I need help with an APA citation.
When I use the “cite” function of QuickSearch it gives me this:
Voigtländer, N., & Voth, H. (2012). persecution perpetuated: The medieval origins of anti-semitic violence in nazi germany. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(3), 1339-1392. doi:10.1093/qje/qjs019
When I use the “cite” function off EBSCO it gives me this:
Voigtländer, N., & Voth, H. (2012). PERSECUTION PERPETUATED: THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE IN NAZI GERMANY. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(3), 1339-1392. Retrieved May 7, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/23251987
Which is right?
Answer
Both are incorrect.
Machine generated citations contained in databases are inconsistent, ranging from completely correct to horribly wrong. EBSCO provides a disclaimer above the results in the citation box, warning you to make any necessary corrections before using. "Pay special attention to personal names, capitalization, and dates. Always consult your library resources for the exact formatting and punctuation guidelines."
According to the APA, their citation template for a journal article appearing in a bibliographic list is as follows:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article: Subtitle of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy
Explained further, upper case letters are used for the first word of the title and subtitle of the article, as well as for proper nouns (such as organizations, religions, places, names, days of the week). The first citation has too little capitalization (persecution, nazi, germany), the second, entirely in capital letters, has too much.
For a deeper look at citation, consult our Lib Guide.