PB1200: Information Resources in Public Justice
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/.P83/1994) and the APA's How to Cite Information From the Internet and the World Wide Web for a more complete explanation and more examples.

All the sample citations below include online examples.

Books and Book Chapters   Encyclopedias   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 underlined. 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.

Books and Book Chapters Online

Reilly, N. (1997). Women’s rights as human rights: Local and global perspectives. Dublin: ICC Working Conference on Women’s Rights as Human Rights. [Online]. Available: http://members.tripod.com/~whr1998/documents/pub97.htm [1998, November 10].

Use the format for books and book chapters in paper. Follow with the "[Online]" and "Available:" and the URL where the item was found. End with the date the item was viewed in square brackets.

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Encyclopedias

Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Vol. 26, p. 501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.

In this case, the author is the author of the particular article. If the article is unsigned, begin the reference with the title of the article and then give the publication date (year). Give volume and page number if the encyclopedia is in multiple volumes. If there is only one volume, give only the page number.

Encyclopedias Online

The history of Western music (1998). In Britannica Online. [Online]. Available: http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=macro/5004/45.html [1998, November 10].

Begin with the author, if one is listed, or with the title if there is no author of the article. Give the publication date (year) in parentheses. Follow with the title of the article (if there was an author), otherwise proceed directly to indicate the encyclopedia with "In" and the title of the encyclopedia. Then give the indication "[Online]" followed with a period and the note "Available:" followed by the online address. End with the date the information was accessed in square brackets.

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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.

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

Booker, M. J. (1998). Can sexual harassment be salvaged? Journal of Business Ethics [Online]. 17(11), 1171-1177. Available: Periodical Abstracts [1998, November 10].

Use the same information and format as when citing a paper journal article but add where the item is available online and the date accessed. Use the URL to indicate the online site where the item is available unless it has a simple title. (For our purposes, if the source is listed on the Academic Library’s web site, you may simply cite the title of the database used.)

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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.

Newspaper Articles Online

Clines, F. X. (1998, November 9). Testing of a President: The committee Democrats full of glee at hearing. The New York Times. p.A26. [Online]. Available: Lexis/Nexis [1998, November 10].

Follow the citation formula for a paper article in a newspaper. Follow with "[Online]" and "Available:" and the online location. This is usually a URL, but for our purposes, you may use the name of the electronic database if it is one that is listed on the Academic Library’s web site. Follow with the date you viewed the resource in square brackets.

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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.

Government Documents Online

Bilchik, S. (1997). Juvenile justice reform initiatives in the states, 1994-1996. (Program report). Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.[Online]. Available: http://www.ncjrs.org/ojjdp/reform/ [1998, November 10].

Follow the format for a paper document. Follow with "[Online]" and "Available:" and the online location. This is usually a URL. Follow with the date you viewed the resource in square brackets.

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.

Congressional Hearings Online

The Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1998: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition, and Foreign Agriculture, of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives. 105th Cong., 2d Sess. (1998). [Online]. Available: http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/ag/hagTEFAP.000/hagTEFAP_0f.htm [1998, November 10].

Follow the format for paper hearings. Append "[Online]" and "Available:" followed by the URL where the online version is found. Finally, add the date the document was views in square brackets.

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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.

Legal Citations Online

As more and more legal research is being done online and on CD-ROM instead of in paper, the courts are being pressured to adopt a form of citation that does not necessarily depend on the publication of a paper book that is often months or years behind in its publication schedule. For the purposes of this class at this time, you may use legal citations without reference to whether you found them online or in paper, using the legal citation format shown above.
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This web site was created by Margaret Sylvia (msylvia@stmarytx.edu) to educate Public Justice students at St. Mary's University in the use of information resources.
Created August 1998. Last modified