General guidelines for listing authors

Alphabetize entries in the list of references by authors’ last names; if a work has no author, alphabetize it by its title. The first element of each entry is important because citations in the text of the paper refer to it and readers will be looking for it in the alphabetized list. The date of publication appears immediately after the first element of the citation.

Name and date cited in text

Duncan (2006) has reported that . . .

Beginning of entry in the list of references

Duncan, B. (2006).

What comes after the first element of your citation will depend on the kind of source you are citing.

For variations in types and numbers of authors, click the following links or browse the directory to APA reference list models.

Exercise: APA documentation: reference list 1

Exercise: APA documentation: reference list 2

Exercise: APA documentation: reference list 3

Exercise: APA documentation

Related topics:

Single author

Two to seven authors

Eight or more authors

Organization as author

Unknown author

Two or more works by the same author

Two or more works by the same author in the same year