When and how often should I cite?
This is a great question! Here is what the APA Manual of Style recommends:
Avoid both undercitation and overcitation. Undercitation can lead to plagiarism (see Section 8.2) and/or self-plagiarism (see Section 8.3). Even when sources cannot be retrieved (e.g., because they are personal communications; see Section 8.9), you still need to credit them in the text (however, avoid using online sources that are no longer recoverable; see Section 9.37). Overcitation can be distracting and is unnecessary. For example, 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 (see Section 8.24). (p.254)
American Psychological Association. (2019). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.
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