APA reference entries

General Guidelines for Reference Entries in APA Style

AUTHOR NAMES

  • When an author’s name appears before the title of the work, list it by last name followed by a comma and first initial followed by a period. (Middle initials may also be included.)
  • If an author, editor, or other name is listed after the title, then the initial(s) precede the last name (see examples on pp. 523, 524–25, 527).
  • When multiple authors are listed, their names should be separated by commas, and an ampersand (&) should precede the final author.

DATES

  • For scholarly journals, include only the year (2014).
  • For monthly magazines, include the year followed by a comma and the month (2014, May).
  • For newspapers and weekly magazines, include the year followed by a comma and the month and the day (2014, May 27).
  • Access dates for electronic documents use the month-day-year format: “Retrieved May 27, 2014.”
  • Months should not be abbreviated.
  • If a date is not available, use “n.d.” (for “no date”) in parentheses.

TITLES

  • Titles of periodicals should be italicized, and all major words capitalized (Psychology Today; Journal of Archaeological Research).
  • Titles of books, Web sites, and other nonperiodical long works should be italicized. Capitalize the first word of the title (and subtitle, if any) and proper nouns only (Legacy of ashes: The history of the CIA).
  • For short works such as essays, articles, and chapters, capitalize the first word of the title (and subtitle, if any) and proper nouns only (The black sites: A rare look inside the CIA’s secret interrogation program).

PAGE NUMBERS

  • Reference entries for periodical articles and sections of books should include the range of pages: “245-257.” For material in parentheses, include the abbreviation “p.” or “pp.” before the page numbers (“pp. A4-A5”).
  • If the pages are not continuous, list all the pages separated by commas: “245, 249, 301-306.”
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