Citation Guide

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.

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:

• Chief of Naval Operations
• Deputy Chief of Naval Operations
• W. F. Moran
• Department of Defense
• Navy Pentagon
• R. P. Burke
• United States of America​

Do not include acronyms for organizations listed as authors in the List of References or footnotes:

• YES: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
• NO: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO or OCNO).
• NO: CNO or OCNO.

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.

• Remember: one citation at the end of a string of sentences or a paragraph cannot “cover” the entire section.
   
• Cite a source the first time it is used in each paragraph.
   
• Every sentence thereafter in the paragraph that uses information from this same source must contain either a signal phrase or a citation clearly indicating where the information came from.
   
  • Note: always use a citation (even if you also use a signal phrase) every time you quote material.

Where in the sentence does my in-text citation go?
 

• If you name your source(s) in a given sentence, a parenthetical citation containing only the year follows immediately after the name(s) of the author(s). Example: In contrast to earlier work by Abbott and Costello (1999), Laurel and Hardy (2008) propose an altogether different model for optimizing hat density.
   
  • If you quote a source that you have named in the sentence, the parenthetical citation gets split, with the page number(s) placed in parentheses immediately after the quoted material. Example: Schartz and Metterklume (2013), however, note that the Laurel–Hardy method produces "less than suboptimal millinerial outcomes" (p. 198) in the case of heavily laden peach-basket hats.
     
    • But compare what happens when the quotation comes first: The "less than suboptimal millinerial outcomes" reported by Schartz and Metterklume (2013, p. 198), however, continue to impede the development of sufficiently dense peach-basket hats.
       
• If you do not name your source(s) in a given sentence, a single parenthetical citation goes at the end of the sentence or clause it covers (Goffman, 1974), inside the punctuation, like this (Melville, 1851).
   
  • If the sentence ends with a quotation, "close the quote, then place the citation between the quotation marks and the punctuation, like this” (Woolf, 1931, p. 14).
     
• Do not insert spaces between a parenthetical citation and the punctuation that follows it.

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.

What is the difference between them?

• A List of References includes all works cited in a text
• A Bibliography lists all works cited and consulted

The NPS Thesis Processing Office prefers a List of References for the following: 

• Thesis
• Capstone project report
• MBA report
• Dissertation

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. 

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.

In-text Citations

• For direct quotes, add page numbers to the in-text citation only.
  Example: (Haynes, 2009, p. 70)
• If a source does not have page numbers, include as much information as needed for the reader to locate the material. Such information might include the following:

• Do not use Kindle location numbers with in-text citations. Provide the page numbers, or use one of the options above.
• In citations especially of shorter electronic works presented as a single, searchable document, such locators may be unnecessary.

See: Direct Quotation of Material Without Page Numbers

List of References/Bibliography

• For portions of larger documents, such as journal articles and book chapters, include the page range.
  
  Example: Cordesman, A. H., Mausner, A., & Kasten, D. (2009). Introduction. In J. Smith (Ed.), Winning in Afghanistan: Creating Effective Afghan Security Forces (pp. 1–12). Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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.

• Only include date retrieved if the source material has no date.
• Never include a period at the end of the URL.
• Do not insert a hard or soft return within the URL string; doing so breaks the link.
• A URL does not belong in an in text-citation. Ever.

A secondary 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 secondary source author’s analysis or methods. Only use secondary sources when the primary source is unavailable.

How to Incorporate Secondary Sources

The following passage incorporates a properly credited secondary source. The secondary source information is highlighted in yellow; the primary source information is highlighted in blue.

Walker (2008) describes data collected in 1999 by Miguel Roig that correlates students’ inadequate paraphrasing to 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  secondary  source  (the  source  you  consulted)  in  your  reference  list. 

For more information

See the TPO's "Citing Your Sources’ Sources" handout.

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.