APA Quick Guide – Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA)

This guide aims to provide examples on how to properly cite some of the most frequently used types of sources. It is based on
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. (2009) and the APA Style Guide to Electronic References
(2007). When using the APA (final manuscript and references) style, you will double-space everything except when single-spacing
will improve readability. You will give brief author-date parenthetical citations in the text (instead of footnotes) and, at the end of
your paper, a reference list of works cited. If you have questions about types of sources outside the range of this guide, consult the
library’s copy of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association behind the reference desk, or contact a reference
librarian.

General Rules: Reference Lists

List the elements that identify the work's author title, publication date, and its publisher. The list should be alphabetized by the last
name of the author (or first title word, if no author). Last names are inverted (last name first), and first names are abbrev iated to the
authors' initials. The year the work was published should be placed in parentheses following the author’s name.

The reference list must be double-spaced, and entries should have a hanging indentation after the first line of each entry.

Capitalize only the first letter (and any proper nouns) of titles and subtitles of articles, books, chapters, and unpublished periodicals.
Capitalize the first letter of all significant words in titles of published periodicals.

Italicize titles of books and periodicals (journals, newspapers, magazines, etc.). Italicize the volume number only of periodicals.

Corporate names as authors are written out; capitalize the first letter of significant words. A parent body precedes a subdivision
within an organization.

Edited books without an author? Treat the editors as authors (inverted order), and include (Ed.) or (Eds.) in parentheses after the
last editor's name. Editors' names and other names not in the author position (e.g., translators) are not inverted and are followed by
an abbreviated designation in parentheses.
No author or editor? Move the title to the author position before the date.

For undated works, include n.d. for "no date."

For publishers, give the city and state or country if the city is not well known for publishing or is ambiguous. Leave out terms like
"Publishers," "Co.," or "Inc." but includes terms such as “Press" or "Books." Use 2-letter abbreviations for states if needed. Do not
abbreviate "University." If two or more publisher locations are listed, give the first listed or the home office location if known.

General Rules: Reference Citations in Text

For citations in text, insert a brief parenthetical reference consisting usually of the last name(s) of the author(s), a comma, and the
year of publication. Do not include suffixes such as Jr. or qualifiers like Ed. Do not include months or days even if in the reference list.

For direct quotations and references to a specific part of a work, follow the year of publication with a comma and provide the page
number(s) or identify the section you refer to. Precede the page numbers with p. or pp. or chap. or sect. For electronic sources
without page numbers, use the paragraph number, preceded by the paragraph symbol ¶ or the abbreviation para. Never use page
numbers of any web pages you print out as different printers may reflect different pagination.

Authors’ For works by two authors, provide the last names of both every time the work is cited in the text. For three to five authors,
provide the last names of all authors the first time referred to in the text, and in subsequent references, provide only the last name
of the first author followed by et al. If more than six authors provide only the last name of the first author and follow with et al.

For un-authored works, use the first few words of whatever is the first element of the reference in your reference list, followed by
the date and other specifics needed.

Works by authors with the same last name? Provide first initials (before the last name, not inverted order) for each author in
the text and in parenthetical citations.

For undated works, include n.d. for "no date."

 Type of Reference Citations in Text Reference List
Source

All of the information provided below relates to printed books. The following is not an exhaustive list. Please
consult the APA for additional examples.
Books The following “citations in text” are all examples of the citations that occur at the end of a quotation, summary or
paraphrase. Please consult the APA for examples of text citations that occur at the beginning of a quotation,
summary of paraphrase.
Porter, M. (1986). Competitive Advantage. New York, NY:
(Porter, 1986)
One Author Basic Books.

(Stephens & Graham, 2000) Stephens, G., & Graham, G. (2000). When self-
Two Authors consciousness breaks. Alien voices and inserted
thoughts. Cambridge: MIT Press.
List all the authors in parentheses the first time you
cite the source.
Applegate, L.M., Austin, R.D., & McFarlan, F.W. (2003).
(Applegate, Austin, and McFarlan, 2003)
Three to Five Corporate information strategy and management:
Authors Text and cases (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill
In subsequent citations, only use the first author’s last
Irwin.
name followed by “et al.” in the parentheses.

(Applegate et al., 2003)

 (Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 1997) Duncan, G.J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997).
Editor – No Consequences of growing up poor. New York, NY:
Author Russell Sage Foundation.

(Mill, 1980) Mill, J. S. (1980) Autobiography and Literary Essays. J.M.

Editor With Robson & J. Stillinger, (Eds.). Toronto: University of
Author Toronto Press.

When you cite a republished work, like the example to Laplace, P. S. (1951). A philosophical essay on
the right, you should list both the original work & the probabilities. (F.W. Truscott & F.L. Emory, Trans.).
republished translation dates. New York: Dover. (Original work published 1814).
A Translation
(Laplace, 1814/1951)

(Woodward, 2004, pp.333-336) Woodward, A. (2004). SRI International, Inc. In J.P.

Chapter (or Peterson (Ed.), International directory of company
other titled histories (pp. 333-336). Detroit: St. James
parts of a Press.
book)

In this resource (as in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association), “periodical refers to
Periodicals items published on a regular basis: journals, magazines, scholarly newsletters, etc.

Journal Article (Brown, 1996, pp.175-200) Brown, E. (1996). The lake of seduction: Silence, hysteria,
and the space of feminist theatre. JTD: Journal of
(from print)
Theatre and Drama, 2, 175-200.
(Henry, 1990, pp. 28-31) Henry, W.A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in
Magazine
today’s schools. Time, 135, 28-31.
Newspaper (Holden, 1998, pp. A1, A22-A23) For newspaper reference list citations, p. or pp. precedes
 page numbers. For single page cite p. for multiple pages
cite pp.

Holden, S. (1998, May 16). Frank Sinatra dies at 82:

Matchless stylist of pop. The New York Times, pp.
A1, A22-A23.

The variety of material available electronically, and the variety of ways in which it is structured and presented, can
Electronic
present challenges for creating usable and useful references. At a minimum, a reference of an electronic source
Sources should provide a document title or description, a date, and an address: DOI, URL, etc.

(Stultz, 2006) The final version of the article is being referenced, so

there is no need to include retrieval date. The article was
retrieved from the PsycARTICLES database. However, no
database name or URL is needed because the DOI
functions as both a unique identifier of the content
Full Text Article (taking the place of a database name or accession
from online number) and a link to the content (taking the place of
Database with the URL).
DOI Assigned
Stultz, J. (2006). Integrating exposure therapy and
analytic therapy in trauma treatment. American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76(4), 482-488.
doi:10.1037/0002-9432.76.4.482

(Hager, 2007) If there is no DOI assigned, give the exact URL (if the
Full Text Article
content is open-access) or the URL of the journal home
from online
page (if the content is accessible by subscription).
Database no
DOI Assigned
No retrieval date is included because the final version of
 the article is being referenced.

Hager, M.H. (2007). Therapeutic diet order writing:

Current issues and considerations. Topics in
Clinical Nutrition, 22(1), 28-36. Retrieved from
[Link]

Online (Rabkin, 2008) Rabkin, A. (2008, Feb. 6). The toddler economy. Slate.
Magazine Retrieved February 6, 2008, from
content not [Link]
found in print
version
(Gettman, n.d.) Gettman, D. (n.d.). The twinkle theory. Available from
[Link]
Electronic Book emID=244

(National Park Service, 2008, para. 1) National Park Service. (2008, Feb. 6). Abraham Lincoln
Web Page Birthplace National Historic Site. Retrieved
February 6, 2008, from [Link]
Audio Audio
(Van Nuys, 2006) Van Nuys, D. (Producer). (2006, October 13).
Understanding autism [Show 54]. Shrink Rap
Television feature Radio. Podcast retrieved from
(Kloft, 2006) [Link]
Podcast
Television feature
Kloft, M. (Producer/Director). (2006). The Nuremberg
Trials [Motion picture]. In M. Samuels (Executive
Producer), American experience. Podcast
retrieved from WGBH:
[Link]
 Online encyclopedia
Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E.N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved January
28, 2007, from [Link]
Reference Citation in Text: (Graham, 2005, sect. 2)

Online dictionary
Heuristic. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary. Retrieved October 20, 2005, from [Link]
[Link]/dictionary/
Reference
Reference Citation in Text: (Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, n.d.)
Materials
Online handbook
Body dysmorphic disorder. (2005). In M.H. Beers, R.S. Porter, T. V. Jones, J.L. Kaplan, & M. Berkwits (Eds.), The
Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy online. Retrieved January 28, 2007, from
[Link]

First cite
(Beers, Porter, Jones, Kaplan, & Berkwits, 2005)

Subsequent cites
(Beers, et al., 2005)