(7th ed.)
If you do not see the rule you need, consult the manual or website for your style.
When the author and the publisher are the same, omit the publisher information from the reference entry to avoid repetition.
Do not include honorifics (Dr., Col., Professor, etc.) when citing author names. Including these titles in the body of your document is acceptable.
Title Case | Sentence case |
Love among the Ruins: A Memoir of Life and Love in Hamburg, 1945 | Love among the ruins: A memoir of life and love in Hamburg, 1945 |
Capitalize everything except:
|
Capitalize only:
|
Note: Always format the information in your citations (titles, author names, etc.) according to the requirements of the citation style you are using, regardless of how it appears in the original source.
Every equation that is not field-specific common knowledge needs to be cited. You may weave the source into the narrative:
Here is an example of citing properly before the equation. Note the period at the end. Equations must function grammatically as part of the text:
Boito et al. (2015) address the widely used metric, the cost per flying hours (CPFH). The formula for CPFH is |
Adapted from Moreau, P. P. (2022). A cost-effectiveness analysis of C-12 variant airborne ISR capabilities in the Marine Corps [Master's thesis, Naval Postgraduate School], NPS Archive: Calhoun. https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/69689
And here is an example of how to cite an equation after it is presented:
Cost per Aircraft (PAI) was the next metric we looked at as an alternative. This metric, expressed as
takes the total O&S costs and divides it by the total number of aircraft (Boito et al., 2015). |
Adapted from Moreau, P. P. (2022). A cost-effectiveness analysis of C-12 variant airborne ISR capabilities in the Marine Corps [Master's thesis, Naval Postgraduate School], NPS Archive: Calhoun. https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/69689
A citation is required if you did not wholly create the figure—i.e., if you used someone else's image or data. A citation is not needed when all elements of the figure are your own creation.
See Figure 1 for placement of the title and the in-text citation.
Figure 1. A Figure with a Citation in APA, Chicago Author-Date, or INFORMS Style. Source: Author (2017).
or
Figure 1. A Figure with a Citation in APA, Chicago Author-Date, or INFORMS Style. Adapted from Author (2017).
For more details, see the Thesis Template.
For the National Security Strategy, cite the president as the author.
For other official documents, the author is the organization immediately responsible for creating the document. In the example below, the author is the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and the publisher is the Department of the Navy.
In the example above, the author is NOT an umbrella organization, signatory, or any of the following:
Do not include acronyms for organizations listed as authors in the List of References or footnotes:
In the paragraph below, the parenthetical in-text citations are highlighted in yellow, and the signal phrases are in blue. Note that the second sentence is common knowledge, whereas the final sentence is clearly the opinion of the author.
The NPS Thesis Processing Office prefers a List of References for the following:
For papers, check with your professors for their preference.
If any information is missing from a source (a journal with no volume number, for example), simply omit that information. For sources consulted in hardcopy, omit the URL and any additional verbiage that introduces it. Anything retrieved online, however, MUST have a link. The only exception is journals retrieved from a subscription database such as ProQuest.
# of Authors | Signal-phrase format | Parenthetical format | Reference List |
---|---|---|---|
One |
Walker (2007) reported that ... |
(Walker, 2007) |
Walker, V. (2007). [then the remaining reference information] |
Two |
Walker and Allen (2004) |
(Walker & Allen, 2004) |
Walker, V., & Allen, R. L. (2004). |
More than two | First author + et al.* | First author + et al.* | List all authors up to the first six, then follow the example below, ensuring the last author appears after the ellipsis. |
Bradley et al. (2006) | (Bradley et al., 2006) | Bradley, K. S., Ramirez, H., Soo, T., Walsh J., Smith, W., Jones, F. ... Potatohead, M. (2006). | |
* When this form creates ambiguity (because two sources have the same first author and same year but different remaining authors), write out as many authors as needed to distinguish the sources, followed by "et al.":
By contrast, for multiple works from the same year by a certain group of authors, see the "Same Authors, Multiple Works" table. |
Adapted from American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). and American Psychological Association. (2019). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).
Examples given are for books; follow the appropriate style for the source type you are citing.
Source |
Generic Example | Actual Example |
---|---|---|
Multiple Works by Same Author
|
||
Source 1 |
R: Author, A. A. (Year + a). Title of book in sentence case and italics. Publisher. T: (Author, year + a) |
R: Hawthorne, M. (2006a). The cannibal’s dilemma: An unnatural history of four siblings. Penguin. T: (Hawthorne, 2006a) |
Source 2 |
R: Author, A. A. (Year + b). Title of book in sentence case and italics. Publisher. T: (Author, year + b) |
R: Hawthorne, M. (2006b). Having people for dinner: A guide for the home cook. Penguin. T: (Hawthorne, 2006b) |
Combined |
T: (Author year + a, year + b) |
T: (Hawthorne 2006a, 2006b) |
Multiple Works by Same Author
|
||
Source 1 |
R: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case and italics. Publisher. T: (Author, year) |
R: Hawthorne, M. (2006). Having people for dinner: A guide for the home cook. Penguin. T: (Hawthorne, 2006) |
Source 2 |
R: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case and italics. Publisher. T: (Author, year) |
R: Hawthorne, M. (2008). Regrets. Penguin. T: (Hawthorne, 2008) |
Combined |
T: (Author, year 1, year 2) |
T: (Hawthorne, 2006, 2008) |
Multiple Sources in One Citation
|
||
Combined |
T: (Author 1, year; Author 2, year; etc.) |
(Hawthorne, n.d.b; Norton, 1998; Stulberg, 2014) (Nekeip & Nywdlog, 2005; Qaga, 2007; Romato et al., 1995). |
Authors with the Same Surname
|
||
T: (A. A. Author, year; B. B. Author, year) | (M. Curie, 1903; P. Curie, 1903) |
In-text Citations
Locator Options | Example |
---|---|
heading or section name (okay to abbreviate a long heading or section name) | Methods section |
paragraph or section number | para. 2 paras. 4–5 |
heading or section in combination with a paragraph number | Chapter 3, para. 1 |
table, figure, or slide number | Table 1.4 Figure 3 Slide 5 |
video or podcast time stamp | 2:12 |
appendix number or letter | Appendix C |
See: Direct Quotation of Material Without Page Numbers
List of References/Bibliography
When citing a source retrieved online, use the "online" format even when you or someone else printed out the material. For example, if you print out a thesis or your advisor provides you with a printed thesis, it is still categorized as an online document.
Only cite as a print source when the material has been produced by a publisher in hard copy. For example, if you obtain a print journal or book from the library stacks, it is categorized as a printed source.
An indirect source is a source that cites some other work that you discuss in your text.
Whenever possible, consult primary sources and your sources’ sources yourself. Upon investigation of the primary source, you may find you disagree with the indirect source author’s analysis or methods.
The following passage incorporates a properly credited indirect source. The indirect source information is highlighted in yellow; the primary source information is highlighted in blue.
Walker (2008) describes Miguel Roig's 1999 experiment, which correlates inadequate paraphrasing in student writing with poor reading comprehension. Citing Roig’s data, Walker explains that "students do in fact possess skills necessary for paraphrasing but … may be impeded from applying those skills when dealing with rigorous text" (p. 387).
Note: Include only the indirect source (the source you consulted) in your reference list.
See the TPO's "Citing Your Sources’ Sources" handout.
A citation is required if you did not wholly create the table—i.e., if you used someone else's data. A citation is not needed when all elements of the table are your own creation.
See Table 1 for placement of the title and the in-text citation.
Table 1. A Table with a Citation in APA, Chicago Author-Date, or INFORMS Style. Source: Author (2017).
or
Table 1. A Table with a Citation in APA, Chicago Author-Date, or INFORMS Style. Adapted from Author (2017).
For more details, see the Thesis Template.
For works with a translator, follow the format for edited sources but substitute "translated" for "edited" in the list of references.
R: Manqué, M. Old and rejected poems. (1989). Translated by Hickinson, P. Narrow Fellow Press.
For works in languages other than English, format the title in sentence case, then give the translation, also in sentence case, in square brackets immediately following:
R: Manqué, M. (1992). "L'esthétique de l'échec" [The aesthetics of failure]. In Sweeney H. (Ed.), Éviter les clichés et des autres clichés [Avoiding clichés and other clichés], edited by Sweeney, H. 3–44. Stew & Offspring.