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PsychBuddy

APA Style Tip! Check your Introduction for Overcitation

Here's a super quick APA tip!


Avoid overcitation.


What is Overcitation?


Here's an example:


Smith and Evan (2019) conducted a study investigating the impact of eating icecream on positive mood. Smith and Evan (2019) recruited 27 psychology honours students to complete an online survey. The authors found that eating chocolate icecream - but not vanilla icecream - was significantly related to higher levels of positive affect (Smith & Evans, 2019). Smith and Evans (2019) recommended psychology honours students eat chocolate icecream, as necessary.


According to the APA: "it is considered overcitation to repeat the same citation in every sentence when the source and topic have not changed. Instead, when paraphrasing a key point in more than one sentence within a paragraph, cite the source in the first sentence in which it is relevant and do not repeat the citation in subsequent sentences as long as the source remains clear and unchanged."


Why is it Important to Avoid Overcitation?

According to the APA: "Overcitation can be distracting and is unnecessary."


My tip: You don't want to distract your marker!! Because in my opinion - that's what APA errors are - distractions. APA formatting is pedantic and may seem unnecessary, but for someone who has been reading APA formatted documents for many years, reading a paper with APA errors is like reading a document with spelling mistakes everywhere. It gets distracting!!


Overcitation Tips:

  • Include a citation in the first sentence where you describe a study.

  • Include a citation in relation to any conclusions about the study findings where it might be ambiguous as to whether you - or the authors - reached that conclusion.


Happy Researching!



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