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Santa Clara UniversityUniversity Library

Business Resource Portal

Why cite?

Readers need to be able to identify and retrieve each work cited in your paper.

  • Business citations and references use APA (American Psychological Association) format
  • Every paper requires citation information to appear in two places:
    • Full reference list at the end of your paper (like a bibliography)
    • Within the text of your paper wherever you state a fact or conclusion from a particular source you used

APA Guidance

APA Style Guides

  • References (List of works cited that appears at the end of your paper)
  • In-text citations (Short attribution within the text of your paper so readers can find the full citation in your reference list)

Handouts

Database information is seldom provided in reference list entries. When citing a work from an academic research databases or platforms, do not include the name of the database in the reference list entry unless the work falls under one of these exceptions

Further reading

Citing Generative AI

AI Chat

Reference list

AI Company Name. (year, month day). Title of chat in italics [Description, such as Generative AI chat]. Tool Name/Model. URL of the chat

Example:

OpenAI. (2025, August 21). High school grammar concepts [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT.  https://chatgpt.com/share/68a77b60-0ee4-800c-9acc-cd3fd573c311
In-text parenthetical citation (AI Company Name, year)
In-text narrative citation AI Company Name (year)

AI Tool (not a specific chat)

Reference list

AI Company Name. (year). Tool Name/Model in Italics and Title Case [Description; e.g., Large language model]. URL of the tool

Example:

Google. (2025). Gemini 2.5 Flash [Large language model]. https://gemini.google.com
In-text parenthetical citation (AI Company Name, year)
In-text narrative citation AI Company Name (year)

AI Prompts

Researchers should document the prompts used with AI tools for their own records. The reference you create would be for the chat, not the prompt(s).

Source / Further reading

McAdoo, T., Denneny, S., and Lee, C. (2025, September 9). Citing generative AI in APA Style: Part 1—Reference formats. APA Style. apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-generative-ai-references

AI as a Search Engine

It is likely not necessary to cite the use of AI when using AI as a search engine or when AI is integrated into common software.

Source / Further reading:

McAdoo, T., Denneny, S., and Lee, C. (2025, September 9). Citing generative AI in APA Style: Part 2—AI as a search engine and AI integrated into common software. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-generative-ai-search-software