Computer Information Systems

Business researchers most often use the American Psychological Association (APA) citation style. Check with your instructor. 

Some basic guidelines:

• Attribution - it's okay to use someone else's work, but credit them for it. Even when you don't use a direct quote or paraphrase another's work, if you derive some useful ideas or learn something from your reading, acknowledge that by including a citation in your Works Cited or References list.

• Paraphrase - when you discuss someone's work or ideas in your own words.  Yes, you need to cite the work.

• Direct quotation - using an author's exact words in your paper.

  • Use opening and closing quotation marks ("")
  • ​​A quote of less than 40 words is inserted directly into the text
  • ​A quote of more than 40 words 
    • Indent the quote one-half inch
    • ​​​Do not use quotation marks
    • Double space
    • ​​Exclude extra spacing between the quote and the rest of the text

• List of citations at the end of your paper/report are:         
  • Alphabetized by the author’s last name or by the article/book title if there is no author (disregard a, an, the).
  • The title References is typed in boldface and centered at the top of the page. 
  • APA-style references are typed double-spaced using a hanging indent (the first line of the citation is aligned with the left margin; (subsequent lines are indented one-half inch).
  • Capitalize proper nouns

Example References page

Electronic Style Guides

Below are additional sources for citation information, some of which will actually generate citations based on the information you input. Please note:  if you enter incorrect information, the generated citation will be incorrect.

Online citation generators- enter whatever information you have (title, author, journal) to generate a full citation. Download or copy/paste it.  These sites will also generate in-text citations.