Writing Center

APA Documentation Style References

In American Psychological Association (APA) style (5th edition), the alphabetical list of works cited is entitled "References." Alphabetize your list by the last names of the authors (or editors); when the author or editor is unknown, alphabetize by the first word of the title other than a, an and the. If your list includes two or more works by the same author, arrange the entries by date, the earliest first. If your list includes two or more articles by the same author in the same year, arrange them alphabetically by title. To reference one of these works in your text, add lowercase letters beginning with "a," "b," and so on, within the parentheses immediately following the year: (1992a, July 7).

Invert all authors' names and use initials instead of first names. With two or more authors, use an ampersand (&). In the Reference page, use all authors' names; do not use "et al." After the names of the authors, place the date in parentheses.

Underline the titles and subtitles of books; capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle (as well as all proper nouns). Do not place titles in quotation marks. Capitalize names of periodicals as you would capitalize them ordinarily.

Abbreviations for "page" (p.) or "pages" (pp.) are used before page numbers of magazine and newspaper articles and works in anthologies but not before page numbers of articles appearing in scholarly journals.

Below are Reference page entries following APA format.

Books

Basic Format For A Book
Watt, I. (1957). The rise of the novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Editors
Williams, S. & Fink, S. (Eds.) (1999). Reciprocal influences: literary production, consumption, and distribution in America. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Two or More Authors
Druchunas, D. & Poole, K. (1998). The knitter's handbook. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Corporate Author
National Institute of Mental Health. (2004). A look at attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Rockville, MD: Author.

Unknown Author
The Times atlas of the world. (1990). New York: New York Times.

Translation
Miller, A. (1990). The untouched key: Tracing childhood trauma in creativity and destructiveness (H. and H. Hannum, Trans.). New York: Doubleday. (original work published 1985)

Edition Other Than the First
Falk, J. S. (1978). Linguistics and language: A survey of basic concepts and implications (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

Work in an Anthology
Basso, K. H. (1970). Silence in western Apache culture. In P. Giglioli (Ed.), Language and social context (pp. 67-86). Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.

Periodicals

Article In A Magazine
Sayfarth, R. M. (1982, March-April). Talking with monkeys and great apes. International Wildlife, 13-18.

Article In A Newspaper
Cohen, D. L. (1990, June 20). Counselors in elementary schools: Children's "prevention specialists." Education Week, pp. 1, 14-16.

Article In A Journal Paginated By Volume
Otto, M. L. (1984). Child abuse: Group treatment for parents. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 62, 336-338.

Article In A Journal Paginated By Issue
Nichols, R. G. (1986). Word processing and basic writers. Journal of Basic Writing, 5(2), 81-97.

Unsigned Article in a Periodical
Help in fighting the war on drugs. (1990). Children Today, 19(2), 2-3.

Review
Crosby, F. (1990). [Review of the book Equity and gender: The comparable worth debate]. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 14, 147-148.

Letter To The Editor
Hopi, M., & Young, J. (1990). European policies serve to prevent homelessness [Letter to the editor]. Public Welfare, 48(1), pp. 5-6.

Secondary Sources

Coltheart, M., Curtis, B., Atkins, P., & Haller, M. (1993). Models of reading aloud: Dual-route and parallel-distributed-processing approaches. Psychological Review, 100, 589-608.

In your paper, provide a parenthetical citation for the secondary source, but refer to the original. In the example below, work by Seidenberg and McClelland is cited in Coltheart et al: Seidenberg and McClelland's study (as cited in Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993)

Other Sources

Government Document
U.S. Department of State. (1986). Report to Congress on voting practices in the United Nations. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Material From A Database
Seefeldt, R. W., & Lyon, M. A. (1990, March). Personality characteristics of adult children of alcoholics: Fact or fiction? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Counseling and Development, Cincinnati, OH. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service no. ED 316 784.

Videotape
Minasian, S. M. (Producer). (1985). World of the sea otter [Videotape]. San Francisco: Marine Mammal Fund.

Electronic Sources

Article from an Online Periodical
Hart, J. (2005). Activism among feminist academics: Professionalized Activism and Activist Professionals. Advancing Women in Leadership, 18. Retrieved July 12, 2006 from, http://www.advancingwomen.com/awl/social_justice1/Hart.html

Online Journal Article
Kenneth, I. A. (2000). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 8(4). Retrieved February 20, 2001, from htp://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html

If the article appears as a printed version as well, the URL is not required. Use "Electronic Version" in brackets after the article's title.

Whitmeyer, J.M. (2000). Power through appointment [Electronic version]. Social Science Research, 29(4), 535-555.

Nonperiodical Web Document, Web Page, or Report
List as much of the following information as possible. You sometimes have to hunt around to find the information; don't be lazy. If there is a page like http://www.somesite.com/somepage.htm, and somepage.htm doesn't have the information you're looking for, move up the URL to http://www.somesite.com/):

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Retrieved month date, year, from http://Web address.

Note: When an Internet document is more than one Web page, provide a URL that links to the home page or entry page for the document. Also, if there isn't a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.

Other Non-Print Sources

Motion Picture
Kelmenson. P. (Producer), & Mancuso, F. Jr. (Director). (1998). Ronin. [motion picture]. United States: MGM Distribution Company.

Note: If a movie or videotape is not available in wide distribution, add the following to your citation after the country of origin: (Available from Distributor name, full address and zip code).

Interviews, E-mail, and Other Personal Communication
Note: Do not include personal communication in your reference list. Personal communication is cited parenthetically within the text. (D. Dangler, personal communication, July 17, 2006). D. Dangler also argued that the Writing Center is valuable to the university in terms of writing assistance and research (personal communication, July 17, 2006).

In-Text Citations

The American Psychological Association (APA) recommends in-text citations that refer readers to a list of references. The APA 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.

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.


When the author's name does not appear in the signal phrase, place the author's last name, the date, and the page number in parentheses at the end: (Levy, 1996, p. 26).

A summary or a paraphrase
For a summary or a paraphrase, include the author's last name and the date either in a signal phrase or in parentheses at the end. A page number is not required.


Two authors
Name both authors in the signal phrase or parentheses each time you cite the work. In the parentheses, use "&" between the authors' names: (Clark & DiCuirci, 1997). Within the text, use "and."

Three to five authors
Identify all authors in the signal phrase or parentheses the first time you cite the source: (James, Christianson, McCartney, and Tuttle, 2000). In subsequent citations, use the first author's name followed by "et al." in either the signal phrase or parentheses: (James et al., 2004).

Six or more authors
Use only the first author's name followed by "et al." in all citations: (Smith et al., 2000).

Unknown author
If the author is not given, either use the complete title in a signal phrase or use the first two or three words of the title in the parenthetical citation: ("Stage Fright," 1998). Titles of articles appear in quotation marks; titles of books are underlined.

If "Anonymous" is specified as the author, treat it as if it were a real name: (Anonymous, 1999). In the reference list, also use the name Anonymous as the author.

Two or more works in the same parentheses
When your parenthetical citation names two or more works, put them in the same order that they appear in the list of references, separated by semicolons: (Smith et al., 2000; Johnson, 2002).

Authors with the same last name
If your list of references contains two or more authors with the same last name, use initials with the last names in the in-text citations: (T.N. Jones, 2005)

Personal communication
Conversations, memos, letters, and similar unpublished person-to-person communications should be cited by initials, last name, and precise date: (D. Dangler, personal communication, July 24, 2006). Do not include personal communication in the list of references.