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OTA Program: APA Style Documentation

This library guide details the library resources available for Occupational Therapy Assistant students.

General guidelines for APA style citations

  • Keep in mind that database generated citations are not always perfect, so be sure to double check them.

  • Only the first word of the article title AND the subtitle (immediately following the colon - if present) should be capitalized, and the rest should be lower case with the exception of proper nouns -see example #4 "Journal Article with DOI assigned."

  • Make sure to capitalize the each word in the journal title. Remember that conjunctions and/or prepositions should not be capitalized (i.e, American Journal of Nursing).

  • Remember to italicize both the journal title AND the volume number when creating scholarly article references.

  • If your article has eight or more authors, list the first six authors and then put . . . (an ellipses) between the sixth author's name and the last author's name. Please see pg. 184 and 198 of the APA manual or the APA style blog article "Formatting APA References With More Than Seven Authors" for more information.

  • End all citations with a period except those that contain DOIs and URLs.

APA Style 7th edition QuickStudy Digital Resource

Why We Cite?

Why do we "Document" or "Cite" sources?

Whenever you base your ideas on another person's work or quote someone, you must document the source you utilized. Even when you do not quote directly from someone elses' work, if reading that source contributed to the ideas presented in your paper, you must give the proper credit to the author.

A properly formatted works cited or references page:

  • Shows readers the sources you consulted 
  • Gives credit to the authors for their ideas 
  • Demonstrates that you have researched a variety of sources 

By following these guidelines included in the resource below, you avoid plagiarism.


Plagiarism is the act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of the author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author.

Follow the link below, to learn more about MLA & APA citation guide lines and other tools to help you document.

Documenting Resources (Citations)

APA Style 7th edition Citing Guides

The following guides, developed by Easybib.com, will guide you through citing resources in APA 7 style. Visit Easybib.com to try their automatic citation generator.

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