APA Style

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The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition, 2010) provides comprehensive advice to student and professional writers in the social sciences. Here we draw on the Publication Manual’s guidelines to provide an overview of APA style for in-text citations, content notes, and entries in the list of references.

In-Text Citations

APA style calls for in-text citations in the body of an argument to document sources of quotations, paraphrases, summaries, and so on. These in-text citations correspond to full bibliographic entries in the list of references at the end of the text.

1. Author Named in a Signal Phrase

Generally, give the author’s name in a signal phrase to introduce the cited material, using the past tense for the signal verb. Place the date, in parentheses, immediately after the author’s name. For a quotation, the page number, preceded by p. (not italicized), appears in parentheses after the quotation. For electronic texts or other works without page numbers, paragraph numbers may be used instead, preceded by the abbreviation para. For a long, set-off quotation, position the page reference in parentheses one space after the punctuation at the end of the quotation.

According to Brandon (1993), Adefunmi opposed all forms of racism and believed that black nationalism should not be a destructive force (p. 29).

As Johnson (2005) demonstrated, contemporary television dramas such as ER and Lost are not only more complex than earlier programs but “possess a quality that can only be described as subtlety and discretion” (p. 83).

2. Author Named in Parentheses

When you don’t mention the author in a signal phrase, give the name and the date, separated by a comma, in parentheses at the end of the cited material.

The Sopranos has achieved a much wider viewing audience than ever expected, spawning a cookbook and several serious scholarly studies (Franklin, 2002).

3. Two Authors

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Use both names in all citations. Use and in a signal phrase, but use an ampersand (&) in parentheses.

Associated with purity and wisdom, Obatala is the creator of human beings, whom he is said to have formed out of clay (Edwards & Mason, 1985).

4. Three to Five Authors

List all the authors’ names for the first reference. In subsequent references, use just the first author’s name followed by et al. (in regular type, not underlined or italicized).

Lenhoff, Wang, Greenberg, and Bellugi (1997) cited tests that indicate that segments of the left brain hemisphere are not affected by Williams syndrome, whereas the right hemisphere is significantly affected (p. 1641).

Shackelford (1999) drew on the study by Lenhoff et al. (1997).

5. Six or More Authors

Use only the first author’s name and et al. (in regular type, not underlined or italicized) in every citation, including the first.

As Flower et al. (2003) demonstrated, reading and writing involve both cognitive and social processes.

6. Organization as Author

If the name of an organization or a corporation is long, spell it out the first time, followed by an abbreviation in brackets. In later citations, use the abbreviation only.

7. Unknown Author

Use the title or its first few words in a signal phrase or in parentheses. (In the example below, a book’s title is italicized.)

The school profiles for the county substantiate this trend (Guide to secondary schools, 2003).

8. Authors with the Same Last Name

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If your list of references includes works by different authors with the same last name, include the authors’ initials in each citation.

G. Jones (1998) conducted the groundbreaking study of retroviruses, whereas P. Jones (2000) replicated the initial trials two years later.

9. Two or More Sources in the Same Citation

List sources by the same author chronologically by publication year. List sources by different authors in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names, separated by semicolons.

While traditional forms of argument are warlike and agonistic, alternative models do exist (Foss & Foss, 1997; Makau, 1999).

10. Specific Parts of a Source

Use abbreviations (p., pt., and so on) in a parenthetical citation to name the part of a work you’re citing. However, chapter is not abbreviated.

Pinker (2003) argued that his research yielded the opposite results (p. 6).

Pinker (2003) argued that his research yielded the opposite results (Chapter 6).

11. Online Document

To cite a source found on the Internet, use the author’s name and date as you would for a print source, and indicate the chapter or figure of the document, as appropriate. If the source’s publication date is unknown, use n.d. (“no date”). To document a quotation, include paragraph numbers if page numbers are unavailable. If an online document has no page or paragraph numbers, provide the heading of the section and the number of the paragraph that follows.

Werbach (2002) argued convincingly that “despite the best efforts of legislators, lawyers, and computer programmers, spam has won. Spam is killing email” (p. 1).

12. Email and Other Personal Communication

Cite any personal letters, email messages, electronic postings, telephone conversations, or personal interviews by giving the person’s initial(s) and last name, the identification, and the date. Do not list email in the references list, and note that APA style uses a hyphen in the word e-mail.

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E. Ashdown (personal communication, March 9, 2015) supported these claims.

Content Notes

The APA recommends using content notes for material that will expand or supplement your argument but otherwise would interrupt the text. Indicate such notes in your text by inserting superscript numerals. Type the notes themselves either at the bottom of the page or on a separate page headed Footnotes (not italicized or in quotation marks), centered at the top of the page. Double-space all entries. Indent the first line of each note one-half inch or five spaces, and begin subsequent lines at the left margin.

Text with Superscript Indicating a Note

Data related to children’s preferences in books were instrumental in designing the questionnaire.¹

Note

¹Rudine Sims Bishop and members of the Reading Readiness Research Group provided helpful data.

List of References

The alphabetical list of sources cited in your text is called References. (If your instructor asks you to list everything you’ve read as background — not just the sources you cite — call the list Bibliography.) The list of references appears on a separate page or pages at the end of your paper, with the heading References (not underlined, italicized, or in quotation marks) centered one inch from the top of the page. Double-space after the heading, and begin your first entry. Double-space the entire list. For print sources, APA style specifies the treatment and placement of four basic elements: author, publication date, title, and publication information. Each element is followed by a period.

The following APA style examples appear in a “hanging indent” format, in which the first line aligns on the left and the subsequent lines indent one-half inch or five spaces.

Print Books

1. One Author

Fraser, S. (2015). The age of acquiescence: The life and death of American resistance to organized wealth and power. New York, NY: Little, Brown.

2. Two or More Authors

Steininger, M., Newell, J. D., & Garcia, L. (1984). Ethical issues in psychology. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin.

3. Organization as Author

Use the word Author (not italicized) as the publisher when the organization is both the author and the publisher.

Linguistics Society of America. (2002). Guidelines for using sign language interpreters. Washington, DC: Author.

4. Unknown Author

National Geographic atlas of the world. (2010). Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.

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5. Book Prepared by an Editor

Hardy, H. H. (Ed.). (1998). The proper study of mankind. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus.

6. Selection in a Book with an Editor

Villanueva, V. (1999). An introduction to social scientific discussions on class. In A. Shepard, J. McMillan, & G. Tate (Eds.), Coming to class: Pedagogy and the social class of teachers (pp. 262-277). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

7. Translation

Pérez-Reverte, A. (2002). The nautical chart (M. S. Peden, Trans.). New York, NY: Harvest. (Original work published 2000)

8. Edition Other Than the First

Bok, D. (2015). Higher education in America (Rev. ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

9. One Volume of a Multivolume Work

Will, J. S. (1921). Protestantism in France (Vol. 2). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

10. Article in a Reference Work

Chernow, B., & Vattasi, G. (Eds.). (1993). Psychomimetic drug. In The Columbia encyclopedia (5th ed., p. 2238). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

If no author is listed, begin with the article title, followed by the year, and the rest of the citation as shown here.

11. Republication

Sharp, C. (1978). History of Hartlepool. Hartlepool, United Kingdom: Hartlepool Borough Council. (Original work published 1816)

12. Graphic Narrative

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If the words and images are created by the same person, cite a graphic narrative just as you would a book with one author (see item 1 below).

Bechdel, A. (2012). Are you my mother? New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

If the work is a collaboration, indicate the author or illustrator who is most important to your research, followed by other contributors in order of their appearance on the title page. Label each person’s contribution to the work.

Stavans, I. (Writer), & Arcaraz, L. (Illustrator). (2000). Latino USA: A cartoon history. New York, NY: Basic.

13. Government Document

U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). Survey of women-owned business enterprises. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

14. Two or More Works by the Same Author

List the works in chronological order of publication. Repeat the author’s name in each entry.

Lowin, S. (2006). The making of a forefather: Abraham in Islamic and Jewish exegetical narratives. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.

Lowin, S. (2013). Arabic and Hebrew love poems in Al-Andalus. New York, NY: Routledge.

Print Periodicals

15. Article in a Journal Paginated by Volume

Bowen, L. M. (2011). Resisting age bias in digital literacy research. College Composition and Communication, 62, 586-607.

16. Article in a Journal Paginated by Issue

Carr, S. (2002). The circulation of Blair’s Lectures. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 32(4), 75-104.

17. Article in a Monthly Magazine

Baker, C. (2008, September). Master of the universe. Wired, 16(9), 134-141.

18. Article in a Newspaper

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Nagourney, A. (2002, December 16). Gore rules out running in ‘04. The New York Times, pp. A1, A8.

19. Letter to the Editor or Editorial

Erbeta, R. (2008, December). Swiftboating George [Letter to the editor]. Smithsonian, 39(9), 10.

20. Unsigned Article

Guidelines issued on assisted suicide. (1998, March 4). The New York Times, p. A15.

21. Review

Avalona, A. (2008, August). [Review of the book Weaving women’s lives: Three generations in a Navajo family, by L. Lamphere]. New Mexico, 86(8), 40.

22. Published Interview

Shor, I. (1997). [Interview with A. Greenbaum]. Writing on the Edge, 8(2), 7-20.

23. Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year

List two or more works by the same author published in the same year alphabetically by title (excluding A, An, or The), and place lowercase letters (a, b, etc.) after the dates.

Murray, F. B. (1983a). Equilibration as cognitive conflict. Developmental Review, 3, 54-61.

Murray, F. B. (1983b). Learning and development through social interaction. In L. Liben (Ed.), Piaget and the foundations of knowledge (pp. 176-201). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Digital Sources

The following models are based on the APA’s Publication Manual (6th edition). A change for handling electronic sources involves the use of a digital object identifier (DOI) when available (instead of a URL) to locate an electronic source. The DOI is a unique number assigned to an electronic text (article, book, or other item) and intended to give reliable access to it. A second change is that a date of retrieval is no longer necessary unless a source changes very frequently. The basic APA entry for most electronic sources should include the following elements:

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24. Web Site

To cite a whole site, give the address in a parenthetical reference. To cite a document from a Web site, include information as you would for a print document, followed by a note on its retrieval. Provide a date of retrieval only if the information is likely to change frequently.

American Psychological Association. (2013). Making stepfamilies work. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/stepfamily.aspx

Mullins, B. (1995). Introduction to Robert Hass. Readings in contemporary poetry at Dia Center for the Arts. Retrieved from http://www.diacenter.org/prg/poetry/95_96/intrhass.html

25. Article from a Periodical on the Web

For an article you read online, provide either the URL of the periodical’s homepage, preceded by Retrieved from (not italicized) or a DOI.

Haines, R. (2015, February 27). The problem with separate toys for boys and girls. The Boston Globe. Retrieved from http://www.bostonglobe.com

Lambert, N. M., Graham, S. M., & Fincham, F. D. (2009). A prototype analysis of gratitude: Varieties of gratitude experiences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1193-1207. doi:10.1177/0146167209338071

26. Article or Abstract from a Database

For an article you find on a database, provide a DOI if one is available. If the online article does not have a DOI, locate the homepage for the journal in which the article appears and provide that URL. You need not identify the database you have used.

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Strully, K. (2014). Racially and ethnically diverse schools and adolescent romantic relationships. American Journal of Sociology, 120(3), 750-757. doi:10.1086/679190

Hayhoe, G. (2001). The long and winding road: Technology’s future. Technical Communication, 48(2), 133-145. Retrieved from techcomm.stc.org

27. Software or Computer Program

OS X Lion (Version 10.7) [Computer operating system]. (2011). Cupertino, CA: Apple.

28. Online Government Document

Cite an online government document as you would a printed government work, adding the URL. Note that the APA spells website as one word.

Finn, J. D. (1998, April). Class size and students at risk: What is known? What is next? Retrieved from United States Department of Education website: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ClassSize/title.html

29. Entry in a Web Reference Work

Cite the entry as you would an entry from a print reference work (see item 10). Follow with the date of publication, the name of the Web site, and the URL.

Tour de France. (2006). In Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/600732/Tour-de-France

30. Posting or Comment on a Web Site

Begin with the author’s name; the date of the most recent update; the title of the posting (if there is no title, use the description Blog post or Blog comment, not italicized); the name of the blog, italicized, and the URL.

Marcotte, A. (2012). Rights without perfection. Pandagon. Retrieved from http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/05/pandagon-rights_without_perfection/

31. Entry in a Wiki

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Since wikis are collectively edited, do not include an author. Include the title of the entry; the date of the latest update; the name of the wiki, italicized; and the URL of the source.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association. (2014). In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 11, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA

32. Posting on a Social Networking Site

To cite a posting on Facebook or another social networking site, include the writer’s name, the date of the post, a description of the item in brackets, and the URL of the source.

Ferguson, S. (2014, March 6). Status update [Facebook post]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/sarah.ferguson?fref=nf

33. Posting on a Public Facebook Page

When citing a posting on a public Facebook page or another social networking site that is visible to anyone, include the writer’s name as it appears in the post. Give a few words from the post, and add an identifying label. Include the date you retrieved the post and the URL for the public page. Do not include a page on the list of references if your readers will not be able to access the source; instead, cite it as a personal communication in the text.

American Psychological Association (2014, April 24). Why do many people do their best thinking while walking? [Facebook post]. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from https://www.facebook.com/AmericanPsychologicalAssociation

34. Tweet

Include the writer’s Twitter handle; the date of the tweet; the entire text of the tweet with no end punctuation, followed by Tweet in brackets; the words Retrieved from; and the full Twitter account URL with no end punctuation.

Aalrhetorician. (2014, August 27). Just read (again) about demise of the apostrophe. Argument getting a bit old [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/aalrhetorician

35. Newsgroup Posting

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Include the author’s name, the date and subject line of the posting, and the name of the newsgroup.

Wittenberg, E. (2001, July 11). Gender and the Internet [Msg 4]. Retrieved from http://www.news://comp.edu.composition

36. Email Message or Synchronous Communication

Because the APA stresses that any sources cited in your list of references must be retrievable by your readers, you shouldn’t include entries for email messages or synchronous communications (MOOs, MUDs); instead, cite these sources in your text as forms of personal communication (see item 12 above). And remember that you shouldn’t quote from other people’s email without asking their permission to do so.

Other Sources

37. Technical or Research Reports and Working Papers

Kinley-Horn and Associates. (2011). ADOT bicycle safety action plan (Working Paper No. 3). Phoenix: Arizona Department of Transportation.

38. Unpublished Paper Presented at a Meeting or Symposium

Welch, K. (2002, March). Electric rhetoric and screen literacy. Paper presented at the meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL.

39. Unpublished Dissertation

Seward, D. E. (2008). Civil voice in Elizabethan parliamentary oratory: The rhetoric and composition of speeches delivered at Westminster in 1566 (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.

40. Poster Session

Mensching, G. (2002, May). A simple, effective one-shot for disinterested students. Poster session presented at the National LOEX Library Instruction Conference, Ann Arbor, MI.

41. Motion Picture, Video, or DVD

Bigelow, K. (Director). (2009). The hurt locker [Motion picture]. United States: Summit Entertainment.

42. Television Program, Single Episode

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Burnett, A. (Writer), & Attias, D. (Director). (2014, March 26). The deal [Television series episode]. In J. Weisberg (Executive producer), The Americans. Los Angeles, CA: DreamWorks Television.

43. Online Video Clip

Weber, J. (2012). As we sow, part I: Where are the farmers? [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cdcDpMf6qE

44. Sound Recording

Begin with the writer’s name, followed by the date of copyright. Give the recording date at the end of the entry (in parentheses, after the period) if it’s different from the copyright date.

Ivey, A., Jr., & Sall, R. (1995). Rollin’ with my homies [Recorded by Coolio]. On Clueless [CD]. Hollywood, CA: Capitol Records.