APA Citation help

For this class, whenever you use another author's words to support your argument, you will be using the APA citation style to create citations. This style, which is from the American Psychological Association, is used in many of the social sciences and health fields. The official guide to APA style is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which can be found in the Library using the call number BF76.7 .P83 2010. Links to an external site.

APA References list citations will typically follow a set format, although the specifics may change based on what type of resource you are citing:

Author. (Year). Title of item. Retrieval information for item.

Retrieval information may be a URL, publishing information for a book, information about which journal and volume an article was published in, or other information which aids a reader in finding the resources you include.


Key Things to Remember

  • Authors are only listed with their initials (John Doe = Doe, J.).
  • When writing a title of a book, article, webpage, etc., only capitalize the first word, the first word of the subtitle, and proper nouns.
  • However, journal titles (e.g., Journal of Popular Culture) capitalize each major word.
  • If you are unable to find an explicit listed date, use n.d.
  • Always include the 2 letter state abbreviation when putting the publishing information for books.
  • Remember that authors for webpages can sometimes be companies or organizations.
  • For journal articles, if there is no DOI, look up the title of the journal in Google and give the URL of the journal's homepage. Do not list the URL for the database or permalink.
  • Remember to use a hanging indent (hit Control T in Word) and double spacing to organize your References list.
  • Put page or paragraph numbers in your in-text citation for direct quotes.

Examples

The following examples show how to cite books, eBooks, journal articles, and Web resources in your References list and in your research. You may also use the Library's APA research guide (Opens in new window.) Links to an external site. to see more specific examples and see other resources.


Book

References List Template: Author, A. A. (Date). Title of book: Subtitle of book. City, State: Publisher.

References List Example:

In-Text Citation: (Newton, 2013, p. 145)

 View the "APA: Citing Books" tutorial (Opens in new window.)


Chapter of an Edited Book

Template: Chapter Author, A. A. (Date). Title of chapter. In Book Editor (Ed.), Title of book: Subtitle of book (pages-pages). City, State: Publisher.

Example:

In-Text Citation: (Wyckoff, 2015)

 View the "APA: Citing Books" tutorial (Opens in new window.)


eBook

Template: Author, A. A. (Date). Title of book: Subtitle of book. Retrieved from URL of eBook or eBook database

Example:

In-Text Citation: (Halford, 2011)

 View the "APA: Citing eBooks" tutorial (Opens in new window.)


Journal Article

Article with DOI

Template with DOI: Author, A. A. (Date). Title of article: Subtitle of article. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), pages-pages. https://doi.org/XXXXXXX

Example with DOI:

Article Without DOI

Template without DOI: Author, A. A. (Date). Title of article: Subtitle of article. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), pages-pages. Retrieved from URL of journal's homepage (find through Google)

Example without DOI:

In-Text Citation: (Kaffine, McBee, & Lieskovsky, 2013, pp. 156-157); (Izraelski, 2014)

 View the "APA: Citing Journal Articles" tutorial (Opens in new window.)


Webpages

Template: Author, A. A. (Date). Title of page: Subtitle of page. Retrieved from URL

Example:

Template with no author*:  Title of page: Subtitle of page. (Date). Retrieved from URL
*remember that a company or organization can be an author

Example with no author:

In-Text Citation: (Dieter, 1999, para. 2); ("Introduction to Mandalas," 2010)

 View the "APA: Citing Web Resources" tutorial (Opens in new window.)


Online Videos

Template: Author, A. A. [username]. (Date). Title of video [Format of video]. Retrieved from URL

Example:

Template with No Full Name: Username. (Date). Title of video [Format of video]. Retrieved from URL

Example with No Full Name:

In-Text Citation: (BBC News, 2015, 0:23)

 View the "APA: Citing Videos" tutorial (Opens in new window.)

((Adapted from Santa Fe College)