(17th ed.)
If you do not see the rule you need, consult the manual or website for your style.
A URL does not belong in an in text-citation. Ever.
Do not include honorifics (Dr., Col., Professor, etc.) when citing author names. Including these titles in the body of your document is acceptable.
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:
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:
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Capitalize only:
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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.
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.
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.
Examples given are for books; follow the appropriate style for the source type you are citing.
Source | Generic Example | Actual Example |
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Multiple Works by Same Author
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Source 1 |
R: Author Last Name, Author First Name. Year published + a. Title of Book 1 in Title Case and Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher. T: (Author Last Name year + a) |
R: Hawthorne, Pat. 2006a.The Cannibal’s Dilemma: An Unnatural History of Four Siblings. New York: Penguin. T: (Hawthorne 2006a) |
Source 2 |
R: Author Last Name, Author First Name. Year published + b. Title of Book 2 in Title Case and Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher. T: (Author Last Name year + b) |
R: Hawthorne, Pat. 2006b. Having People for Dinner: A Guide for the Home Cook. New York: Penguin. T: (Hawthorne 2006b) |
Combined | T (both sources): (Author Last Name year + a, year + b) | T (both sources): (Hawthorne 2006a, 2006b) |
Multiple Works by Same Author
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Source 1 |
R: Author Last Name, Author First Name. Year published. Title of Book 1 in Title Case and Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher. T: (Author Last Name year, page) |
R: Hawthorne, Pat. 2006. Having People for Dinner: A Guide for the Home Cook. New York: Penguin. T: (Hawthorne 2006, 99–100) |
Source 2 |
R: Author Last Name, Author First Name. Year published. Title of Book 2 in Title Case and Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher. T: (Author Last Name year) |
R: Hawthorne, Pat. 2008. Regrets. New York: Penguin. T: (Hawthorne 2008) |
Combined | T (both sources): (Author Last Name year 1, year 2) | T (both sources): (Hawthorne 2006, 2008) |
Multiple Sources in One Citation
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Combined |
T: (Author 1 Last Name year; Author 2 Last Name year) |
T: (Fiddleywink and Snort 2005; Munglesnee, Grumpernickel, and Smith 1995; Otatop 2007). T: (Q. Fiddleywink 1975; Z. Fiddleywink 1982) |
To cite an undated document, use n.d. (no date).
In-text Citations
If the source does not contain page numbers, often with electronic formats, include as much information as needed for the reader to locate the material. In citations especially of shorter electronic works presented as a single, searchable document, such locators may be unnecessary.
Locator Options | Example |
---|---|
heading or section name (okay to abbreviate a long heading or section name) | Methods section |
paragraph or section number | para. 2 sec. 24 |
chap, heading, or section in combination with a paragraph number | chap. 3, para. 1 |
descriptive phrase | under "The Battleground" |
location numbers | loc. 444 of 3023, Kindle |
table, figure, or slide number |
table 1.4 |
video or podcast time stamp | 2:12 |
appendix number or letter | Appendix C |
See: 15.23: Page and volume numbers or other specific locators in text citations
In the list of references/bibliography
For portions of larger documents, such as journal articles and book chapters, include the page range.
Example
R: Cordesman, Anthony H., Adam Mausner, and David Kasten. 2009. Introduction. In Winning in Afghanistan: Creating Effective Afghan Security Forces, edited by John Smith, 1–12. Washington, DC: 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.
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" (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.