APA Citation Format

APA Format for Citations

The purposes of a citation or reference are to credit the author(s) and to enable the reader to find the material you have cited. Here are a few examples of APA citation format. See the Publication Manual of the APA (REF/BF/76.7/.P83/2001) for more information and examples.

The APA also provides information on citing online information and a FAQ for APA style.

Another good place for APA style information and examples is the USM Libraries APA Tutorial.

For automatic citation formatting, try the Citation Machine.

In the Ebsco databases, such as PsycINFO, you can automatically format your citations in APA format when you save, print, or email your references.

Books and Book Chapters Journal Articles
Newspaper Articles Government Documents Legal Resources

Books

Cone, J. D., & Foster, S. L. (1993). Dissertations and theses from start to finish:

Psychology and related fields. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

The author’s name comes first. Use initials only for the first and middle names. If there are six or more authors, use only the first author followed by "et al." The author's name is followed by the date of publication, in parentheses, ended with a period. Next include the book title which should be in italics. Capitalize only the first word of the title (and the first word of the subtitle, if any) and any proper names. Follow the title with a period. End with publication information.

Identify the city and, if the city is not well known or could be confused with another city, include the state where the publisher is located. State names should be referred to by two-letter abbreviation in all caps (e.g. IL, VA, MD). Place a colon (:) after the place name. If two or more locations are given, give the location listed first. Then identify the publisher, clearly and briefly. Spell out the names of associations and university presses, but omit superfluous terms such as "Publishers," "Co.," or "Inc." Close with a period.

Individual Chapters in a Book

Rubenstein, J. P. (1967). The effect of television violence on small children.

In B.F. Kane (ed.), Television and juvenile psychological development (pp. 112-134).

New York: American Psychological Society.

Give the name of the author of the individual chapter and the title of the chapter. Only the first word of the title of the chapter is capitalized. Give inclusive page numbers for where the chapter appears in the book.

Journal Articles

Citing articles in journals with continuous pagination

Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L. A. (1993). Role of

early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied

Psychology, 78, 443-449.

Citing articles in journals with non-continuous pagination

Sawyer, J. (1966). Measurement and prediction, clinical and statistical. Psychological

Bulletin, 66 (3), 178-200.

Authors are cited by last name and initials only, separated by commas and ending with a period. Put the date the text was copyrighted in parentheses after the author entry. Put a period after the parentheses. For non-journal periodicals such as newspapers, give the year first and then the month and day. Do not underline the title of the article or put quotation marks around it. Put a period at the end of the article title.

Include the full journal article and italicize it, using upper and lower case letters. Follow the journal title with a comma. Follow the journal title with the volume number and underline it.

When citing articles in journals where each issue begins with page 1, you must also include the issue number in the citation (the number in parentheses after the volume number). Note that there is a comma between the issue number and the page numbers, but no comma between the underlined volume number and the issue number. When each volume of a journal begins with page 1 and continues pagination numerically through the entire volume, the issue number is not necessary.

Journal Articles Online

If you view an article online which is an exact duplicate of a paper version, it can be cited by adding the words "Electronic version" in square brackets following the article title:

Sawyer, J. (1966). Measurement and prediction, clinical and

statistical. [Electronic version]. Psychological Bulletin,

66 (3), 178-200.

If you are citing an article that differs from the print version, you need to add the date you retrieved the document and the URL:

Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White,

L. A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor

performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449.

Retrieved February 12, 2002, from http://www.apa.org/art.html.

Newspaper Articles

Newspaper article with an author identified

Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status.

The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.

Newspaper article with no author identified

Clinton puts 'human face' on health-care plan. (1993, September 16).

The New York Times, p.1.

Follow the citation formula for a paper article in a newspaper. Follow with the date accessed and the database plus the URL.

Government Documents

National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical training

in serious mental illness. (DHHS Publication No. ADM 90-1679).

Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

This particular item is a technical report put out by the government and includes a technical report number. Not all federal documents are technical reports. Some are books, some are journals and so forth. They may be cited in the same way ordinary books and journals are cited.

Congressional Hearings

Urban America's need for social services to strengthen families:

Hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee

on Ways and Means, House of Representatives. 102d Cong., 2d Sess. (1992).

Congressional hearings are very commonly cited in public justice papers. Please note that the full title of the hearing comes first. It includes the names of the committee and subcommittee (if any) before which the hearing was held. Next comes the number of Congress and session number and finally, the year.

Legal Citations

Lessard v. Schmidt, 349 F. Supp. 1078 (E. D. Wisc. 1972).

This decision was rendered by the federal district court of the Eastern District of Wisconsin in 1972. It appears in volume 349 of the Federal Supplement and starts on page 1078. . If you don't know what abbreviations to use in the legal citations you have, check the Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations.

Durflinger v. Artiles, 563 F. Supp. 332 (D. Kansas 1981), aff'd, 727 F.2d 888 (10th Cir. 1984).

This decision was rendered by the federal district court for the District of Kansas in 1981. On appeal the decision was affirmed by the 10th District Court of Appeals in 1984.

This presentation was created to train psychology and counseling students at St. Mary's University in the use of information resources. Created August 1998. Last modified