General Citations Information and Citing Wikipedia
Full information for citing on-line sources is often provided by the sources themselves, including Wikipedia, which has extensive information at
Wikipedia: Citing Wikipedia
MLA
APA
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia>
See also Style guide -- Wikipedia
In citing their own materials Wikipedia recommends . . .
FOR MLA style
Citation in MLA style, as recommended by the Modern Language Association:
- "Plagiarism." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . 22 Jul 2004, 10:55 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Aug 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350>.
Note that MLA style calls for both the date of publication (or its latest update) and the date on which the information was retrieved. According to the most recent MLA booklet, there is now information required about any foundation involved. Also note that many schools/institutions slightly change the syntax. Another example:
- "Plagiarism." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia . 22 July 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350>.
Be sure to double check the exact syntax your institution requires.
For citation of Wikipedia as a site, use:
FOR APA style
Citation in APA style, as recommended by the American Psychological Association: [1]
- Plagiarism. (2004, July 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . Retrieved August 10, 2004, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism
Note that in APA 5th Edition Style, the following rules apply for the reference:
- For reference books, which includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, and glossaries, the book title is preceded by the word In. It is not italicized, but the book title following it is.
- The book title appears in sentence case. You capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.
- The URL must go to the exact page that you reference.
- No punctuation follows the URL.
- The term or article title appears in the author position. Use sentence case for multiple-word terms or titles, where you capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.
The proper in-text citation is ("Plagiarism," 2006) for a paraphrased passage or ("Plagiarism," 2006, para. #) if you directly quote the material. Note that para. # represents the paragraph number in the page where the information appears. If there are multiple headings on the page, it is also acceptable to place the subheading and then a paragraph number within that heading.
For example, proper in-text citation for a direct quote of less than 40 words is:
- Plagiarism is the use of another person's work (this could be his or her words, products or ideas) for personal advantage, without proper acknowledgement of the original work" ("Plagiarism," 2006, "Definition," para. 1).
If the quoted material is more than 40 words, use the block quote format instead.
As another example, the proper in-text citation for a paraphrased passage is:
Plagiarism is stealing the works of others ("Plagiarism," 2006).
APA Style requires that you provide a separate reference entry for each term you are citing in your paper because 1) you must provide a URL for each term that goes directly to the term, and 2) you must provide the publication date for each term separately. However, if you are dicussing the "online encyclopedia" itself, not a term in the encyclopedia, you might need to reference the site itself. The proper citation of Wikipedia, the site, as referenced in APA 5th Edition Style is:
- Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia . (2006, February 13). FL: Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved February 13, 2006, from http://www.wikipedia.org
The in-text citation formation would be (Wikipedia, 2006).
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