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LANG 2070 - English Communication for Humanities and Social Science Studies I: Cite in APA

How to Cite?

Different subject disciplines use different citation styles.  APA (American Psychological Association) style is common in many subjects outside of psychology.

By learning to follow one specific style, you will learn methods that will help if you ever have to follow other styles (such as MLA, Chicago, Harvard, etc.).

Watch the video and use the guides listed below

How to Cite APA Style - HKUST Library Guide (very detailed!)

Citation Guide - APA style  from Hong Kong Baptist University Library.

APA Style Blog - from the American Psychological Association

 

 

 

"Bibliographic Management tools" can also help you with managing the references  you collect and making citations.

A very simple and easy online tool is Zbib: https://zbib.org/

Here is also a list of helpful tools, some of them a bit complex, but very powerful.

Basics of APA Style

In-Text Reference

  • If the author can be identified, write the author's surname (family name, last name) and publication year in brackets:
      ... In 2001, 52.8% of the water  in China's river syetms was Grade 5 (toxic) or worse, while only 1.5% was Grade 1  (Wahl, 2004), ...
     
  • If the author can't be identified, write the first few words of the article title and the year, use double quotation marks around the title:
        The financial crisis of 2009, combined with drought left some migrants with no place to go ("The rainman comes," 2009)...

End-of-paper References

 

  • Include all sources you have cited (make in-text reference to) in your paper
     
  • General format:
                          Author surname, Initials. (Year). Article title. Magazine title, volume no. (issue no.), page range.

                          Author surname, Initials. (Year). Article title. Newspaper title, page number.
     
    If the author can't be identified, article title will come first. 
     
    Precede page numbers for newspaper articles with p. or pp.
     
  • Sources should be listed in alphabetical order
     
  • Examples:

References

The rainman comes. (2009). The Economist, 390(8618), 53.

Wahl, A (2004). The thirsty land. Canadian Business, (77)22, 28-36.

Wilmsen, B., Webber, M., Duan, Y. (2011). Development for whom? Rural to urban resettlement at the Three Gorges Dam. Asian Studies Review, (35)1, 21-42.

 

 

 

 

In-text Citation Made Easy!

Citing AI in APA style

APA style

Guidelines from APA

Key points  (Aug 2025)

  1. AI cannot be an author. 
  2. Any use of AI must be fully disclosed in the manuscript or course work. (See "Where & how to disclose" below)
  3. AI must not be used to fabricate or falsify data. 
  4. AI-generated images or figures must be disclosed and used with proper rights.
  5. Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy and originality of AI-generated content. 
  6. Human oversight is required at all stages of research and writing.

 

Where & How to Disclose 

AI Use Where & How to Disclose
Generate content (e.g. manuscript drafts, literature summaries)

In the Introduction section  
Include AI tools, prompts, and keywords used (preserve output if needed)
Translate or copyedit text

In a general author note 
Mention the AI tool used
Create or refine code; analyze, format, or visualize data; edit research methods/results

In the Method section 
Include the AI tool, usage details, and preserve outputs
Create or edit figures, tables, or images

In the section where visual content appears (e.g. Results) 
Include prompts, tools, and preserve output

Check more details here.

Suggested Practices

1. Cite an AI chat

Format:

AI Company Name. (year, month day). Title of chat in italics [Description, such as Generative AI chat]. Tool Name/Model. URL of the chat

In-text citation: 
(AI Company Name, year)
AI Company Name (year)


Example:

Conversation with an AI model In-text citation & Reference list

 

In-text citation

"ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, focuses on generating human-like text based on extensive internet-trained data, while Claude, developed by Anthropic, emphasizes safety and alignment through constitutional AI principles, aiming to reduce harmful outputs by adhering to a set of predefined ethical guidelines." (OpenAI, 2025)

Reference list

OpenAI. (2025, Oct 9). Differences between ChatGPT and Claude [Generative AI chat]. GPT-4o. https://poe.com/s/Q6CfwbdwTMVAtNY1HUcY

 

2. Cite AI model (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude)
  • cite the model or tool as Software

Format:

AI Company Name. (year). Tool Name/Model in Italics and Title Case [Description; e.g., Large language model]. URL of the tool

In-text citation: 
(AI Company Name, year)
AI Company Name (year)



Examples:

Reference list

OpenAI. (2025). GPT-5 [Large language model]. https://poe.com/GPT-5

Anthropic. (2025). Claude-Sonnet-4.5 [Large language model]. https://poe.com/Claude-Sonnet-4.5

Perplexity AI. (2025). Perplexity [Large language model]. https://www.perplexity.ai/

Google. (2025). Gemini-2.5-Pro [Large language model]. https://poe.com/Gemini-2.5-Pro

 

In-text citations:

(OpenAI, 2025; Anthropic, 2025; Perplexity AI, 2025; Google, 2025)

OpenAI (2025), Anthropic (2025), Perplexity AI (2025), Google (2025)

Learn more details: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-generative-ai-references 

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