Electronic resources • Guide V ed. • Crib • Template

APA Documentation Style

To document a source, the American Psychological Association (APA) recommends in-text citations that refer readers to a list of references.

Directory to APA in-text citations

  1. A quotation
  2. A summary or a paraphrase
  3. Two authors
  4. Three to five authors
  5. Six or more authors
  6. Corporate author
  7. Unknown author
  8. Authors with the same last name
  9. Personal communication
  10. Two or more works in the same parentheses

31a. APA in-text citations

The APA's in-text citations provide at least the author's last name and the date of publication. For direct quotations, a page number is given as well.

NOTE: In the models that follow, notice that APA style requires the use of the past tense or the present perfect tense in signal phrases introducing material that has been cites: Smith reported, Smith has argued.

1. A quotation. Ordinarily, introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses. Put the page number in parentheses at the end of the quotation.

 

31b. APA list of references

In APA style, the alphabetical list of works cited is titled "References." Following are models illustrating the form that APA recommends for entries in the list of references. Observe all details: capitalization, punctuation, underlining, and so on. For explanations of these matters and for a sample "References" page, see pages 132 and 136.

Directory to APA list of references

Books

  1. Basic format for a book
  2. Two or more authors
  3. Corporate author
  4. Unknown author
  5. Editors
  6. Translation
  7. Edition other than the first
  8. Work in an anthology
  9. Multivolume work
  10. One volume of a multivolume work

Periodicals

  1. Article in a magazine
  2. Article in a daily newspaper
  3. Article in a journal paginated by volume
  4. Article in a journal paginated by issue
  5. Unsigned article in a periodical
  6. Review
  7. Letter to the editor

Other Sources

  1. Material from a database
  2. CD-ROM abstract
  3. Online journal
  4. Government document
  5. Dissertation abstract
  6. Proceedings of a conference
  7. Computer program
  8. Videotape

Books

1. Basic format for a book

Schaller, G.B. (1993). The last panda. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

2. Two or more authors

Eggan, P. D., & Kauchall, D. (1992). Educational psychology: Classroom connections. New York: Merrill.

Caplow, T., Bahr, H. M., Chadwick, B. A., Hill, R., & Williamson, M. H. (1982). Middletown families: Fifty years of change and continuity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.