Citation Generators: Journal Edition
You already know citation generators can save time. What they cannot do is read the source the way a person does, so when a database stores information a little differently than APA expects, the generator copies that difference straight into your reference. This activity walks through one real article and three real database exports for it. For each one, select what you think is wrong before you check your answer.
Checked: 0 / 3
The Source
| Author | Sarah R. Morrison |
|---|---|
| Title | The Accommodating Serpent and God’s Grace: Milton’s Best Writing |
| Published | 2009, in Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900 |
Three different databases each generated a reference for this exact article: JSTOR, Project MUSE, and ProQuest. None of the three got it fully right.
The APA Template for a Journal Article
Treat this the way you'd treat a strict syntax rule in code: one part out of place, and the whole citation is no longer correct, even if it still looks reasonable at a glance.
Hold onto this version. You'll check each database's attempt against it.
Three Databases, Same Article
For each one, select every issue you find, then select Check my answer. You won't see the explanation until you've made a selection.
JSTOR
What's wrong: The article title is capitalized in Title Case. APA requires sentence case for article titles, meaning only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized. The journal title and volume number are also missing their italics.
Project MUSE
What's wrong: The article title is capitalized in Title Case rather than sentence case, the same slip as JSTOR's version. The author's initials are also missing the space between them ("S.R." instead of "S. R."). The journal title has been shortened to its abbreviation instead of spelled out, and the comma that should separate the journal title, volume, and issue from each other is missing entirely. There's also a stray period tacked onto the end of the DOI, which turns the link itself into a formatting error.
ProQuest
What's wrong: The article title is capitalized in Title Case rather than sentence case, the same slip as JSTOR's version, and the journal title is missing its italics too. There's also no period after the article title, so it runs straight into the journal name with nothing to separate them. On top of that, it swaps the DOI for a library proxy URL. A proxy link only works for someone logged into that specific library's system, so it's not a usable citation for anyone else.