There are a number of citation styles available to use, and it's important that you use the correct style for your class.
The most common style for psychology classes is APA (American Psychological Association), and the library has many resources available (online and on campus) to help with citing. Below are a few useful links:
There are a number of reasons why you should provide a list of references at the end of each paper or project, as well as cite these references in the actual text.
Citing your sources is good form, but it also helps the reader to distinguish between your own thoughts and those of others. It is also important in avoiding plagiarism, which is the intentional OR unintentional use of another's work without citing.
Most of the Library databases that you'll use offer a 'cite' feature that will create a citation for you.
And, while this is a great feature, you should always double-check these database-generated citations to make sure everything is correct.
Always check your citation against the Library's APA Handout to catch any typos or errors.
For instance:
Capitalization rules are important in APA. If the title of your article is all uppercase (LIKE THIS), then the citation will be wrong. Only the first word of each part of the title, and proper nouns (names and place names) are capitalized.
Sometimes citations will include the name of the database, or a URL to the full article. And, while this is handy for your own records, it is not part of APA.
So, always double-check your citations to make sure everything looks right!