APA citation and quotations

Katrina62
I need some help regarding Zotero and rules for APA citations. I turned in an APA paper, and got dinged for the following:

(“Narcotics Bureau,” 2015). (In-text citation)

Narcotics Bureau. (2015, February 18). Retrieved from https://dojmt.gov/enforcement/narcotics-bureau/ (Reference page).

My professor informed me that I needed to remove the quotations out of the in-text citations. I have been using Zotero for five years now, and I have always trusted in this program, and those individuals who constructed and continuously maintain this Zotero. My question is, is he correct on this? or is there a rule for why there a quotations in the in-text citation. I would research this myself, but I am in the middle of a semester and am crazy busy with school work.

Thanks for any help or suggestions that I can get! I usually get A's on my paper, but this teacher is out for blood, dinging me on skipped lines, to incorrect font.

Lisa. I.



  • bwiernik
    It looks like you have entered Narcotics Bureau in the Title field. If that isn't correct, then move it to the Author field. However, from the look of it, it is the title, and your instructor mistakenly believed that Narcotics Bureau was the author, rather than the title (which should be in quotes per APA style). You could dispute the points being taken off there. Otherwise, you could also address this by adding an author to the item (e.g., Montana Department of Justice)
  • adamsmith
    It depends on how you interpret "Narcotics Bureau": If it's the author, then there shouldn't be quotation marks. If it's the title of the page (which is how you've added it in Zotero) it's correct with quotation marks (the latter is specified on page 176 of the APA Manual).
    I think your citation is fine, but one can certainly argue about this (and about whether you should have tried to find a proper author for the page).

    (Btw., while we try our best to be accurate with citations, you really shouldn't rely on Zotero-generated citations to be 100% accurate, especially as they're sensitive to poor data input)
  • Katrina62
    Thanks so much for the quick response! I will take your recommendation to be more careful in the future regarding Zotero's citations. I wanted to mention that when I find articles on websites, I do run into this same issue with the quotation marks. I have noticed quotation marks in the in-text citations for quite a while now, but again, I didn't think I needed to investigate this further. This is the first teacher I have had in the last four years of college that has ever had an issue with my paper, and how it was cited.
  • bwiernik
    The quotation marks are because the in text citation is giving the title of the article when there is no author listed in Zotero. Often when you import web pages (versus journal articles, book chapters, etc.), the metadata on the page isn't very good, so Zotero's imported data will be incomplete. You will need to correct these manually. If there really is no personal or organizational author for the item, citing it using the title in quotes is correct APA style.
  • Katrina62
    Thanks again! I appreciate the quick response and all of the help. This is the second time I have come here to get help, and I had my answer within minutes!
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited February 22, 2017
    Perhaps your professor was not exactly complaining about the quotation marks but objected to the reference itself. As mentioned by others, you should almost always seek the author of an item even if it is an agency. I've worked with some nit-picking faculty in my many years but in your case I believe that, as adamsmith said, you could justify your cite under certain limited circumstances. Were you simply referencing that the Montana Narcotics Bureau exists and has regional offices? If your citation was used to support any other statement, it could be that you were penalized not for the punctuation but for the lack of specificity of supporting information. Your cite would be satisfactory if it was support for a statement such as, "The Narcotics Bureau has a central office in Helena with 5 other regional offices...". However, if your statement was,"According to the Narcotics Bureau convictions for drug distribution have increased each year..." your reference is insufficient.

    edit
    There is nothing on the MBN webpage to indicate an author -- even that the state agency is the author. Indeed, I helped a student who (unsuccessfully) protested a lower grade because she used an agency as the author of a webpage -- the prof said that she should cite the webpage name (as you did) or the entity [other broader state agency or a web developer] that produced the page. This same professor still --in 2017-- demands that students use APA 5th ed. (citation based upon the 6th ed aren't accepted).
  • bwiernik
    (Wow. There are no journals even that I am aware of that still require APA 5.)
  • DWL-SDCA
    [Not a journal...a professor. Although not particularly elderly -- a bit younger than I --if male she would embrace the label curmudgeon. She hasn't published anything in more than 10 years but earned tenure after great success and recognition in a niche area long ago. She still achieves grant funds.]
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