ENGR 231: Introduction to Technical Writing: Giving Credit: Citing your Sources!

• Giving credit to your sources is called Citing or Referencing a source. This is important so that someone who is reading your paper can go back and find the sources you have used in your research. They may want to verify that you reported the accurate information or data that was discussed in the article or they may want to read more about it.
   
• Citations are an integral and vital part of the Scientific Research Publication Cycle. In other words, researchers or scientists base their work on what their colleagues have done. The ability to follow the trail to see what others are doing in their field is crucial to the advancement of the research, whether it be science, humanities research theory or social science theories.
   
• Below is a list of the most commonly used citation styles used in Engineering fields and links to their Style Manual. A style manual will tell you exactly how to format your citations, whether it's a scholarly article, a magazine article, an online resource, or a YouTube video! Using the correct format ensures the citations are consistent across the literature so that anyone can follow someone else's research and advancing and developing the field.

APA (American Psychological Association) Style is widely used in the social sciences, business, and some of the life sciences.

There are two parts to referencing: the citations within the text of your paper ("in-text citations") and the reference list at the end of your paper.

The APA referencing style is an "author-date" system, so the citation in the text consists of the author(s) and year of publication given wholly or partly in round brackets.

This guide gives example citations for the most common information formats used in APA Style, as well as links to all types of sources used in a Reference List and specific formatting examples. Examples are based on the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

For more examples of APA citations, check out the APA Example Citation Guide. 

For more APA formatting guidelines, check out the APA Formatting Guide. 

• APA Style Guide Based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 6th ed. [BF76.7.P82 2010].

• APA Style Guide to Electronic Resources Extensive guide to citing all types of electronic resources

The 2018 editorial style manual of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a style commonly used in technical fields like computer science.

The complete IEEE Editorial Style Manual  (PDF) is free to download from IEEE and contains a formal set of editorial guidelines for IEEE Transactions, Journals, and Letters.

The IEEE Reference Guide (PDF) is also free to download from IEE and outlines how to cite different types of references in IEEE style.   

The UW main Citation Styles and Tools Guide has links to more citation styles in addition to free software you can use to manage  your research citations.