  source . As you go through these examples, you will learn how to identify these four parts and how to place and format them into a proper APA reference.

Example 1: A Journal Article with a DOI

For the first example, you will learn how to cite a journal article with a DOI. Often, you will find journal articles online using the library's databases or other online resources. 

The first step is to identify the  author  of the article. The author of this article is Brittanie Atteberry-Ash,

To list an author, write the  last name , a  comma , and the  first and middle initials .

Example: Atteberry-Ash.

Next, identify when this article was published. For journal articles, you typically only need the  year . In this case, this article was published in 2022. You can usually find the date at the top of the article, the cover of the journal, or, for online articles, the article's record.

List the  date  after the author(s), in  parentheses , followed by a  period .

Example: Atteberry-Ash, B. (2022).

Now, identify the  title of the article . The title will usually be at the very top of the article, in a larger size font.

List the  title  of the article after the date. Make sure you only capitalize the  first word of the title ,  the first word of the subtitle , which comes after a colon, and any  proper nouns . End with a period. In this title, only the words Social  and  A  are capitalized.

Example: Atteberry-Ash, B. (2022). Social work and social justice: A conceptual review.

For the last component, you need the  source . For an article, this is the  title of the journal, volume, issue , which is sometimes called  number , and  page numbers  of the article. Usually this information can be found on the cover of the journal, on the table of contents, or at the top of the article. For the page numbers, you should look at the first and last pages of the article. For online articles, this information is usually found in the article's record.

Type the  journal title , in  italics , capitalizing all major words, a comma, the  volume , also in  italics , the  number or issue  in parentheses, a comma, and then the  page numbers  of the article.

Example:  Atteberry-Ash, B. (2022). Social work and social justice: A conceptual review.  Social Work,   68  (1), 38-46.

The last element of the  source  is the  DOI , which stands for Digital Object Identifier. A DOI can be found in the article’s record or on the first page of the article.

Type the  DOI , using the prefix  https://doi.org/ . There is no period after the DOI.

Example:  Atteberry-Ash, B. (2022). Social work and social justice: A conceptual review.  Social Work,   68  (1), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swac042

If you refer to a work in your paper, either by directly quoting, paraphrasing, or by referring to main ideas, you will need to include an in-text parenthetical citation. There are a number of ways to do this. In this example, a  signal phrase  is used to introduce a direct quote. The  author's name  is given in the text, and the  publication date  and  page number(s)  are enclosed in parentheses at the beginning and end of the sentence.

Example: Atteberry-Ash (2022) notes "social workers are called on to practice socially just values and to address the consequences of oppression, specifically lost opportunity, social disenfranchisement, and isolation" (p. 38).

Example 2: Multiple Authors and No DOI

In this example, most of the components needed for the reference can be found in the article’s record. This article, however, has multiple authors and does not have a DOI listed in its record or in the article itself.

Format all the citation components of this journal article like the first example. For multiple authors, list the authors in the order they are listed in the article. Use a  comma  to separate each author and an  ampersand (&)  should be placed before the last author’s name. This applies for articles with up to twenty authors. Since there is no DOI listed for this article, simply omit that element. The reference will conclude after the page numbers.  

Example: Penprase, B., Mileto, L., Bittinger, A., Hranchook, A. M., Atchley, J. A., Bergakker, S., Eimers, T., & Franson, H. (2012). The use of high-fidelity simulation in the admissions process: One nurse anesthesia program’s experience.  AANA Journal, 80 (1), 43–48.

If you refer to a work in your paper that has three or more authors, the in-text citation will include the first author's name only, followed by  et al.  which means "and all the rest."

Example: Penprase et al. (2012) states that "Admission into nurse anesthesia programs is known to be a competitive process among a diverse pool of candidates" (p. 43).

Example 3: An Open Access Journal Article

This article was found in  PLOS One  which is an open access journal. Open access journal articles are articles with the full text freely available online and do not require logging in.

You will need all of the same information from the previous examples to cite an open access article. In this example, most of this information can be found at the top of the article.

In this example, the article's volume, issue, and the  article number  are found in the citation provided by the journal. Article numbers are used in place of page numbers in some online journals.

The format for open access journals is the same as the other examples. In this example, an article number is used in place of the page numbers. After the issue number, type  Article  and then the article number. If an open access journal does not provide a DOI, you may provide the URL of the article instead. Only include the URL if it directly brings you to the full text of the article without logging in.

Example: Francis, H. M., Stevenson, R. J., Chambers, J. R., Gupta, D., Newey, B., & Lim, C. K. (2019). A brief diet intervention can reduce symptoms of depression in young adults – A randomised controlled trial.  PLOS ONE, 14 (1), Article e0222768. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222768

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First-Person Pronouns

Use first-person pronouns in APA Style to describe your work as well as your personal reactions.

• If you are writing a paper by yourself, use the pronoun “I” to refer to yourself.
• If you are writing a paper with coauthors, use the pronoun “we” to refer yourself and your coauthors together.

Referring to yourself in the third person

Do not use the third person to refer to yourself. Writers are often tempted to do this as a way to sound more formal or scholarly; however, it can create ambiguity for readers about whether you or someone else performed an action.

Correct: I explored treatments for social anxiety.

Incorrect: The author explored treatments for social anxiety.

First-person pronouns are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 4.16 and the Concise Guide Section 2.16

Editorial “we”

Also avoid the editorial “we” to refer to people in general.

Incorrect: We often worry about what other people think of us.

Instead, specify the meaning of “we”—do you mean other people in general, other people of your age, other students, other psychologists, other nurses, or some other group? The previous sentence can be clarified as follows:

Correct: As young adults, we often worry about what other people think of us. I explored my own experience of social anxiety...

When you use the first person to describe your own actions, readers clearly understand when you are writing about your own work and reactions versus those of other researchers.

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How should you refer to yourself in a paper?

When writing a paper that discusses previous work by the same set of authors, what is the correct way to refer to it?

For example,

"In 2012 Fred et al. introduced a third way of resolving the washing crisis [1234]."

Should this be written

"In 2012 we introduced a third way of resolving the washing crisis [1234]."

"In 2012 the current authors introduced a third way of resolving the washing crisis [1234]."

"In 2012 Fred et al. (the current authors) introduced a third way of resolving the washing crisis [1234]."

Note that in this style the reference is [1234], in case that wasn't clear.

4 Answers 4

This usually depends on whether or not you paper will be reviewed double-blind or not. If it's going to be double-blind, then you need to refer to yourself in the third person (i.e. by name, "Fred, et al.") rather than using a pronoun. If it's only going to be single-blind review, then I think it's a matter of style whether you use a pronoun or refer to yourself by name, though the venue you are submitting to, or your field, may have preferences. In which case, you should ask around.

• Good point. It is not going to be reviewed double-blind. The reference is [1234] at the end of the sentence. Perhaps having 1234 citations was a little unrealistic. –  Simd Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 15:43
• @dorothy, I knew what "[1234]" was, but not, literally, "[...]". Did you mean an ellipsis denoting more text in those two places, or the same "[1234]" citation? –  Bill Barth Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 15:49
• 1 Edited question to make it clearer. Sorry for any confusion. –  Simd Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 15:50
• Thank you. What would be the style in the venues you publish in? –  Simd Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 16:39
• It's generally open. I have used "we" if the author list is identical. No one is going to reject your paper because of this stylistic choice. You might get an editor requesting you to change it, at the most. –  Bill Barth Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 16:53

Although this can be a matter of style, whenever possible, I like to say "I" or "we" when I have been involved in the prior work. I think that it is important for two reasons:

• It is more transparent and honest about possible biases in your citation and perspective on the field, so it doesn't feel like you're claiming independent evidence when you are citing yourself.
• It helps to make it clear how a particular piece of work fits into an overall research program.

I also like an active voice style better and think it communicates more clearly, but that may be a matter of style rather than substance.

• 2 Also, there is a reason why most languages have personal pronouns I and we , and this reason applies to academic publications just as much as to every other type of communication. –  user27799 Commented Apr 1, 2015 at 22:27

As Bill Barth says in his answer, it's a matter of style. I personally think that people shouldn't hide quite as much behind passive voice and "Fred et al.". It's refreshing to read people speak in their first voice, so I personally would not mind seeing more statements of the form

Following a long list of unsuccessful attempts, we finally succeeded in devising a third way of resolving the washing crisis in 2012, see [1234].

You may or may not feel comfortable with showing this much of yourself, but I imagine only the most stuck up reviewers are going to ding you for it.

• 3 The only place where I have any qualms about using 'we' is when most of the authors coincide, the lead authors (especially when it's literally me) have done most of the work, but the author lists don't coincide exactly. I shouldn't use 'we' in these cases, and I don't, but sometimes I want to. I want to convey the continuing team aspect of the work, but I also don't want to be misleading. –  Bill Barth Commented Apr 1, 2015 at 2:55
• I see this very often (and committed myself previously), but there is an opinion that everything in brackets or parenthesis should be possible to omit during reading. Hence, see [123] is a bad style, but as Fred et al. [123] mentioned is a good one. I try to stick to this during my writing. –  Oleg Lobachev Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 15:02

Assuming that the author list for the current and cited paper are the same, I would follow this approach.

While submitting for review:

In 2012 Fred et al. introduced a third way of resolving the washing crisis [1234].

When paper is accepted:

In 2012 we introduced a third way of resolving the washing crisis [1234].

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Citing Your Own Work

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Have you ever been given an assignment and thought, “I’ve written a paper like this before…”? If yes, then you might’ve considered re-using content from that previous paper for your new one. If it’s still relevant and the result of your own work, so why not?

Doing so, however, should be treated with extreme caution, and if done incorrectly can lead to something called “self-plagiarism.” Let’s review how you can self-plagiarism when using work you’ve written before for a new assignment.

What is self plagiarism?

Self-plagiarism is defined as incorrectly citing (or not citing) a piece of your own work in another work you are writing.

There are a few different types of self-plagiarism:

• Word-for-word

The most common type of self-plagiarism occurs is when you copy word-for-word a paper you have already written and insert it into a new assignment. If you take any direct material from an old paper of yours, you must create a citation for the older paper. This applies even when your assignments are for different instructors or courses.

• Salami-slicing

Another type of self-plagiarism is known as, “salami-slicing,” happens when the author of a study separates aspects of the study and publishes it in more than one publication, depending on what the goal of each published article is. Salami-slicing is considered unethical since it doesn’t present a whole, complete presentation of a research study. Segmenting the data into many “slices” could lead to misinterpretations.

• Copyright infringement

Perhaps the most well-known outcome of self-plagiarism is “copyright infringement.” This is when an author publishes work that is copyrighted, only for that writer to take that copyrighted material and publish it elsewhere without citing the original work. Even if the writer was the original author of the copyrighted material, proper referencing to the original is still needed.

How to avoid self-plagiarism

There are a few simple steps a writer can take to avoid committing self-plagiarism:

• Conduct further research

If a new paper assignment you’ve been given is similar to one you have already written, consider conducting further research on the topic. Doing this may open up new concepts and avenues of writing that you had not considered before.

• Consult your old class notes

Instead of copying directly from your old paper, check any old notes or outlines that you created for that class and try to come up with unique ideas to write about, or perhaps a slightly different angle than the one you previously chose.

• Cite your previous work

If you wish to use an older paper you have written on a topic as a source for a new paper, you can cite yourself, just as you would cite any other source you use in your research. Here is how you would do this in some of the most popular citation formats:

Harvard referencing style:

Your Last Name, First Initial. (Year) ‘Title of your paper’. School Name. Unpublished essay.

Harvard example:

Lu, P. (2017) ‘George Washington in early American paintings’. Southern New Hampshire University. Unpublished essay.

APA citation format :

Your Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of paper. Unpublished manuscript, University Name.

APA example:

Lu, P. (2017). George Washington in early American paintings. Unpublished manuscript, Southern New Hampshire University.

MLA citation format:

Your Last Name, Your First Name. “Title of Your Paper .”  Year written. Your School’s Name, unpublished paper.

MLA example:

Lu, Patricia. “George Washington in Early American Paintings .” 2017. Southern New Hampshire U, unpublished paper.

Looking for more styles or citing guides? Visit Cite This For Me to access a Chicago citation generator , a guide on how to do an in-text citation , an example of an annotated bibliography , and more!

Usage and Grammar

Q. What is an acceptable way to refer to myself in a Chicago-style paper? I have always been told not to use “I”: “I disagree with Dr. Fream’s conclusion.” In the past I have been told that I should refer to myself as “this author”: “This author disagrees with Dr. Fream’s conclusion.” An English-teacher friend of mine, in checking one of my papers, stated that she believes the use of “this author” is in error.

A. Avoiding the first person used to be considered proper, but now it’s considered very formal, if not old-fashioned. It’s not a question of correctness, however; both styles are correct. If you feel strongly that the first person is out of place in your work, don’t use it.

[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]

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Frequently asked questions

When do i need to cite myself.

If you are reusing content or data you used in a previous assignment, make sure to cite yourself. You can cite yourself just as you would cite any other source: simply follow the directions for that source type in the citation style you are using.

Keep in mind that reusing your previous work can be considered self-plagiarism , so make sure you ask your professor or consult your university’s handbook before doing so.

Frequently asked questions: Plagiarism

Academic integrity means being honest, ethical, and thorough in your academic work. To maintain academic integrity, you should avoid misleading your readers about any part of your research and refrain from offenses like plagiarism and contract cheating, which are examples of academic misconduct.

Plagiarism is a form of theft, since it involves taking the words and ideas of others and passing them off as your own. As such, it’s academically dishonest and can have serious consequences .

Plagiarism also hinders the learning process, obscuring the sources of your ideas and usually resulting in bad writing. Even if you could get away with it, plagiarism harms your own learning.

Most online plagiarism checkers only have access to public databases, whose software doesn’t allow you to compare two documents for plagiarism.

However, in addition to our Plagiarism Checker , Scribbr also offers an Self-Plagiarism Checker . This is an add-on tool that lets you compare your paper with unpublished or private documents. This way you can rest assured that you haven’t unintentionally plagiarized or self-plagiarized .

Compare two sources for plagiarism

Most institutions have an internal database of previously submitted student papers. Turnitin can check for self-plagiarism by comparing your paper against this database. If you’ve reused parts of an assignment you already submitted, it will flag any similarities as potential plagiarism.

Online plagiarism checkers don’t have access to your institution’s database, so they can’t detect self-plagiarism of unpublished work. If you’re worried about accidentally self-plagiarizing, you can use Scribbr’s Self-Plagiarism Checker to upload your unpublished documents and check them for similarities.

Yes, reusing your own work without acknowledgment is considered self-plagiarism . This can range from re-submitting an entire assignment to reusing passages or data from something you’ve turned in previously without citing them.

Self-plagiarism often has the same consequences as other types of plagiarism . If you want to reuse content you wrote in the past, make sure to check your university’s policy or consult your professor.

Common knowledge does not need to be cited. However, you should be extra careful when deciding what counts as common knowledge.

Common knowledge encompasses information that the average educated reader would accept as true without needing the extra validation of a source or citation.

Common knowledge should be widely known, undisputed and easily verified. When in doubt, always cite your sources.

Plagiarism has serious consequences , and can indeed be illegal in certain scenarios.

While most of the time plagiarism in an undergraduate setting is not illegal, plagiarism or self-plagiarism in a professional academic setting can lead to legal action, including copyright infringement and fraud. Many scholarly journals do not allow you to submit the same work to more than one journal, and if you do not credit a co-author, you could be legally defrauding them.

Even if you aren’t breaking the law, plagiarism can seriously impact your academic career. While the exact consequences of plagiarism vary by institution and severity, common consequences include: a lower grade, automatically failing a course, academic suspension or probation, or even expulsion.

Accidental plagiarism is one of the most common examples of plagiarism . Perhaps you forgot to cite a source, or paraphrased something a bit too closely. Maybe you can’t remember where you got an idea from, and aren’t totally sure if it’s original or not.

These all count as plagiarism, even though you didn’t do it on purpose. When in doubt, make sure you’re citing your sources . Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.

Self-plagiarism means recycling work that you’ve previously published or submitted as an assignment. It’s considered academic dishonesty to present something as brand new when you’ve already gotten credit and perhaps feedback for it in the past.

If you want to refer to ideas or data from previous work, be sure to cite yourself.

If you’re concerned that you may have self-plagiarized, Scribbr’s Self-Plagiarism Checker can help you turn in your paper with confidence. It compares your work to unpublished or private documents that you upload, so you can rest assured that you haven’t unintentionally plagiarized.

Incremental plagiarism means inserting quotes, passages, or excerpts from other works into your assignment without properly citing the original source.

Even if the vast majority of the text is yours, including any content that isn’t without citing it is plagiarism.

Consider using a plagiarism checker yourself before submitting your work. Plagiarism checkers work by scanning your document, comparing it to a database of webpages and publications, and highlighting passages that appear similar to other texts.

Patchwork plagiarism (aka mosaic plagiarism) means copying phrases, passages, or ideas from various existing sources and combining them to create a new text. While this type of plagiarism is more insidious than simply copy-pasting directly from a source, plagiarism checkers like Turnitin’s can still easily detect it.

To avoid plagiarism in any form, remember to cite your sources . Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

Verbatim plagiarism means copying text from a source and pasting it directly into your own document without giving proper credit.

Even if you delete a few words or replace them with synonyms, it still counts as verbatim plagiarism.

To use an author’s exact words, quote the original source by putting the copied text in quotation marks and including an in-text citation .

If you’re worried about plagiarism, consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

Global plagiarism means taking an entire work written by someone else and passing it off as your own. This can mean getting someone else to write an essay or assignment for you, or submitting a text you found online as your own work.

Global plagiarism is the most serious type of plagiarism because it involves deliberately and directly lying about the authorship of a work. It can have severe consequences .

To ensure you aren’t accidentally plagiarizing, consider running your work through plagiarism checker tool prior to submission. These tools work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

Plagiarism can be detected by your professor or readers if the tone, formatting, or style of your text is different in different parts of your paper, or if they’re familiar with the plagiarized source.

Many universities also use plagiarism detection software like Turnitin’s, which compares your text to a large database of other sources, flagging any similarities that come up.

It can be easier than you think to commit plagiarism by accident. Consider using a plagiarism checker prior to submitting your paper to ensure you haven’t missed any citations.

Some examples of plagiarism include:

• Copying and pasting a Wikipedia article into the body of an assignment
• Quoting a source without including a citation
• Not paraphrasing a source properly, such as maintaining wording too close to the original
• Forgetting to cite the source of an idea

The most surefire way to avoid plagiarism is to always cite your sources . When in doubt, cite!

If you’re concerned about plagiarism, consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission. Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.

Plagiarism means presenting someone else’s work as your own without giving proper credit to the original author. In academic writing, plagiarism involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without including a citation .

Plagiarism can have serious consequences , even when it’s done accidentally. To avoid plagiarism, it’s important to keep track of your sources and cite them correctly.

Academic dishonesty can be intentional or unintentional, ranging from something as simple as claiming to have read something you didn’t to copying your neighbor’s answers on an exam.

You can commit academic dishonesty with the best of intentions, such as helping a friend cheat on a paper. Severe academic dishonesty can include buying a pre-written essay or the answers to a multiple-choice test, or falsifying a medical emergency to avoid taking a final exam.

Consequences of academic dishonesty depend on the severity of the offense and your institution’s policy. They can range from a warning for a first offense to a failing grade in a course to expulsion from your university.

For those in certain fields, such as nursing, engineering, or lab sciences, not learning fundamentals properly can directly impact the health and safety of others. For those working in academia or research, academic dishonesty impacts your professional reputation, leading others to doubt your future work.

Academic dishonesty refers to deceitful or misleading behavior in an academic setting. Academic dishonesty can occur intentionally or unintentionally, and varies in severity.

It can encompass paying for a pre-written essay, cheating on an exam, or committing plagiarism . It can also include helping others cheat, copying a friend’s homework answers, or even pretending to be sick to miss an exam.

Academic dishonesty doesn’t just occur in a classroom setting, but also in research and other academic-adjacent fields.

Paraphrasing without crediting the original author is a form of plagiarism , because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly cite the source . This means including an in-text citation and a full reference, formatted according to your required citation style .

As well as citing, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words.

Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own. Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas in your own words.

So when does paraphrasing count as plagiarism?

• Paraphrasing is plagiarism if you don’t properly credit the original author.
• Paraphrasing is plagiarism if your text is too close to the original wording (even if you cite the source). If you directly copy a sentence or phrase, you should quote it instead.
• Paraphrasing  is not plagiarism if you put the author’s ideas completely in your own words and properly cite the source .

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If you’ve properly paraphrased or quoted and correctly cited the source, you are not committing plagiarism.

However, the word correctly is vital. In order to avoid plagiarism , you must adhere to the guidelines of your citation style  (e.g. APA  or MLA ).

You can use the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker to make sure you haven’t missed any citations, while our Citation Checker ensures you’ve properly formatted your citations in APA style.

The consequences of plagiarism vary depending on the type of plagiarism and the context in which it occurs. For example, submitting a whole paper by someone else will have the most severe consequences, while accidental citation errors are considered less serious.

If you’re a student, then you might fail the course, be suspended or expelled, or be obligated to attend a workshop on plagiarism. It depends on whether it’s your first offense or you’ve done it before.

As an academic or professional, plagiarizing seriously damages your reputation. You might also lose your research funding or your job, and you could even face legal consequences for copyright infringement.

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APA (7th ed.), Citation Style: General Guidelines

• Introduction to APA
• General Guidelines
• Who (Author)
• When (Publication Date)
• What (Title)
• Where (Publication Information)
• Formatting Author Information
• Citing Personal Communications
• Citing Indirect Sources (secondary sources)
• Citing Sources with Missing Information (author, date, or page numbers)

General APA Style Guidelines

WRITING STYLE

APA format suggests writing in the first person. If you are a sole author, use the pronoun "I". If you are co-authoring a paper, use the pronoun "we". Do NOT refer to yourself or your co-authors in the third person as "the author(s)" or "the researcher(s)."

Be concise and clear

• Avoid vague and misleading statements
• Present information clearly with minimal jargon
• Eliminate unnecessary words/phrases

Style matters

• Write objectively
• Avoid poetic or flowery language
• Make sure subject/verb tenses agree

AVOIDING BIAS

Be sensitive to labels

• Avoid identifying groups by a disorder/disease, condition, etc. Avoid: schizophrenics Preferred: people diagnosed with schizophrenia
• Avoid outdated/inappropriate labels
• When you must label a group, try to use a term that group prefers, and be aware that different people within those groups may prefer different terms.  When in doubt, ask the participants.
• Describe at the appropriate level of specificity. There are times when age, gender, sexual orientation, etc. matter for specific reasons, and when it doesn't. If it doesn't matter, don't use it.

Gender pronouns

• The third person singular use of "they" is recommended to avoid gender/sexual orientation bias, and when that is unknown/ not relevant to what is being discussed/studied. Only use "he/she" sparingly.

Additional Resources

• Daemen Library Web Tutorials - How to Format References in APA Style
• APA Style Blog: In-text Citations
• APA Style- Mechanics of Style
• APA Style Guide: Formatting Quick answers on how to format your running head, margins, heading levels, lists, tables, and more!
• APA Style Guide: References Quick answers on how to format those difficult resources!

Major Paper Sections

Research papers written in APA style include four major sections.  These sections include:

APA style title pages are centered horizontally and vertically.  It consists of the title of your paper, your name and institution.  If instructed, it may also include a course/section number, instructor name, and due date.  The title page should be numbered the first page.  A running head should appear in the upper left-hand corner of your paper.  The running head should be typed in UPPERCASE letters and be no more than 50 characters long.

 HOW TO USE APA

The abstract appears as the second page of your paper.  An abstract is a brief (150 to 250 words) but thorough description of your problem, findings and summaries.  If you performed an experiment, your methodology and findings should be described. 

The components of the main body of your paper will depend on the assignment.  The main body of your paper could describe the problem you are researching, an investigation of previous findings, methodology, results, discussion of results and/or conclusion.  Running head and page numbers are still present in the main body.

References  

The running head and page numbers also continue onto your reference page.  Center the word "References" and continue to use double spacing throughout this page.  References must have a hanging indent and follow the APA formatting described throughout this guide.

APA style, 7th edition requires specific heading formatting.

Sample Papers

APA can be difficult.  The Owl at Purdue provides a great APA sample page to help you visually understand APA style.

To go more in depth, the APA provides sample papers with details notes about many aspects of APA formatting and style.The annotated student papers are available in PDF format; non-annotated ones are also available in Word format.

APA also offers tutorials and webinars on many things APA. Those tutorials can be found here: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/tutorials-webinars

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• Next: Architecture of a Citation >>
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• Introduction
• Formatting Your Paper
• In-Text Citations
• Books and eBooks
• Business Reports
• Conference Presentations and Publications
• Dissertations and Theses
• Government Documents, Statutes, and Court Cases
• Images and Advertisements
• Missing Information
• Multiple Authors
• Personal Communications (E-mails, Interviews, etc.)
• Previous Coursework
• Religious Works
• Secondary Source/Indirect Citation (as cited in)
• Social Media
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• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Annotated Bibliographies
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APA 7th Edition Citation Guide Previous Coursework

How to cite yourself.

When citing a paper that you wrote for a previous class, consider yourself as the author and your previous course work as an unpublished paper. Include [Unpublished manuscript] in brackets after the title.

Reference Page Format:

Author, (year written). Title [Unpublished manuscript]. Institution.

Reference Page Example:

O’Toole, T. (2019).  An analysis of pre-WWII leaders  [Unpublished manuscript]. Concordia University, St. Paul.  

In-text Citation Examples:

According to O’Toole (2019)... ...(O’Toole, 2019). ...(O’Toole, 2019, p. 4).

Blackboard Lectures and PowerPoints

Sources on Blackboard, such as recorded lectures and PowerPoints, are not available to people outside of your institution. If the audience of your paper is your professor and/or classmates who have access to the content, use the following examples.

If your audience is not enrolled in your course or part of your institution and therefore does not have access to the content, cite the content as a Personal Communication .

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title [Format]. Blackboard@CSP.  https://csp.blackboard.com/

Neilson, J. (2022, September 1).  What the library can do for you  [PowerPoint Slides]. Blackboard@CSP.  https://csp.blackboard.com/

According to Neilson (2022)... ...(Neilson, 2022).

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How do expert writers avoid using "I" when they have to refer to themselves in their article?

How do competent authors, in a refined and perhaps (slightly) formal way, refer to themselves without saying I ? I've seen the term "this writer" somewhere. How is it with a native? Are there other terms that are a little bit more formal and delicate than I is?

• word-choice

• 1 In journalism and reporting, they sometimes use "your correspondent" or "your [word that describes journalist on reporting duty]" –  George Capote Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 21:03
• 3 "one", possibly. " One does not simply refer to themselves " –  Mateo Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 23:18
• 2 One of the best-written mathematics books I know (Wilfrid Hodges, Model Theory) starts with a section on conventions used in the book, as is usual. But this one includes the following gem: "'I' means 'I' and 'we' means 'we'." And the author really uses the two pronouns in this way without any attempts to hide his personality. Maybe this approach only works in mathematics and hard science, where people sometimes say things such as: "You are right, yesterday you proved the main theorem in my book is wrong and today I found my mistake." And it's not the end of the world, either. –  Hans Adler Commented Jul 26, 2014 at 16:20
• 1 Don't be afraid to use the right word in the right situation. Sometimes that word is "I." Just don't talk about yourself so much in your papers. –  ssdecontrol Commented Jul 26, 2014 at 18:56
• 3 My point was that it's bad style for a single person to write "as we showed in an earlier paper" or "as the author has shown previously". Instead, write either "as I have shown previously" or just "for a proof of ... see [1]". "We will see in the next section" is fine, though, as it includes the readers. –  Hans Adler Commented Jul 26, 2014 at 21:25

12 Answers 12

Use of pronouns like "I" and "me" in a narrative will tend to cast the writer as the protagonist. Use of other forms such as "yours truly" or non-reflexive "myself" tends to cast the author into a "supporting character" role.

Suppose someone is writing about Mr. Smith's performance in a chess tournament and, after saying "In round one, Mr. Smith played against Alec Jones" and describing his performance in that round, went on to say "In round two, Mr. Smith played against me". A reader might expect the description of the round to be focused on the writer, rather than on Mr. Smith. If instead the text had been "In round two, Mr. Smith played against yours truly."

Some people cringe at non-reflexive usages of "myself". I personally don't find them objectionable when used in either the imperative or passive voice, with the purpose of suggesting semantic equivalence between the person writing or speaking and others. For example, if Mr. Smith asks people "Please submit reports to Mrs. Robinson, Mrs. Jones, or to me", that would suggest that submissions to him would be perceived differently. Using the non-reflexive "...or to myself" would suggest that the set of people to whom forms may be submitted includes him, but he has no special significance within that set.

Even though the non-reflexive "myself" is often useful, there are many places where it just doesn't work, especially with the active voice, or when used with verbs that would be amenable to reflexive usage. For narrative situations, "yours truly" is concise but effective; it conveys no implication that the character in the story were affected by the fact that they would later be written about. By contrast, "this author" implies that the writer's status as an author was significant to the events described.

What's important is to recognize that there are many ways an author can refer to himself, and usage of forms other than simple first-person pronouns is not merely a matter of being "cute", but often carries somewhat different meanings and implications.

• 7 If in the second round, Mr. Smith played against the author, any circumlocution like "yours truly" or even "the author" will sound like just that: a circumlocution, and thus awkward and unprofessional. In such a situation, any semi-competent author will use "me", period end of story. –  Martha Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 21:47
• 1 Is there any source for acceptability of a non-reflexive meaning of "myself"? –  Ari Brodsky Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 7:21

Many competent writers will challenge the assertion that "the perpendicular pronoun" (I) really needs to be avoided. Others seem to believe that only third person is acceptable, or that no person should ever be mentioned unless specifically talking about people.

My own take is that this is all a matter of style, and whatever you pick -- as long as it sounds natural and you're consistent about it -- is probably fine. If I'm writing for my employer, I'll follow my employer's style guidelines. If I'm writing for publication, I'll follow the publication's preferences. If I'm writing without those constraints, my writing is generally only slightly more formal than my speech.

Competence precludes finding oneself needing to mean "I" but having to say "this writer" - or, variously:

• your correspondent
• this ink-stained wretch (please, no!)

TBH, the form hardly matters - silk purses and sow's ears, etc.

• 23 Exactly. A genuinely expert writer avoids introducing himself into a literary context where his presence is deprecated. An essay is like any other social occasion. If you belong there, you may introduce yourself in the first person without offense. If you don't belong there, you shouldn't be trying to sneak in unnoticed by pretending to be somebody else. –  StoneyB Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 4:54
• 8 I used to favor "your humble narrator" for a while. Then I decided I wasn't all that humble and often wasn't narrating. –  keshlam Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 5:16
• 2 I agree with StoneyB. If I have a reason to write about myself, then I'll use "I" (and "me", "my", etc.). If I don't have a reason to write about myself, I won't. –  Andreas Blass Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 16:55

In science, it is quite common to use "we" instead of "I" even if there is only one author.

• 15 In maths, "we can see" or whatever can imply "You, the reader, and I", which I think is quite nice. –  GKFX Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 13:04
• True, that is another meaning of the scientific "we". –  painfulenglish Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 13:36
• In science it is common because most papers are published by two or more authors! So the impression that "we" is common might be a false one. In my experience, single authors always refer to themselves as "I" in the natural sciences. –  user5645 Commented Jul 28, 2014 at 9:14
• There definitely are single-author papers which use "we". However, people sometimes feel uncomfortable using this form, and change everything to passive voice to avoid it. –  painfulenglish Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 6:45
• Formally this is called 'royal we', which has uncomfortably arrogant connotations, although I agree, it's used. –  Jeff-Inventor ChromeOS Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 5:38

It seems to depend on the context, and even more so on the type of writing. Some answers have addressed it, it's strange that none have aggregated different scenarios where one would want to avoid referring to oneself directly.

• In journalism, it's generally frowned upon to use "I." I've seen many cases of "your correspondent" in most of the articles I read. "Your author" is also possible, though maybe not so much for journalism.
• In most scientific cases, authors sometimes avoid using a reference to themselves entirely by using the passive voice. I found that this is common here .
• In other academic scenarios, many do use "I" but I've seen many research papers which use "we" even when referring to the single author. Mathematic proofs, for example, always say "we know that..." or "we can see from ... that..."

Of course it's always good to do a bit of research on the particular scenario in which you are.

• 3 As commented above, the mathematical "we" means "the author and the reader", so it's certainly appropriate even with only one author. –  Steve Jessop Commented Jul 26, 2014 at 9:39
• I disagree. Both meanings exists. When I write "We studied problem x" in a paper, I mean me and possibly my co-authors, but certainly not the reader. I'm quite sure many other scientists use "we" in this way. –  painfulenglish Commented Jul 28, 2014 at 17:19

I see two main contexts:

The author of the work is also relevant to the subject under discussion. Then the author should use the third person and a name. "Reports must be submitted in triplicate to both Itsme and Steve Jessop". "Mr. Jessop has responsibility for X, whereas Itsme handles Y". It might matter which of us wrote that text, we might have collaborated on it. Someone who cares can check the top of the document, but it's not relevant to the matter at hand, so let's not mess about identifying professional responsibilities relative to authorship of the document.

The author wants to personalize the authorial voice. This generally isn't what you want in formal writing, but might be done from an excess of ego or an excess of honesty that you're writing a personal opinion or experience.

In this case, assuming you want to avoid "I", then you say "the author", "this author", "this reviewer", "this observer", and so on. Identify the role whose point of view you're trying to inject. So for example a journalist who attended a political event might first lay out the facts in the usual way, and then mention "this observer" when giving a more subjective view: "Following the speeches a fistfight occurred, but this observer was unable to determine who started it" makes clear that even to those in the room it was not necessarily obvious what was going on.

Whether you should want to avoid "I" at all is probably outside the scope of the question, but personally I think it depends in large part on whether you think the reader knows or cares who is addressing them. Extreme case, a newspaper report with no by-line shouldn't use "I", because the reader can't know who that is even if they want to. Even with a by-line, a reporter's style avoids it. An opinion piece has a lot more scope to use "I".

• For things like memos which, while written by people, are supposed to speak in the voice of the company those people are representing, it is entirely appropriate for the author to refer to himself by name just as would anyone else. In cases where the author has a personal voice, however, such a thing might prompt readers to wonder whether the author and the person identified were the same person, or whether the text was actually written by the claimed author; such distractions might be avoided if you refer to yourself as "Steve Jessop (yours truly)". –  supercat Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 17:30
• Well, "yours truly" to mean "me" is awful, but that's a matter of taste since it's entirely comprehensible. Anyway in writing it's just an indirect way of saying "the author" or "your correspondent", i.e. it's the person who would sign off a letter "yours truly". –  Steve Jessop Commented Jul 28, 2014 at 10:22

This writer is correct.

For example:

Exercise has many benefits. Proponents of exercise find there is a large variety of exercise options to fit different lifestyles. Barack Obama goes running in the morning. Jane Doe attends a weekly dancing class. I myself do press ups and stomach crunches in between writing stints through out the day.

The writer can remove the first person perspective by replace 'I myself' with 'this writer'.

Exercise has many benefits. Proponents of exercise find there is a large variety of exercise options to fit different lifestyles. Barack Obama goes running in the morning. Jane Doe attends a weekly dancing class.This writer does press ups and stomach crunches in between writing stints through his writing day.

• 1 What evidence do you have to proclaim it as "correct"? –  curiousdannii Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 0:45
• Why not, "Press ups and stomach crunches can be accomplished in between writing stints throughout the day"? Or, "in between performing sedentary tasks..."? –  user26732 Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 19:45

In the natural sciences, the use of the personal pronouns "I" (for one author) and "we" (for two or more authors) is perfectly fine. In fact, you must use these pronouns, if you refer to yourself!

For example the Manual (2009) of the American Psychological Association clearly states (pp. 69-70):

Attribution. Inappropriately or illogically attribution action in an effort to be objective can be misleading. Examples of undesirable attribution include use of the third person, anthropomorphism, and use of the editorial we . Third person. To avoid ambiguity, use a personal pronoun rather than the thrid person when describing steps taken in your experiment. Correct: We reviewed the literature. Incorrect: The authors reviewed the literature. Anthropomorphism. Do not attribute human characteristics to animals or to inanimate sources. Correct: The staff for the community program was persuaded to allow ... Incorrect: The community program was persuaded to allow ... An experiment cannot attempt to demonstrate , control unwanted variables , or interpret findings , nor can tables or figures compare (all of these can, however, show or indicate ). Use a pronoun or an appropriate noun as the subject of these verbs. I or we (meaning the author or authors) can replace the experiment . Editorial we. For clarity, restrict your use of we to refer only to yourself and your coauthors (use I if you are the sole author of the paper). Broader uses of we may leave your readers wondering to whom you are referring; instead substitute an appropriate noun or clarify your usage: Correct: As behaviorists, we tend to dispute ... Incorrect: We tend to dispute ...

The fundamental rule of all APA syle are "precision and clarity" (p. 68):

"Make certain that every word means exactly what you intend it to mean."

See also this post in the APA Style Blog: Use of First Person in APA Style .

If the work has a list of references, then refer one can refer to the reference as if referring to any one else's reference. As an alternative, one can refer to the name of the content of what they want to reference instead of using the attribution of the content's creator (ie, "I").

In legal writing there is an easy answer: you refer to the roles played rather than the individuals who undertook them. So if you are writing a brief and complaining that the judge did something you didn't like, you wouldn't write, "the judge did not let me present evidence" but, "counsel for plaintiff was prevented from presenting evidence." Because in this context personalities do not matter.

While this question is directed towards non-fiction, the winds of what the French call "autofiction" are blowing and I think we will see a greater use of the first person in all types of writing. Even though Rimbaud famously wrote, " Je est un autre." ( I is someone else.)

If the writer is truly an expert, then they refer to themselves so enigmatically that they set the 2000-year-old standard for how to subtly promote oneself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciple_whom_Jesus_loved

Use "I" all you want. I was taught the same thing in school: "don't use "I" because of whatever". That's total BS.

If you haven't already, read "Journey to the End of the Night " by Celine, one of the best books in French literature. You'll see how you can write a masterpiece not just using "I" everywhere, but also making intentional grammar/syntax errors in every other sentence!

PS: the book is translated from the French at Project Nutenberg, for free...

• 1 Welcome to ELU.SE. I don't believe it's all that convincing to explain something you believe to be the case in English by referring to French literature, I'm afraid. "Don't bother" might be a reasonable answer, but needs some English substantiation. –  Andrew Leach Commented Jul 26, 2014 at 13:23
• 1 The pleasure is all mine. I am afraid that you are wrong though. The fact that the book is French is completely irrelevant for this conversation. It is for the exact same reason the word "I" should be avoided in French as it is in English. Furthermore, I was not referring to "Voyage jusqu'au bout de la nuit", but to its English translation "Journey to the End of the Night". –  user83260 Commented Jul 26, 2014 at 16:29

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Achilleas Kostoulas

Applied Linguistics & Language Teacher Education

Is it ever OK to cite your own work?

Published on

Last edited

If you have already published a paper, chances are that you will want to cite it even in the next paper you write. This article discusses the practice of self-citation , i.e., the reference to a previously published article by the same author.

Self-citation might be awkward, especially if you have been brought up in a culture that encourages modestly. There is also evidence to suggest that female academics in particular are relatively reluctant to cite their own work (e.g., a study conducted in 2017 found that men are 70% likelier to self-cite than women). In fact, what prompted this post was a discussion with a junior colleague, who was wondering if citing her own work in an upcoming presentation would be “obscene”.

Would it be too obscene if I cited my paper in my upcoming presentation?

The TL:DR is that, in principle, an author’s responsibility is to direct the readers’ attention to all the relevant research. This is sometimes work in which the author has been involved. So, yes, it is OK to cite your own work.

In the paragraphs that follow, I give a more extended answer, which examines:

• when self-citation may be appropriate , and
• some common abuses of self-citation.

Legitimate self-citation

There are three main reasons why it might be appropriate to cite your own work. These are:

• showing how your new work connects to your research agenda
• alerting readers to how your thinking is evolving
• avoiding textual overlap.

Demonstrating research coherence

One reason why self-citation may be justified is because of the cumulative nature of scientific work . This means that, as long as your research agenda is coherent, your new research will build on what you have learnt (and published) previously. In such cases, citing your older publications is a helpful way of contextualising the new research.

Discussing your previous publications is also be a useful opportunity to point out how the new publication adds to the academic record. Establishing what is new, compared to previous work helps to avoid the impression that you are salami-slicing your research, or publishing lots of essentially similar publications.

Demonstrating conceptual progress

The second reason why you might want to refer to a previous publication is in order to demonstrate how your thinking has evolved . When working on a research topic over a long period of time, you are likely to develop new, more refined understandings. When this happens, you may need to critically re-evaluate your previous publications. If you don’t, that will likely confuse readers, who might not notice subtle conceptual shifts between older and newer publications.

Avoiding overlap

You might sometimes find yourself in a situation where you are describing something very similar to what you have already written in the past. For example, you may need to define a key term, or might have to describe a research procedure that you have used in multiple projects. In such situations, it is better to refer readers to your previous work, rather than repeat things all over. This is especially important in view of the increased sensitivity to self-plagiarism .

How to cite yourself appropriately

All that said, there are a couple of things you need to be cautious about when citing your own work. Firstly, self-citations should add value for the readers. This means that you should not cite your own papers just for the sake of boosting your ego. You should also aboid self-citation for the more insidious purpose of increasing your bibliometric rankings. Some people do this, because the number of times an academic has been cited is sometimes used as an indirect measure of research quality. Excessive self-citation  risks annoying reviewers , who may justifiably ask for revisions.

The second thing to remember is that self-citations, when used, should sensibly contextualise your new publication. A common mistake is when a person discusses a well-researched phenomenon, but they only refer to their own work. In some rare cases, the author happens to be the only person who has published about this phenomenon. In most other cases, readers may assume that the author is either unfamiliar with the broader literature, or just trying to self-advertise. Either way, this creates a very negative impression — that of “ soliloquising on the scholarly stage “.

The last thing you might want to keep in mind is that your self-citation should not give away your identity , if you’re writing for a journal that practices anonymous (‘blind’) peer-review . Journals will often have specific instructions on how to deal with self-citation. For example, you may be asked to replace your name with “Author”, or to remove first-person pronouns. Some journals, by the way, have policies limiting the use of self-citation, so make sure you read the instructions to the authors very carefully.

The verdict

Provided you do not indulge in gratuitous self-citation, references to your previous publications are perfectly legitimate, and may in some cases be necessary.

Before you go

If you came to this page while preparing a publication, the following posts may also be of interest:

Related posts

Writing an MA dissertation

How to spot a predatory journal (and why to avoid them!)

What happens to an article after it has been submitted to a journal?

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How to refer to myself in a research paper? [closed]

Okay so I have collected personal spending data of myself and significant other over a period of 6 months. I'm quite happy with the data and would like to present it and write it up as a research paper. I'm not going to be publishing it but would like to do it for fun (and a bit of practice can't hurt).

The dilemma I am facing at the moment is that I cannot figure out how to refer to myself or my significant other as participants in the study. I have been trying to figure this out for a few days now and google is really giving me a hard time. I cannot find a single thing relevant to what I am trying to do.

My first issue I have come to is that I am captioning a figure that reads similar to this. Figure 1: Average daily spending vs time for myself (solid line) and significant other (dotted line).

Is this the correct way to refer to myself and significant other? It feels much too informal for my liking. I have considered making a small statement that states that myself will be referred to as "participant A" and my significant other will be referred to as "participant B", but this might add unnecessary confusion.

Is there a standard on this? This has been driving me absolutely crazy over the past few days and would really appreciate any insight or suggestions.

• writing-style
• third-person

• 4 Your issue is rather specific but in general in a scientific paper you would refer to yourself as the author or the researcher . You can use both e.g. when you did empirical research of some sort or when you want to describe your scientific approach or method. –  jera Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 13:19
• 5 These kind of questions should be asked at Academia or Writing . :) –  curiousdannii Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 13:20
• Thank you for your response, I really appreciate it. I don't think this is entirely helpful though because you haven't suggested a way to refer to my significant other (the other participant). Should I refer to her as just "participant" and myself the way you suggested? –  Bradley S Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 13:24
• 1 The real question is: which discipline does your research belong in? Different disciplines have different conventions. Look up a paper on a similar topic and see what they do. –  Peter Shor Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 14:55
• 4 I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is more appropriate at Academia or Writers. –  Edwin Ashworth Commented Oct 10, 2016 at 23:47

2 Answers 2

You'd normally follow your organisation's style guide. Here's an excerpt from one I found on the internet:

It is a common misconception that foregrounding the research requires using the passive voice ("Experiments have been conducted ..."). This is inaccurate. Rather, you would use pronouns in place of "experiments" ("We conducted experiments ..."). - APA Formatting and Style Guide, Purdue Online Writing Lab

Hee's another, again based on APA:

It is totally acceptable to write in the first person in an APA Style paper. If you did something, say, “I did it”—there’s no reason to hide your own agency by saying “the author [meaning you] did X” or to convolute things by using the passive “X was done [meaning done by you].” If you’re writing a paper alone, use I as your pronoun. If you have coauthors, use we. However, avoid using we to refer to broader sets of people—researchers, students, psychologists, Americans, people in general, or even all of humanity—without specifying who you mean (a practice called using the editorial “we”). This can introduce ambiguity into your writing. - Chelsea Lee

The above describe how you would refer to yourself as the researcher .

Now, researchers don't normally conduct research on themselves. What you describe is a case study with yourself and your significant other as the participants. What you call yourselves as participants depends on how you view the case study.

If you consider this to be a personal journal, using personal pronouns would be entirely appropriate. If you consider this to be "a bit of practice" for a research paper, it would be appropriate to treat the role of participant as a third-party role and pretend (for the sake of practice) that others filled that role. In that case, you can choose to give yourselves labels or aliases, or even refer to yourselves in the third person.

Is there a standard on this?

As the excerpts above indicate, there are good grounds for using personal pronouns where they are relevant and where the context clearly identifies the people to whom the pronouns refer. Nevertheless, in practice, the standard on this remains your organisation's style guide.

• 1 This is APA. Other disciplines have different rules. See this academia.SE question . –  Peter Shor Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 14:48
• @PeterShor Yes, that's why I referred the OP to his/her "organisation's style guide" - see the start and the end of my answer. I prefer the appropriate use of personal pronouns to the more cumbersome this author or the present writer , but (I'll repeat once more :) ) the OP should follow his/her organisation's style guide when writing a real research report. –  Lawrence Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 14:56
• 2 Would you really use the expression "significant other" in a research paper? Doesn't it sound like a companion, spouse or long-term girl/boyfriend? –  Mari-Lou A Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 5:45
• @Mari-LouA It's the OP's term. If the write-up is treated as a case study, then participants have some leeway subject to the organisation's style guide to choose how they should be identified. Likewise, the researcher can use terminology to include or exclude various considerations such as marriage status. With the organisation's style guide, the research discipline (finance vs psychology vs sociology, etc) and the focus of the research all unknown (other than a couple's personal spending ), I don't think we are in a position to say that any term is better or worse than significant other . –  Lawrence Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 8:06

There are two different conditions to satisfy by compiling and presenting your research project. Differentiating between the two will greatly simplify your "dilemma."

Content : The first is to present your research data and findings in a clear, well-written form for understanding . There are simply two subjects involved in the project and differentiating between the two is the issue. You may use any terms that suit you. Participant #, Subject, First name, contributor, person, party, etc.

Credit : The second issue is to identify yourself as the author. This is done in a conventional manner according to any reference you prefer. If your significant other has contributed content, co-author can be used along with their name and credentials.

If no contribution was made other than as a data source, no authorship credit mention is due your partner. However, there is nothing to prevent you from a short write-up as an introduction in the Abstract, or a post-script comment, thanking your significant other for their participation.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged writing-style writing research third-person or ask your own question .

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Home » References in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

References in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

References in Research

Definition:

References in research are a list of sources that a researcher has consulted or cited while conducting their study. They are an essential component of any academic work, including research papers, theses, dissertations, and other scholarly publications.

Types of References

There are several types of references used in research, and the type of reference depends on the source of information being cited. The most common types of references include:

References to books typically include the author’s name, title of the book, publisher, publication date, and place of publication.

Example: Smith, J. (2018). The Art of Writing. Penguin Books.

Journal Articles

References to journal articles usually include the author’s name, title of the article, name of the journal, volume and issue number, page numbers, and publication date.

Example: Johnson, T. (2021). The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health. Journal of Psychology, 32(4), 87-94.

Web sources

References to web sources should include the author or organization responsible for the content, the title of the page, the URL, and the date accessed.

Example: World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

Conference Proceedings

References to conference proceedings should include the author’s name, title of the paper, name of the conference, location of the conference, date of the conference, and page numbers.

Example: Chen, S., & Li, J. (2019). The Future of AI in Education. Proceedings of the International Conference on Educational Technology, Beijing, China, July 15-17, pp. 67-78.

References to reports typically include the author or organization responsible for the report, title of the report, publication date, and publisher.

Example: United Nations. (2020). The Sustainable Development Goals Report. United Nations.

Formats of References

Some common Formates of References with their examples are as follows:

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

The APA (American Psychological Association) Style has specific guidelines for formatting references used in academic papers, articles, and books. Here are the different reference formats in APA style with examples:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of book. Publisher.

Example : Smith, J. K. (2005). The psychology of social interaction. Wiley-Blackwell.

Journal Article

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), page numbers.

Example : Brown, L. M., Keating, J. G., & Jones, S. M. (2012). The role of social support in coping with stress among African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(1), 218-233.

Author, A. A. (Year of publication or last update). Title of page. Website name. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, December 11). COVID-19: How to protect yourself and others. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html

Magazine article

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of article. Title of Magazine, volume number(issue number), page numbers.

Example : Smith, M. (2019, March 11). The power of positive thinking. Psychology Today, 52(3), 60-65.

Newspaper article:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, page numbers.

Example: Johnson, B. (2021, February 15). New study shows benefits of exercise on mental health. The New York Times, A8.

Edited book

Editor, E. E. (Ed.). (Year of publication). Title of book. Publisher.

Example : Thompson, J. P. (Ed.). (2014). Social work in the 21st century. Sage Publications.

Chapter in an edited book:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. page numbers). Publisher.

Example : Johnson, K. S. (2018). The future of social work: Challenges and opportunities. In J. P. Thompson (Ed.), Social work in the 21st century (pp. 105-118). Sage Publications.

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

The MLA (Modern Language Association) Style is a widely used style for writing academic papers and essays in the humanities. Here are the different reference formats in MLA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Smith, John. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Journal article

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, volume number, issue number, Publication year, page numbers.

Example : Brown, Laura M., et al. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, vol. 22, no. 1, 2012, pp. 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name, Publication date, URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC, 11 Dec. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Publication date, page numbers.

Example : Smith, Mary. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, Mar. 2019, pp. 60-65.

Newspaper article

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Publication date, page numbers.

Example : Johnson, Bob. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2021, p. A8.

Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Thompson, John P., editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. Sage Publications, 2014.

Chapter in an edited book

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last name, Publisher, Publication year, page numbers.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, Sage Publications, 2014, pp. 105-118.

Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style is a widely used style for writing academic papers, dissertations, and books in the humanities and social sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Chicago style:

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number, no. issue number (Publication year): page numbers.

Example : Brown, Laura M., John G. Keating, and Sarah M. Jones. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 22, no. 1 (2012): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name. Publication date. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. December 11, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Publication date.

Example : Smith, Mary. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 2019.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Publication date.

Example : Johnson, Bob. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Example : Thompson, John P., ed. Social Work in the 21st Century. Sage Publications, 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, page numbers. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, 105-118. Sage Publications, 2014.

Harvard Style

The Harvard Style, also known as the Author-Date System, is a widely used style for writing academic papers and essays in the social sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Harvard Style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Smith, John. 2005. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number (issue number): page numbers.

Example: Brown, Laura M., John G. Keating, and Sarah M. Jones. 2012. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 22 (1): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name. URL. Accessed date.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2020. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html. Accessed April 1, 2023.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, month and date of publication.

Example : Smith, Mary. 2019. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 2019.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, month and date of publication.

Example : Johnson, Bob. 2021. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Year of publication. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Thompson, John P., ed. 2014. Social Work in the 21st Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, page numbers. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. 2014. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, 105-118. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Vancouver Style

The Vancouver Style, also known as the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, is a widely used style for writing academic papers in the biomedical sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Vancouver Style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year of publication; volume number(issue number):page numbers.

Example : Brown LM, Keating JG, Jones SM. The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents. J Res Adolesc. 2012;22(1):218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Webpage. Website Name [Internet]. Publication date. [cited date]. Available from: URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others [Internet]. 2020 Dec 11. [cited 2023 Apr 1]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Title of Magazine. Year of publication; month and day of publication:page numbers.

Example : Smith M. The Power of Positive Thinking. Psychology Today. 2019 Mar 1:32-35.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Title of Newspaper. Year of publication; month and day of publication:page numbers.

Example : Johnson B. New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health. The New York Times. 2021 Feb 15:A4.

Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Example: Thompson JP, editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Chapter. In: Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. page numbers.

Example : Johnson KS. The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Thompson JP, editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2014. p. 105-118.

Turabian Style

Turabian style is a variation of the Chicago style used in academic writing, particularly in the fields of history and humanities. Here are the different reference formats in Turabian style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number, no. issue number (Year of publication): page numbers.

Example : Brown, LM, Keating, JG, Jones, SM. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” J Res Adolesc 22, no. 1 (2012): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Name of Website. Publication date. Accessed date. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. December 11, 2020. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Month Day, Year of publication, page numbers.

Example : Smith, M. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 1, 2019, 32-35.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Month Day, Year of publication.

Example : Johnson, B. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Thompson, JP, ed. Social Work in the 21st Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s Last name, First name, page numbers. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Johnson, KS. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by Thompson, JP, 105-118. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2014.

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Style

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) style is commonly used in engineering, computer science, and other technical fields. Here are the different reference formats in IEEE style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Oppenheim, A. V., & Schafer, R. W. Discrete-Time Signal Processing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Abbreviated Journal Title, vol. number, no. issue number, pp. page numbers, Month year of publication.

Example: Shannon, C. E. “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 379-423, July 1948.

Conference paper

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Paper.” In Title of Conference Proceedings, Place of Conference, Date of Conference, pp. page numbers, Year of publication.

Example: Gupta, S., & Kumar, P. “An Improved System of Linear Discriminant Analysis for Face Recognition.” In Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Computer Science and Network Technology, Harbin, China, Dec. 2011, pp. 144-147.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Name of Website. Date of publication or last update. Accessed date. URL.

Example : National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Apollo 11.” NASA. July 20, 1969. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html.

Technical report

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Report.” Name of Institution or Organization, Report number, Year of publication.

Example : Smith, J. R. “Development of a New Solar Panel Technology.” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL/TP-6A20-51645, 2011.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Patent.” Patent number, Issue date.

Example : Suzuki, H. “Method of Producing Carbon Nanotubes.” US Patent 7,151,019, December 19, 2006.

Standard Title. Standard number, Publication date.

Example : IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic. IEEE Std 754-2008, August 29, 2008

ACS (American Chemical Society) Style

ACS (American Chemical Society) style is commonly used in chemistry and related fields. Here are the different reference formats in ACS style:

Author’s Last name, First name; Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Abbreviated Journal Title Year, Volume, Page Numbers.

Example : Wang, Y.; Zhao, X.; Cui, Y.; Ma, Y. Facile Preparation of Fe3O4/graphene Composites Using a Hydrothermal Method for High-Performance Lithium Ion Batteries. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2012, 4, 2715-2721.

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication.

Example : Carey, F. A. Organic Chemistry; McGraw-Hill: New York, 2008.

Author’s Last name, First name. Chapter Title. In Book Title; Editor’s Last name, First name, Ed.; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication; Volume number, Chapter number, Page Numbers.

Example : Grossman, R. B. Analytical Chemistry of Aerosols. In Aerosol Measurement: Principles, Techniques, and Applications; Baron, P. A.; Willeke, K., Eds.; Wiley-Interscience: New York, 2001; Chapter 10, pp 395-424.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Webpage. Website Name, URL (accessed date).

Example : National Institute of Standards and Technology. Atomic Spectra Database. https://www.nist.gov/pml/atomic-spectra-database (accessed April 1, 2023).

Author’s Last name, First name. Patent Number. Patent Date.

Example : Liu, Y.; Huang, H.; Chen, H.; Zhang, W. US Patent 9,999,999, December 31, 2022.

Author’s Last name, First name; Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. In Title of Conference Proceedings, Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication; Volume Number, Page Numbers.

Example : Jia, H.; Xu, S.; Wu, Y.; Wu, Z.; Tang, Y.; Huang, X. Fast Adsorption of Organic Pollutants by Graphene Oxide. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017; Volume 1, pp 223-228.

AMA (American Medical Association) Style

AMA (American Medical Association) style is commonly used in medical and scientific fields. Here are the different reference formats in AMA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Article Title. Journal Abbreviation. Year; Volume(Issue):Page Numbers.

Example : Jones, R. A.; Smith, B. C. The Role of Vitamin D in Maintaining Bone Health. JAMA. 2019;321(17):1765-1773.

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : Guyton, A. C.; Hall, J. E. Textbook of Medical Physiology. 13th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders; 2015.

Author’s Last name, First name. Chapter Title. In: Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: Page Numbers.

Example: Rajakumar, K. Vitamin D and Bone Health. In: Holick, M. F., ed. Vitamin D: Physiology, Molecular Biology, and Clinical Applications. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Springer; 2010:211-222.

Author’s Last name, First name. Webpage Title. Website Name. URL. Published date. Updated date. Accessed date.

Example : National Cancer Institute. Breast Cancer Prevention (PDQ®)–Patient Version. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/patient/breast-prevention-pdq. Published October 11, 2022. Accessed April 1, 2023.

Author’s Last name, First name. Conference presentation title. In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Place of Conference.

Example : Smith, J. R. Vitamin D and Bone Health: A Meta-Analysis. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research; September 20-23, 2022; San Diego, CA.

Thesis or dissertation

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Thesis or Dissertation. Degree level [Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis]. University Name; Year.

Example : Wilson, S. A. The Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on Bone Health in Postmenopausal Women [Doctoral dissertation]. University of California, Los Angeles; 2018.

ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Style

The ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) style is commonly used in civil engineering fields. Here are the different reference formats in ASCE style:

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Journal Title, volume number, issue number (year): page numbers. DOI or URL (if available).

Example : Smith, J. R. “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Areas.” Journal of Environmental Engineering, vol. 146, no. 3 (2020): 04020010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0001668.

Example : McCuen, R. H. Hydrologic Analysis and Design. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education; 2013.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Chapter Title.” In: Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: page numbers.

Example : Maidment, D. R. “Floodplain Management in the United States.” In: Shroder, J. F., ed. Treatise on Geomorphology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2013: 447-460.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Paper Title.” In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Location. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: page numbers.

Example: Smith, J. R. “Sustainable Drainage Systems for Urban Areas.” In: Proceedings of the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure; November 6-9, 2019; Los Angeles, CA. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers; 2019: 156-163.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Report Title.” Report number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Hurricane Sandy Coastal Risk Reduction Program, New York and New Jersey.” Report No. P-15-001. Washington, DC: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; 2015.

CSE (Council of Science Editors) Style

The CSE (Council of Science Editors) style is commonly used in the scientific and medical fields. Here are the different reference formats in CSE style:

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Article Title.” Journal Title. Year;Volume(Issue):Page numbers.

Example : Smith, J.R. “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Areas.” Journal of Environmental Engineering. 2020;146(3):04020010.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Chapter Title.” In: Editor’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial., ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year:Page numbers.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Paper Title.” In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Location. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : Smith, J.R. “Sustainable Drainage Systems for Urban Areas.” In: Proceedings of the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure; November 6-9, 2019; Los Angeles, CA. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers; 2019.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Report Title.” Report number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Bluebook Style

The Bluebook style is commonly used in the legal field for citing legal documents and sources. Here are the different reference formats in Bluebook style:

Case citation

Case name, volume source page (Court year).

Example : Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Statute citation

Name of Act, volume source § section number (year).

Example : Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 (1963).

Regulation citation

Name of regulation, volume source § section number (year).

Example: Clean Air Act, 40 C.F.R. § 52.01 (2019).

Book citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. Book Title. Edition number (if applicable). Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example: Smith, J.R. Legal Writing and Analysis. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Aspen Publishers; 2015.

Journal article citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Article Title.” Journal Title. Volume number (year): first page-last page.

Example: Garcia, C. “The Right to Counsel: An International Comparison.” International Journal of Legal Information. 43 (2015): 63-94.

Website citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed month day, year).

Example : United Nations. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Oxford Style

The Oxford style, also known as the Oxford referencing system or the documentary-note citation system, is commonly used in the humanities, including literature, history, and philosophy. Here are the different reference formats in Oxford style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example : Smith, John. The Art of Writing. New York: Penguin, 2020.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Journal Title volume, no. issue (year): page range.

Example: Garcia, Carlos. “The Role of Ethics in Philosophy.” Philosophy Today 67, no. 3 (2019): 53-68.

Chapter in an edited book citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by Editor’s Name, page range. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example : Lee, Mary. “Feminism in the 21st Century.” In The Oxford Handbook of Feminism, edited by Jane Smith, 51-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed day month year).

Example : Jones, David. “The Importance of Learning Languages.” Oxford Language Center. https://www.oxfordlanguagecenter.com/importance-of-learning-languages/ (accessed 3 January 2023).

Dissertation or thesis citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Dissertation/Thesis.” PhD diss., University Name, Year of Publication.

Example : Brown, Susan. “The Art of Storytelling in American Literature.” PhD diss., University of Oxford, 2020.

Newspaper article citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title, Month Day, Year.

Example : Robinson, Andrew. “New Developments in Climate Change Research.” The Guardian, September 15, 2022.

AAA (American Anthropological Association) Style

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) style is commonly used in anthropology research papers and journals. Here are the different reference formats in AAA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example : Smith, John. 2019. The Anthropology of Food. New York: Routledge.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Article Title.” Journal Title volume, no. issue: page range.

Example : Garcia, Carlos. 2021. “The Role of Ethics in Anthropology.” American Anthropologist 123, no. 2: 237-251.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by Editor’s Name, page range. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example: Lee, Mary. 2018. “Feminism in Anthropology.” In The Oxford Handbook of Feminism, edited by Jane Smith, 51-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed day month year).

Example : Jones, David. 2020. “The Importance of Learning Languages.” Oxford Language Center. https://www.oxfordlanguagecenter.com/importance-of-learning-languages/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Title of Dissertation/Thesis.” PhD diss., University Name.

Example : Brown, Susan. 2022. “The Art of Storytelling in Anthropology.” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title, Month Day.

Example : Robinson, Andrew. 2021. “New Developments in Anthropology Research.” The Guardian, September 15.

AIP (American Institute of Physics) Style

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) style is commonly used in physics research papers and journals. Here are the different reference formats in AIP style:

Example : Johnson, S. D. 2021. “Quantum Computing and Information.” Journal of Applied Physics 129, no. 4: 043102.

Example : Feynman, Richard. 2018. The Feynman Lectures on Physics. New York: Basic Books.

Example : Jones, David. 2020. “The Future of Quantum Computing.” In The Handbook of Physics, edited by John Smith, 125-136. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Conference proceedings citation

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Title of Paper.” Proceedings of Conference Name, date and location: page range. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example : Chen, Wei. 2019. “The Applications of Nanotechnology in Solar Cells.” Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Nanotechnology, July 15-17, Tokyo, Japan: 224-229. New York: AIP Publishing.

Example : American Institute of Physics. 2022. “About AIP Publishing.” AIP Publishing. https://publishing.aip.org/about-aip-publishing/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Patent citation

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. Patent Number.

Example : Smith, John. 2018. US Patent 9,873,644.

References Writing Guide

Here are some general guidelines for writing references:

• Follow the citation style guidelines: Different disciplines and journals may require different citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago). It is important to follow the specific guidelines for the citation style required.
• Include all necessary information : Each citation should include enough information for readers to locate the source. For example, a journal article citation should include the author(s), title of the article, journal title, volume number, issue number, page numbers, and publication year.
• Use proper formatting: Citation styles typically have specific formatting requirements for different types of sources. Make sure to follow the proper formatting for each citation.
• Order citations alphabetically: If listing multiple sources, they should be listed alphabetically by the author’s last name.
• Be consistent: Use the same citation style throughout the entire paper or project.
• Check for accuracy: Double-check all citations to ensure accuracy, including correct spelling of author names and publication information.
• Use reputable sources: When selecting sources to cite, choose reputable and authoritative sources. Avoid sources that are biased or unreliable.
• Include all sources: Make sure to include all sources used in the research, including those that were not directly quoted but still informed the work.
• Use online tools : There are online tools available (e.g., citation generators) that can help with formatting and organizing references.

Purpose of References in Research

References in research serve several purposes:

• To give credit to the original authors or sources of information used in the research. It is important to acknowledge the work of others and avoid plagiarism.
• To provide evidence for the claims made in the research. References can support the arguments, hypotheses, or conclusions presented in the research by citing relevant studies, data, or theories.
• To allow readers to find and verify the sources used in the research. References provide the necessary information for readers to locate and access the sources cited in the research, which allows them to evaluate the quality and reliability of the information presented.
• To situate the research within the broader context of the field. References can show how the research builds on or contributes to the existing body of knowledge, and can help readers to identify gaps in the literature that the research seeks to address.

Importance of References in Research

References play an important role in research for several reasons:

• Credibility : By citing authoritative sources, references lend credibility to the research and its claims. They provide evidence that the research is based on a sound foundation of knowledge and has been carefully researched.
• Avoidance of Plagiarism : References help researchers avoid plagiarism by giving credit to the original authors or sources of information. This is important for ethical reasons and also to avoid legal repercussions.
• Reproducibility : References allow others to reproduce the research by providing detailed information on the sources used. This is important for verification of the research and for others to build on the work.
• Context : References provide context for the research by situating it within the broader body of knowledge in the field. They help researchers to understand where their work fits in and how it builds on or contributes to existing knowledge.
• Evaluation : References provide a means for others to evaluate the research by allowing them to assess the quality and reliability of the sources used.

Advantages of References in Research

There are several advantages of including references in research:

• Acknowledgment of Sources: Including references gives credit to the authors or sources of information used in the research. This is important to acknowledge the original work and avoid plagiarism.
• Evidence and Support : References can provide evidence to support the arguments, hypotheses, or conclusions presented in the research. This can add credibility and strength to the research.
• Reproducibility : References provide the necessary information for others to reproduce the research. This is important for the verification of the research and for others to build on the work.
• Context : References can help to situate the research within the broader body of knowledge in the field. This helps researchers to understand where their work fits in and how it builds on or contributes to existing knowledge.
• Evaluation : Including references allows others to evaluate the research by providing a means to assess the quality and reliability of the sources used.
• Ongoing Conversation: References allow researchers to engage in ongoing conversations and debates within their fields. They can show how the research builds on or contributes to the existing body of knowledge.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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• Research & Education
• For Scholars
• Jefferson Library
• Library Reference

Researching Thomas Jefferson

This guide is designed to provide an overview of the basic sources on Thomas Jefferson.

Primary Sources

Manuscript Collections Published Editions of Jefferson's Papers Other Jefferson Documents (Account Books, Declaration of Independence, etc.) Jefferson's Libraries

Secondary Sources

Manuscript collections.

The original manuscripts of Thomas Jefferson's papers are scattered among more than 900 different repositories. The largest collections reside at the Library of Congress, the University of Virginia, and Massachusetts Historical Society.

Published Editions of Jefferson's Papers

There are several major published editions of Jefferson's papers:

• Washington, H. A. (ed.).  The Writings of Thomas Jefferson .  Washington, D.C.: Taylor & Maury, 1853-54.  9 vols.  
• Ford, Paul Leicester (ed.). The Writings of Thomas Jefferson . New York, London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1892-99. 10 vols.
• Lipscomb, Andrew A. (ed.). The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Washington, D.C.: Issued under the auspices of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1905.
• Boyd, Julian (ed.). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950-, and Looney, J. Jefferson (ed.). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004-.

For a more thorough overview of the published editions of Jefferson's papers, see our page on editions of Jefferson's writings .  The Washington, Ford, and Lipscomb-Bergh editions, as well as most volumes of the Princeton edition are collectively searchable in the Jefferson Library's Thomas Jefferson: Papers collection in the Hathi Trust Digital Library.  The Papers of Thomas Jefferson and Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series are considered the definitive editions of Jefferson's papers, and are by far the most comprehensive.  Both are now available online (for a fee) through the University of Virginia Press's Rotunda imprint; a free version (formatted slightly differently) is available through the National Archives' Founders Online project.  Indexes for volumes 27-37 and Retirement Series volumes 1-7 are also freely available online.

Other Jefferson Documents

The following Jefferson documents have also been published, many of them multiple times; the editions considered most definitive are listed here.

Account Books:   Bear, James A., Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds. Jefferson's Memorandum Books : Accounts, With Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826 . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997.  2 vols.  The Memorandum Books also contain other information such as wine lists and some weather records.  The original manuscripts of Jefferson's account books are in the Jefferson Papers collections at the University of Virginia, Massachusetts Historical Society, Library of Congress, Huntington Library, and New York Public Library.  The transcriptions have now been made available in Founders Online (free), and in the Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition (fee-based).

Anas: The Anas are a collective name for a series of memoranda that Jefferson recorded during the 1790s. Although Jefferson himself neither referred to these memoranda as the "Anas" nor kept them together, they have historically been treated as a cohesive group of documents and published together, most notably in Franklin B. Sawvel, (ed.), The Complete Anas of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Round Table Press, 1903).  The Anas were also published in the Washington, Ford and Lipscomb-Bergh editions of Jefferson's writings (see above).  The Princeton Papers of Thomas Jefferson are publishing the Anas documents individually, in chronological order with Jefferson's correspondence.  The first of these documents appears in volume 22, along with an editorial note explaining Princeton's treatment of the Anas. The Anas, along with more than 700 other documents from his tenure as Secretary of State (1790-1793) are available at http://www.jefferson3volumes.org.

Architectural Drawings : Fiske Kimball's Thomas Jefferson, Architect (Boston: Riverside Press, 1916; rep. Da Capo, 1968) contains facsimile images of the drawings at Massachusetts Historical Society, which comprise approximately half of the extant drawings. Frederick Doveton Nichols's Thomas Jefferson's Architectural Drawings (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1961) provides a listing of all known drawings (approximately 500).

Autobiography: Jefferson's Autobiography has been published in the Washington , Ford and Lipscomb-Bergh editions; the Ford transcription has also been published as a stand-alone volume by the University of Pennsylvania Press, with a new introduction by Michael Zuckerman.  The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series will also be publishing Jefferson's Autobiography in a future volume.  Click here to search for other editions of Jefferson's Autobiography in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.

The "Jefferson Bible": The definitive scholarly edition of Jefferson's two Bible compilations is Adams, Dickinson W., ed. Jefferson's Extracts From the Gospels: "The Philosophy of Jesus" and "The Life and Morals of Jesus." Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.  Find a copy in a library near you ; or, search for other editions of the "Jefferson Bible" and books and articles about it in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.  See also our Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia articles on the two compilations: " The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth " and " The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth ."

Declaration of Independence: Boyd, Julian (ed.). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950-.  Volume 1, pp. 413-433 treats the Declaration comprehensively, including an editorial note and multiple drafts and amended versions of the text.  These editorial notes and document transcriptions may also be viewed in Founders Online .  There are many other excellent published treatments of the Declaration as well, including John Hazelton's Declaration of Independence: Its History (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1906), and Julian Boyd's The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text as Shown in Facsimiles of Various Drafts by its Author, Thomas Jefferson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1945); click here to search for other sources on the Declaration in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.

Farm Book: Betts, Edwin Morris, ed. Thomas Jefferson's Farm Book: With Commentary and Relevant Extracts From Other Writings. Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1999. View the manuscript online on the Massachusetts Historical Society website ; or, find a copy in a library near you .

Garden Book: Betts, Edwin Morris, ed. Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book, 1766-1824, With Relevant Extracts From His Other Writings. Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1999. View the manuscript online on the Massachusetts Historical Society website ; or, find a copy in a library near you .

Legal Commonplace Book: Jefferson, Thomas. Jefferson's Legal Commonplace Book . Edited by David Thomas Konig, Michael P. Zuckert, Les Harris, and W. Bland Whitley. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Second Series. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019.  Find in a library near you .

Literary Commonplace Book: Wilson, Douglas L., ed. Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1989.  Find in a library near you .

Notes on the State of Virginia:  William Peden, ed., Notes on the State of Virginia.  Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1954. Find in a library near you ; or click here to search the Thomas Jefferson Portal for other editions of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia .

Parliamentary Manual: Howell, Wilbur Samuel, ed. Jefferson's Parliamentary Writings: "Parliamentary Pocket-Book" and A Manual of Parliamentary Practice. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1988.  Click here to search for other editions of Jefferson's Parliamentary Manual in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.

Jefferson's Libraries

Jefferson owned thousands of books throughout his lifetime, and the various incarnations of his library are documented in a number of different lists. For information on Jefferson's libraries, visit the website of our Thomas Jefferson's Libraries Project .

Our online catalog, the Thomas Jefferson Portal , is the most comprehensive source available for bibliographic records representing published and unpublished material on Thomas Jefferson and his world.  For specific reading suggestions by topic, please see our Suggested Reading List .

There is also a wealth of material on hundreds of topics, written by Monticello staff, in our online Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia .

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Computer Science > Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

Title: magicstyle: portrait stylization based on reference image.

Abstract: The development of diffusion models has significantly advanced the research on image stylization, particularly in the area of stylizing a content image based on a given style image, which has attracted many scholars. The main challenge in this reference image stylization task lies in how to maintain the details of the content image while incorporating the color and texture features of the style image. This challenge becomes even more pronounced when the content image is a portrait which has complex textural details. To address this challenge, we propose a diffusion model-based reference image stylization method specifically for portraits, called MagicStyle. MagicStyle consists of two phases: Content and Style DDIM Inversion (CSDI) and Feature Fusion Forward (FFF). The CSDI phase involves a reverse denoising process, where DDIM Inversion is performed separately on the content image and the style image, storing the self-attention query, key and value features of both images during the inversion process. The FFF phase executes forward denoising, harmoniously integrating the texture and color information from the pre-stored feature queries, keys and values into the diffusion generation process based on our Well-designed Feature Fusion Attention (FFA). We conducted comprehensive comparative and ablation experiments to validate the effectiveness of our proposed MagicStyle and FFA.

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