November 2026 - Citations in Academic Papers Study Guide for nursing students in
Citations credit sources and let a reader verify them. Nursing programmes generally use APA, which pairs an author-date citation in the text with a full entry in the reference list — and a paraphrase needs a citation just as much as a quotation does.
Try 4 short questions throughout this guide. Check each answer to learn from the explanation.
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Why citations exist
Credit — the idea belongs to someone, and saying so is the basic honesty of academic work.
Verification — a reader can go and check whether the source says what you claim it says.
Authority — a claim backed by a cited study carries weight an unsupported assertion does not.
Protection — using someone's work without attribution is plagiarism, whether or not it was intended.
APA at a glance
The style most nursing programmes require. The pairing is what matters: every in-text citation must have a reference entry, and vice versa.
Element
Form
Example
In-text, paraphrase
Author and year
(Okonkwo, 2021)
In-text, direct quotation
Author, year and page
(Okonkwo, 2021, p. 47)
Narrative citation
Author in the sentence, year in brackets
Okonkwo (2021) found that…
Two authors
Both, joined by an ampersand in brackets
(Okonkwo & Reyes, 2021)
Three or more
First author, then et al.
(Okonkwo et al., 2021)
Reference list
Author, year, title, source
Okonkwo, A. (2021). *Title of the work*. Publisher.
Paraphrasing still requires a citation. Putting someone's finding into your own words changes the wording, not the ownership of the idea — and unattributed paraphrase is one of the commonest forms of accidental plagiarism.
Question 1 of 4
Which in-text citation is correctly formatted for a direct quotation in APA?
Choose one answer, then check it.
View the Answer and Explanation
Correct answer: B. (Okonkwo, 2021, p. 47)
A direct quotation needs author, year and page so a reader can find the exact wording. Author and year alone is the paraphrase format, and the remaining two are missing information or in the wrong order.
Quoting and paraphrasing
Quote when the exact wording matters — a definition, a phrase you intend to analyse. Use quotation marks and give the page number.
Paraphrase in most other cases. It shows you have understood the source rather than merely copied it.
A paraphrase must change both the words and the sentence structure. Swapping a few synonyms into the original's shape is still too close.
Common knowledge — that the heart has four chambers — needs no citation. A specific finding, figure or interpretation does.
Question 2 of 4
Which of these does NOT require a citation?
Choose one answer, then check it.
View the Answer and Explanation
Correct answer: C. The fact that the human heart has four chambers
The four-chambered heart is common knowledge — it appears in every basic anatomy text and belongs to no one. Statistics, borrowed definitions and someone else's interpretation are all attributable to a specific source.
In-text citations and the reference list work as a pair
The in-text citation is deliberately minimal — enough to identify the entry, no more. The reference list carries the full detail so a reader can locate the source, and it is arranged alphabetically by author surname.
Every source cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and everything in the list must be cited somewhere in the text. A reference list that includes works you read but did not cite is a bibliography, which is a different thing.
Citing a paraphrase
Worked example
You want to use a 2021 finding by Okonkwo that structured handover cut omissions by half. How do you cite it?
Decide between quoting and paraphrasing. The finding matters, not the wording, so paraphrase.
Rewrite the finding in your own words and structure.
Add an in-text citation. A paraphrase needs author and year, with no page number required.
Add the full entry to the reference list.
In the text: Structured handover halved the number of omissions recorded (Okonkwo, 2021). In the reference list, the full entry beginning Okonkwo, A. (2021). A page number would only be needed if you quoted directly.
Terms to know
Citation
A brief reference in the text identifying a source.
Reference list
The full list of every source cited, alphabetical by author.
Bibliography
A list of works consulted, including those not cited. Not the same as a reference list.
APA
The author-date style most nursing programmes use.
In-text citation
The short author-date reference within a sentence.
Narrative citation
A citation with the author named in the sentence itself.
Plagiarism
Presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own.
Common knowledge
Widely known facts that need no citation.
et al.
Latin for "and others", used for sources with three or more authors.
What the TEAS asks most
The same core ideas appear in different wording. If you can answer these without stopping to think, you have what this section requires.
Why are sources cited?
To credit the author, let readers verify the claim, and avoid plagiarism.
Which citation is formatted correctly?
Author and year for a paraphrase; author, year and page for a direct quotation.
Does this need a citation?
Yes, unless it is genuinely common knowledge. Paraphrases always do.
What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?
A reference list contains only cited works; a bibliography includes everything consulted.
Question 3 of 4
A student rewrites a study's finding entirely in her own words. What must she do?
Choose one answer, then check it.
View the Answer and Explanation
Correct answer: B. Cite the original source, because the idea is not hers.
Rewording changes the expression but not the ownership of the finding, so a citation is required — unattributed paraphrase is a common form of plagiarism. Quotation marks would be wrong because the words are not the author's, and a source used in the text must be cited there.
Key points
Citations credit the source and let a reader check it.
APA pairs an author-date citation in the text with a full reference entry.
Direct quotations need a page number; paraphrases do not.
Paraphrasing still requires a citation.
Every in-text citation must appear in the reference list, and vice versa.
Question 4 of 4
What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?
Choose one answer, then check it.
View the Answer and Explanation
Correct answer: B. A reference list contains only works cited in the text; a bibliography also includes works consulted.
The distinction is what each includes: a reference list matches the citations in the text exactly, while a bibliography may list background reading too. Both are alphabetical by author and both appear at the end.
TEAS · Citations in academic papers
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