Citation Guide

• Only include date accessed if the source material has no date.
• Always 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.

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:

• 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.

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.

• Put a period and a space after the title.
• If you use the figure exactly as it appears in the source, use
  “Source: ___.”
• If you alter the original figure or use someone else's image or data to create the figure, use “Adapted from ___.”

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.

• 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 always 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 do not explicitly 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, 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. 

• Up to three authors:
  • In the reference list, include all of them
  • In the text, include all of them
     
• Four to ten authors:
  • In the reference list, include all of them
  • In the text, list only the first author, followed by et al. (“and others”)
     
• More than ten authors:
  • In the reference list, include only the first seven, followed by et al.
  • In the text, list only the first author, followed by et al.

Examples given are for books; follow the appropriate style for the source type you are citing.

To cite an undated document, use n.d. (no date).

In-text Citations

• Include page numbers in in-text citations when citing quoted material.
• Example: (Haynes 2009, 70)
• No page number is needed in an in-text citation when you are referring to the source as a whole. For example: “George W. Bush’s Decision Points recounts pivotal moments during his time in office.”

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.

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.

How to Incorporate Indirect Sources

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. 

For more information

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.

• Put a period and a space after the title.
• If you use the table exactly as it appears in the source, use
  “Source: ___.”
• If you alter the original table or if you use someone else's data to create the table, use “Adapted from ___.”

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.