The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) is the trusted source for writing citations for research papers. APA citation style is most often used in the social sciences and business, and by other subject disciplines that prefer the APA format. While the APA manual was originally developed to provide authors with guidance when submitting formal manuscripts to scholarly publishers, the secondary but just as popular use is by students consulting the manual when writing source citations for their research papers. While the library has in-library-use copies of this reference manual, students can also find helpful and abundant citation information online at the APA Style website (see below).

The APA maintains the APA Style website which provides numerous citation models that students can consult when writing their own citations. Scroll down on the website landing page to see the full menu of example citation categories.

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab has a helpful website on writing APA style citations. Ignore the interactive ads and use the menu on the left side of the webpage to navigate the contents of the site (for example, click the link for APA Sample Paper to go directly to that section).

For those who are interested in using optional software management tools, Northwestern offers free citation software accounts for enrolled students as follows: 

EndNote Support guide
EndNote is a free resource for Northwestern students. This guide explains how to download and use the EndNote software.

Zotero Support guide
Zotero is a free resource for Northwestern students. This guide explains how to download and use the Zotero software.