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A citation is a lot like a mailing address. A mailing address describes exactly where you live, and if you want your mail to be delivered, you need to use your whole address in the correct order.
The same idea goes for a citation - it describes exactly where to find a reading, and putting all the information in the right order makes it possible for you, your professor, or your group members to find it again.
A style like APA or AMA determines the order and formatting of a citation, and they all tend to include similar information like:
The basic format for an APA 7th edition journal article citation looks like this:
Author, A., & Author B. (Year). Title of article. Title of journal. Volume number(issue number), pages. DOI
Here's an example:
Dean, R., & Poorvu, N. (2008). Assessment and formulation: a contemporary social work perspective. Families in society, 89(4), 596-604. https://doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.3822
Which one is the journal title?
Which one is the volume number?
The basic format for an APA 7th edition book chapter citation:
Author, A., & Author, B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A.A. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Publisher.
And here's an example:
Kurtz, L.F. (2004). Support and self-help groups. In C.D. Garvin, L.M. Gutierrez, and M.J. Galinsky (Eds.), Handbook of social work with groups (pp. 139-159). The Guilford Press.
Which one is the book title?
If you can read a book chapter citation, you can read a book citation - it's the same idea and structure!
And here's the format for an APA 7th edition "nonperiodical web document:"
Author, A.A. (Date of publication). Title of document. http://web address
And here's an example of a "non-periodical web document" that you might need to cite:
National Association of Social Workers. (2017). Code of ethics of the national association of social workers. https://www.socialworkers.org/ About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English
Who (or what) is the author?
For more information on citation styles, look for the Writing and Citing tab in all of our Research Guides, and visit the Writing Center for in-depth assistance.
Now let's practice getting from a citation to an article!
Finding your readings using Library Search tends to be the quickest option, but Find a Journal is always accurate, if a bit lengthier.
We're going to find this article:
Go to the Library's homepage.
Look at the article citation below, then type (or copy & paste) the article title into the Library Search box, and click Search.
If this is opening in a new window, click on this link to stay in the tutorial.
Tip: for long titles you can often just search using the first part or phrase.
Usually your article will be one of the first search results - use the citation information to confirm that it's the article you're looking for.
Scroll through your results (it's probably the first result) until you find:
Not seeing it? Try this:
Still nothing? Try this:
If you're still not seeing results jump to Find a Journal to see the other search strategy.
Tip: If you’re off-campus and see a gray message at the top of the page that says “Welcome, Guest. Sign in to your institution for full access to your library's resources.” use your Simmons username and password to log in.
In the results list, immediately under each result you'll see a button with access options for reading it. The drop-down menu will usually include one or more of the below:
Once you find your article, click on the access options button. From the drop-down menu, select 'click here for full text' to see the full thing.
Library Search and other databases do more than just give you the full article.
Exit out of the full article text and return to the tab with your original library search.
To see all the other information and tools, click on the article title:
"Assessment and formulation: a contemporary social work perspective."
Directly underneath the resource title, you'll see access options.
In the center you'll see more about the article under additional information.
Above the resource title, you'll see tools to help you with your research process.
Where is the publisher information?
What does the cite button do (represented by the quotation icon)?
Find a Journal
Some articles are harder to find, and using Library Search may not be the best option. This tutorial will search using the citation information to find the following article by looking up the journal in which it was published:
Kurland, R., & Salmon, R. (2005). Group work vs. casework in a group: principles and implications for teaching and practice. Social Work with Groups: A Journal of Community and Clinical Practice, 28(3-4), 121-132. https://doi.org/10.1300/J009v28n03_09
Click on the results link above the resource title to return to your original search. In the left menu under "Research Tools," click on Publication Finder.
Type the journal title of the article, Social Work with Groups, into the search box.
Find the journal title in the list of results, and choose to view the full text available option: Taylor & Francis 1997 - present.
From the journal page on Taylor & Francis, use the volume, issue, and year information in the citation to locate the journal issue that contains the article. (In this case: Volume 28).
Click on the issue, 3-4.
You can now scroll through the results to your article.
Once you locate your article, click on its title.
If you're off-campus, you may be asked to login with your Simmons username and password.
That's it!
Tip: you can also search the text on a webpage by clicking control+f, and searching by the author's name to move more quickly through the page.
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