GEO 102 Library Resources

APA stands for the American Psychological Association. It is the citation style used in most of the social sciences as well as some of the natural sciences and is the official APA manual published by the American Psychological Association.

An in-text citation appears at the end of the sentences; include author, year, & pages (for direct quotations). See examples below.

In-Text Citations When Summarizing and Paraphrasing

• Integrating robust media literacy concepts into the K-12 curriculum would be a way to enhance students' understanding of credible sources of information (Gopalan, 2018).

• In her research, Gopalan discovered that integrating robust media literacy concepts into K-12 curriculum enhanced students' understanding of credible sources of information (2018).

In-Text Citations When Quoting

• According to Gopalan (2018), “scaffolding media literacy instruction in primary grades can help prepare students for more complex evaluative assignments in secondary grades” (p. 82).

• “Scaffolding media literacy instruction in primary grades can help prepare students for more complex evaluative assignments in secondary grades” (Gopalan, 2018, p. 82).

In-Text Citations For Sources With No Author

• A similar study on K-6 media literacy revealed that elementary school students had an emerging understanding of credible sources ("Revising K-12 media literacy curriculum," 2019).​​

In the rare instance that "Anonymous" is used for author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous, 2019). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author. (APA 7th edition)

In-Text Citations for Sources with 3+ Authors

• For a work by three or more authors, list only the first author’s name followed by “et al.”: (Hernández et al., 2018).

Helpful Links:

Journals

Books

Digital Content

Other

Helpful Links:

Reminder:

Always check your instructor’s policies regarding AI before using it for any part of an assignment. Check the syllabus, and when in doubt, ask your instructor.

Policies vary by course. What is allowed in one class may be considered academic dishonesty in another. Even if it is just for brainstorming, using AI without permission could result in a violation of CSUSM’s Academic Honesty Policy.

Guidelines:

• When referencing content directly in your text, include an in-text citation and an associated entry in your reference list.
• If you used ChatGPT or any other AI tools in your research, describe that use in your methods section. Include the prompts that you used.
• If you used ChatGPT or any other AI tools for your literature review, describe that use in your introduction section. Include the prompts that you used.
• When referencing shorter passages of text, you can include that text directly in your paper.
• Full text AI responses may be included as an appendix.

Reference Entry:

The basics are listed below but for more detailed guidance on how to cite generative AI in APA see the "How to Cite ChatGPT" on the APA Style Blog. 

Format: Author. (date). Title of tool (version) [Tool descriptor]. Source. URL.

• Author: Credit the AI tool as the author. For example, when citing ChatGPT, the author is OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT.
• Date: The date is the year of the version you used.
• Title of the tool: The name of the tool (e.g., “ChatGPT”). Include the version in parentheses after the title.
• Tool descriptor: Use square brackets to add a brief description when the source type isn’t obvious.
  • For ChatGPT, use [Large language model].
  • For ChatGPT-4, you may use [Large multimodal model] (OpenAI’s term).
  • For other tools, use the publisher’s own description.
• Source: If the author and publisher are the same, omit the publisher and go straight to the URL.
• URL: Use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (that is, the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).
  • The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat.

Example:

Passage Created by AI Source (ChatGPT):

The story of KPop Demon Hunters centers on Rumi learning to accept her mixed heritage and stop hiding parts of herself—a point the director has said she wanted to tell as a universal story about shame and acceptance.

In-Text Citation:

One of the main themes addressed in the movie KPop Demon Hunters is the dichotomy of shame and self acceptance. The director explains how it is about learning how to "accept her mixed heritage and stop hiding parts of herself" (OpenAI, 2025).

Reference Entry:

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (5) [Large multi-modal model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

• The official APA website 
  Need access to the official APA guidelines right now but can't get to a copy of the book? Try out their website. It has helpful FAQs and basic guidelines.
• APA 7th Edition Supplemental Resources
  Samples of professional and student papers, bias-free language, table and figures, reference entries, and cover letters and response to reviewers for manuscript submission.
• Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL)
  More examples of APA-style citations and paper formats from Purdue University's famous OWL website. Use the left-hand menu to find the category of item you are trying to cite.
• Official APA Website FAQ's
• Sample paper from Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL)

APA style requires that you include a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) whenever you cite the online version of an article.  A DOI is a string of numbers, letters, and symbols used to permanently identify an electronic article or book.  The DOI helps readers locate a document even if the physical location of the document changes. The DOI will never change. Please note- some articles may not have a DOI.  

The DOI is typically displayed prominently in the bibliographic information for a publication. Check the first page or first several pages of the document, near the copyright notice.  The DOI can also be found on the database landing page for the source.

To find the DOI, Ask a Librarian or check out the following tools:

• Guidance from the APA 
• Crossref.org (tool to locate a doi number)