When we carry out a work or elaborate a scientific document , we often have to use concepts, terms and definitions that have been elaborated by other people, or we find that works carried out by others support our own research or theories.

In order to reflect the authorship of these concepts, to provide the vision of a given author about a reality and to validate the information we provide we must cite the sources from which we have extracted the information .

There are numerous formats that can be applied when making citations. One of the best known and most used, especially in the world of psychology, is the APA format .

What does it mean to quote?

The word quotation has many meanings, such as to warn, to give a court notice or to summon someone to a certain place at a certain time. However when we refer to making a citation at a bibliographic level we are referring to explicitly mentioning a source from which certain information has been extracted.

Citations can be made either when using literally the same words as the original author of an idea or to support with their work the arguments that have been used throughout the document being created. It can also sometimes be used to show the opinion of a particular author on a specific topic. Citations are usually made both within the text and in a section at the end of the document, the bibliographical references.

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The APA regulations

One of the best known formats when making citations is the APA format, which was created in 1929 by different professionals from different branches, especially from the world of psychology. This style was named after the American Psychological Association, the association that developed it .

The purpose of this format is to forge a model that allows the expression of ideas and concepts in a precise and clear way, without great complications for the reader when identifying and understanding both the concepts and their origin .

Since its conception the APA format has evolved over time, introducing small modifications that have led to its current version. This is one of the most used formats when quoting and not only in the different branches of psychology but also in many other scientific disciplines.

How to cite websites in APA format

Making a quotation in APA format is easy or , as it is based on having a clear idea of the format to be used and applying it. However, in order to do this you need to know how to do it.

Below you can see some basic steps to quote correctly in APA format, specifically when using a web page as an information source (although the differences with other types of sources are minimal).

1. Extracts the basic information from the original text

When we consult a text and take it as a reference or use an author or his theory we must extract different information if we intend to quote and reference it correctly. The surname and initial of the author or authors, the year of publication, the title of the publication, if it belongs to a manual, magazine, thesis or web and the name of these, the publisher if any, the city and if it is the case, which page to which page the information can be found.

On a web page we will usually find only a part of this data , but sometimes you can find books and magazines published on the web that may have it.

If no name or date is available, can be specified by indicating Unknown or Anonymous instead of the former or n.d. (no date) if the latter is not available.

2. Note the web address and date

In the case in question, that of a web page, we must, in addition to the above, extract the URL or web address so that possible readers can address it if they wish to consult it, as well as the date on which we have collected the information from it . The latter is more important than it may appear, especially if we consider that the authors of a page may decide to close it or delete content for a particular reason.

3. Quote in the text

If throughout the text we want to refer to an idea of a particular author or support our argument with the work done by others, we have to make a citation.

When a quotation is made throughout the text, it is sufficient to place the first surname of the author and the year of publication in brackets, separating both data with a comma. If there is more than one author, the surnames of all the authors should be placed in the first instance, separated by commas (except in the case of the last and penultimate author, which are separated by an “and” or “&”).

If it is quoted several times , from the first time only the surname of the principal can be used and “y cols.” or “et al.” can be added to refer to the existence of more collaborators. This is done in the same way for citations of articles and books as well as for web pages.

The basic structure is as follows: (Author’s last name, year of publication). For example, to cite this article throughout a text it would be sufficient to put (Castillero, 2017).

It is also valid to put the author’s last name in the text if we make a literal or paraphrased quote, placing the year in parentheses. Using a different example we could put: “As Einstein indicated in his theory of relativity (1915)…”

4. Bibliographic references

Once the text has been written it is necessary to create a section with the bibliographical references that have been used, at which point we will use all the information previously collected in the first two points. It is necessary to take into account that if there is more than one, they must be ordered alphabetically.

To correctly reference a web page , the author’s surname should be placed first, followed by a comma and then the initial of his/her name(s), followed by a period. If there is more than one author, separate them with a comma or semicolon. In this case not all authors of the source itself should appear.

The year of publication is then placed in brackets, followed by a period. Then the title of the article in question is put in italics, followed by the type of publication it is.

After that, it is detailed from which web page it has been collected, URL that will be introduced by some particle as “Retrieved from”, “Available in” or “Consulate in” and later the URL in question. After this, the date of consultation will be shown in square brackets.

The basic structure would be as follows: Last name, first name. (Year). Title in italics. (Type of publication). Available in: URL [date].