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Literature Review & Research Skills Guide: Preliminary Reading

Interpreting Citations

Recommended readings in your subject site can give you an idea of the type of resources that your lecturer values.

Distinguishing between citations for books, book chapters, journal articles and websites can help you to search for the items in Primo Search, Google Scholar, or Journal Databases.

Below we list some of the most common resources and their citation structure when formatted in the APA 7th style.

Book citation structure: Author/s. Year of publication in parentheses. Book title in italics. Edition in parentheses. Publisher.Book chapter citation structure: Author/s. Year of publication in parentheses. Chapter title. Editor/s. Book title in italics. Edition and page numbers in parentheses. Publisher.Journal article citation structure: Author/s. Year of publication in parentheses. Article title. Journal title in italics. Volume in italics, issue in parentheses. Page numbers. DOI.Webpage citation structure: Author/s. Year of publication in parentheses. Title of work in italics. Title of site. URL.

Tip: Being able to understand citations, and knowing what each part is referring to, will also help you when it comes to referencing your assignments. Referencing advice is provided here.

Finding readings in Primo Search

If you paste in the whole citation you will usually get no results.

  • Search for the article title for a journal article.
  • Search for the book title for a book or book chapter - add an author if you get too many results.

eBooks

Accessing an eBook? Watch this video for handy tips.

Requesting items and digitisations

Charles Sturt University acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which its campuses are located, paying respect to Elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations Peoples.Acknowledgement of Country

Charles Sturt University is an Australian University, TEQSA Provider Identification: PRV12018. CRICOS Provider: 00005F.