Apa style citation

Skill romanmesicek/agent-skills/apa-style-citation

A collection of Agent Skills for AI coding assistants

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npx -y skills add romanmesicek/agent-skills --skill apa-style-citation

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Generate, format, and validate academic citations following APA 7th Edition (2019) guidelines. Use when user requests: citations, reference lists, bibliographies, in-text citations, or mentions "APA style", "APA format", "APA 7", "cite this", "reference list", academic references, or scholarly sources. Handles all source types: books, journals, websites, AI tools, social media, videos, podcasts, government documents, and edge cases. Can check/correct existing citations and generate complete reference lists from research materials.

SKILL.md

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APA Style Citation

Generate and validate citations following APA Publication Manual, 7th Edition (2019).

Capabilities

Generate in-text citations (parenthetical and narrative)
Create formatted reference list entries for any source type
Check existing citations for errors and correct them
Build complete reference lists from research materials
Handle modern sources: AI tools, social media, streaming content
Apply edge case rules: missing info, secondary sources, translations

In-Text Citation Rules

Author-Date Format

Authors	Parenthetical	Narrative
1	(Smith, 2023)	Smith (2023)
2	(Smith & Jones, 2023)	Smith and Jones (2023)
3+	(Smith et al., 2023)	Smith et al. (2023)
Group (first)	(American Psychological Association [APA], 2019)	American Psychological Association (APA, 2019)
Group (subsequent)	(APA, 2019)	APA (2019)
No author	("Article Title," 2023)	"Article Title" (2023)

Key rules:

Use & in parenthetical, spell out "and" in narrative
Use et al. from FIRST citation for 3+ authors (changed from 6th ed.)
Period goes AFTER parenthetical citation: ...end of sentence (Smith, 2023).

Direct Quotations

Always include locator for direct quotes:

Page: (Smith, 2023, p. 45) or (Smith, 2023, pp. 45-47)
Paragraph: (Smith, 2023, para. 4)
Section: (Smith, 2023, Methods section)
Timestamp: (Smith, 2023, 2:15)
Classical: (Shakespeare, 1623/2003, 1.5.45-60)

Block Quotations (40+ words)

Indent entire block 0.5 inches
No quotation marks
Period BEFORE citation: ...end of quote. (Smith, 2023, p. 45)

Multiple Sources

Alphabetize, separate with semicolons:

(Adams, 2020; Chen, 2019; Williams, 2021)

Same author, multiple years:

(Smith, 2019, 2021, 2023)

Same author, same year (alphabetize by title in reference list):

(Smith, 2023a, 2023b)

Reference List Format

Core Structure

Every reference has four elements:

Author - Who created it
Date - When published (Year) or (Year, Month Day)
Title - What it's called
Source - Where to find it (publisher, URL, DOI)

Formatting Rules

Heading: References (bold, centered)
Double-spaced throughout
Hanging indent: 0.5 inches
Alphabetize by first author's surname
No period after DOI or URL

DOI Format

Use hyperlink format: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

NOT: doi:10.xxxx or DOI: 10.xxxx

Common Source Types

Journal Article

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article in sentence case.
    *Journal Name in Title Case, Volume*(Issue), Page-Page.
    https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Book

Author, A. A. (Year). *Title of book in sentence case*. Publisher.

Book Chapter

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), *Title of book*
    (pp. xx-xx). Publisher. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Website

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. https://url

Omit site name if same as author.

AI Tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.)

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model].
    https://chat.openai.com/chat

Anthropic. (2024). Claude (3.5 Sonnet version) [Large language model].
    https://claude.ai

Include prompt and response in appendix. Note: AI output not replicable.

Social Media

X/Twitter:

Author, A. A. [@username]. (Year, Month Day). Content up to 20 words
    [Tweet]. X. https://twitter.com/username/status/xxxxx

YouTube:

Uploader Name. (Year, Month Day). *Title of video* [Video]. YouTube.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxx

Podcast Episode:

Host, A. A. (Host). (Year, Month Day). Episode title (No. xx) [Audio
    podcast episode]. In *Podcast Title*. Producer. https://url

For all source type formats, see references/source-types.md.

Handling Missing Information

Missing	Solution
No date	Use `(n.d.)`
No author	Move title to author position
No title	Use `[Description of work]` in brackets
No page numbers	Use para., section, timestamp
No DOI, from database	Omit URL entirely
No DOI, from web	Include direct URL

Edge Cases Quick Reference

Secondary sources (citing a source you found in another source):

In-text: (Rabbitt, 1982, as cited in Lyon et al., 2014)
Reference list: Only include Lyon (the source you read)

Personal communications (emails, interviews, conversations):

In-text only: (J. Smith, personal communication, January 15, 2023)
NOT in reference list (not recoverable)

Translated works:

Freud, S. (1961). *The ego and the id* (J. Strachey, Trans.). W. W. Norton.
    (Original work published 1923)

In-text: (Freud, 1923/1961)

Retracted articles:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title. *Journal, Volume*(Issue), Pages.
    https://doi.org/xxxxx (Retraction published Year, *Journal, Volume*, Page)

For comprehensive edge case guidance, see references/edge-cases.md.

Common Errors to Avoid

"&" vs. "and" - Use & only in parenthetical citations
Period placement - Period after citation, not before
DOI format - Must be https://doi.org/ not doi:
Title capitalization - Sentence case for articles/books, Title Case for journals
et al. usage - Use from first citation for 3+ authors
Issue number italics - Only volume is italic: 12(3)
Missing page numbers - Required for all direct quotes
Retrieved from - Omit unless retrieval date included
Publisher location - Not required in APA 7th
Database URLs - Omit for common databases (JSTOR, ProQuest)

For complete error checklist, see references/common-errors.md.

Workflow: Checking Citations

When asked to check/correct citations:

Identify format issues - DOI format, capitalization, punctuation
Verify completeness - All four elements present
Check in-text/reference correspondence - Every citation has reference entry
Apply source-specific rules - Correct format for source type
Flag uncertainties - Note if information appears incomplete

Workflow: Creating Reference List

When asked to create a reference list from sources:

Identify source type for each item
Extract four elements - Author, Date, Title, Source
Apply correct format per source type
Alphabetize by first author surname
Format with hanging indent (note in output)
Generate matching in-text citations if requested

Examples

Example 1: Format a journal article

Input: "Cite this: Article by Sarah Chen and Michael Park in Journal of Psychology, volume 45, issue 3, pages 112-128, published 2023, DOI 10.1037/psych.2023.045"

Output: Reference:

Chen, S., & Park, M. (2023). [Article title needed]. *Journal of Psychology,
    45*(3), 112-128. https://doi.org/10.1037/psych.2023.045

In-text: (Chen & Park, 2023)

Note: Article title needed to complete reference.

Example 2: Correct a citation

Input: "Fix this: (Smith, John, 2020, p.15)"

Output: Corrected: (Smith, 2020, p. 15)

Issues fixed:

Removed first name (use last name only)
Added space after "p."

Example 3: Cite AI-generated content

Input: "How do I cite something Claude told me?"