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Communication & Media Studies Research Guide

Why Cite?

  • To give credit where credit is due;
  • So your reader (professor) can get the source that you mentioned in your assignment;
  • To add credibility to your research - shows you did the work;
  • Avoid plagiarism.

Learn more about writing citations and avoiding plagiarism by visiting these websites:

 

For more help with citations, visit the CSUSM Library Citation Guide

American Psychological Association (APA)

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.

You can review the below examples for basic information on how to cite in APA, but we recommend consulting the complete manual for other specific types of citation formatting.

In-Text

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

  • 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).

  • 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).

  • 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)
  • 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:

References

JOURNAL ARTICLE WITH DOI:

You will often see a digital object identifier (DOI), a unique set of numbers and letters, assigned to journal articles. If an article has a DOI (not all of them do), APA style requires you to format the DOI as a URL. If the article's DOI isn't a url, add https://doi.org/ in front of it.

Gopalan, S. (2018). Re-envisioning K-12 media literacy curricula. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 80(2), 78-92. https://doi.org/10.1280/09421822.2018.85673.x 

JOURNAL ARTICLE WITHOUT A DOI FROM A DATABASE:

For scholarly articles without a DOI, published in a database, end the citation with the page range.

Garcia-Bernal, D. (2017). Fashion as a site for critical pedagogical praxis. Journal of Fashion & Design Pedagogy, 41(2), 48-63.
JOURNAL ARTICLE  WITHOUT A DOI FROM A WEBSITE (not a database):

For scholarly articles with no DOI published on a website, end the citation with the URL.

Bruce, S. (2020). Teaching with care: A relational approach to individual research consultations. In the Library With the Lead Pipe. Retrieved August 28, 2020, from http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2020/teaching-with-care/

 

PRINT BOOK

Morrison, T. (2017). The origin of others. Harvard University Press.

ESSAY/CHAPTER IN BOOK
(PRINT):

Ng, C., & Saeed, A. (2019). Using #ownvoices literature as an antiracist teaching strategy. In M.K. Peralta (Ed.), Culturally responsive pedagogies in k-12 (2nd ed., pp. 23-40). Routledge.

EBOOK
(IN DATABASE):

 If the eBook has a DOI, end citation with the DOI.

Erdrich, L. (1993). Future home of the living god: A novel. Harper.

ENTIRE WEBSITE

For general mention of a website that you do not cite information from, you may simply name the website and provide the URL in parentheses for your in-text citation. Do not include on your References page.

Ex. The CSUSM Library website provides access to several scholarly article databases and primary sources to aid students in research for their courses (http://biblio.csusm.edu).

ARTICLE/PAGE ON A WEBSITE

Mull, A. (2020, July 7). Fashion's racism and classism are finally out of style. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/fashions-racism-and-classism-are-going-out-style/613906/

YOUTUBE VIDEO

Sycuan Tribe. (2016, March 10). Our people. Our culture. Our history. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNJXh52sgFo&t=24s
TWITTER POSTS

Gessen, M. [@mashagessen]. (2020, June 23). Which made me realize: it is possible to believe that you respect an author's work while explicitly disrespecting them - [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/mashagessen/status/1275529667940888576?s=20

FILM OR TELEVISION

Lee, S. (Director). (2020). Da 5 bloods [Film]. 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks; Rahway Road; Lloyd Levin/Beatriz Levin Production; Netflix.

CLASS LECTURE

Ibarra Siqueiros, A. (2020). Using zines in library instruction. [PowerPoint slides]. Cougar Courses. https://cc.csusm.edu

Helpful Links: