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Citation and Style Guides: APA

A quick guide to common citation styles.

APA Style Guide - 7th Edition

For many of your style and citation questions, it's best to go straight to the source! Find a copy of the APA manual at the Help Desk.

APA Online Guide

APA Citation Style is used when writing or citing works in the social sciences or business. The OWL website provides online guidance for the 7th and 6th editions.

In-Text Citations

APA Style uses what is called an author-date method of citation. The author's surname is inserted with the correct year of publication for the resource.

This citation is used to identify where an idea, thought, or concept originates as you write a research paper. It is placed at the end of a sentence, paragraph, or thought, depending on where your research appears.

Refer to the examples below to review the different ways you can create an in-text citation.

 

Material Type

In-Text Citation Example

Author's name in text

 Kessler (2003) found that among epidemiological samples...

Author's name as a reference

 The study also showed that there was a high rate of comorbidity with alcohol abuse or dependence and major depression (Kessler, 2003).

Two authors' names as a reference

 The effects of the study have been demonstrated in the trials (Abrams & Evans, 2007).

Works with no identified author

 Important data collected by the Dept. of Education in Victoria has prompted the creation of fact sheets that can be found online ("Fact Sheet Four," 2010).

Citation Examples- Reference List- Scholarly Sources (7th Edition)

Your bibliography should be alphabetized by author last name. For works that do not have an author, alphabetize by item title (omitting articles like "a" or "the"). Your bibliography should also be formatted using hanging indents.

Journal Article (Online)

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article: Subtitle of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number),

page numbers. doi: or URL of the journal's home page.

Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology,

24(2), 225-229. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225.

 

Journal Article (Print)

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), page numbers.

Light, M. A., & Light, I. H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigration in the United States and its implications for local law

enforcement. Law Enforcement Review Executive Forum Journal, 8(1), 73-82.

 

Books (Print): One Author

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the work. Publisher.

Shotton, M. A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer decency. Taylor & Francis.



Books (Print): Two Authors

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the work. Publisher.

Rosellini, G. & Worden, M. (2010). Of course you're angry: A guide to dealing with the emotions of substance abuse. Hazelden.

 

Chapter in an Edited Book (Print or Online)

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C.C. (Year). Title of chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (pp. page of chapter). Publisher.

Link if DOI available

Haybron, M. D. (2008). Philosophy and the science of the subjective well-being. In M. Eid & R. J. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-

being (pp. 17-43). Guilford Press.

 

Newspaper Article (Print)

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Newspaper title. pp. page numbers

Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.

 

Newspaper Article (Online)
Author, A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Newspaper title. Link to article website

 

Report by government agency of other organization

Name of Group. (Year) Title of Report/grey literature. Publisher Name. Link/doi

Australian Government Productivity Commission & New Zealand Productivity Commission. (2012). Strengthening trans-Tasman

economic relations.https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/australia-new-zealand/report/trans-tasman.pdf

 

Report by individual authors at a government agency or other organization

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year, Month Day). Title of report. Organization/Agency Name. Link/doi

Fried, D., & Polyakova, A. (2018). Democratic defense against disinformation. Atlantic Council.

https://atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/Democratic_Defense_against_Disinformation_FINAL.pdf

 

Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia Entry (Online)

Author, A. A. (Year). Title. In A. A. Author (Ed.), Title of Encyclopedia (Edition). From http://www.xxxxx.

Group Author. (Year). Title of entry. In Title of Encyclopedia. Retrieved Month Day, Year, https://xxxx

 

Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2007 ed.). Retrieved

from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/.

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Positive transference. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved August 31, 2020, from

https:dictionary.apa.org/positivetransference

Citation Examples- Reference List - Popular Sources (7th Edition)

Website with an Author*

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of webpage. Website title. Retrieved Month Day, Year, http://www.xxxxx.

Waterman, H. (2016, March 23). On men and women's speech. JSTOR Daily. http://daily.jstor.org/gender-and-public-speech/.

* websites with no author will omit the Author section or use a group author (ex: World Health Organization). If no publication date can be found, you can put a 'n.d.'  Include a retrieval date on websites where the content is designed to change

 

Webpage on a news website (Used for articles published in online news sources like BBC News, CNN, MSNBC, Salon)

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of webpage. Online Newsource Name. https://xxxxx

Bologna, C. (2018, June 27). What happens to your mind and body when you feel homesick? HuffPost.            

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-happens-mind-body-homesick_us_5b201ebde4b09d7a3d77eee1

 

Magazine Article (online or print)

Author, A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Publication title, volume number(edition), page-page. Doi/link to website

De Monchaux, N. (2021, December). The city and the city. Wired, 29(12), 94-94. 

 

Blog post

Author, A. (Year, Month Day). Title of post. Title of Blog. https://xxxx
 

Fares, R. (2017, August 28). Wind energy Is one of the cheapest sources of electricity, and it's getting cheaper. Scientific American Blog. 

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/wind-energy-is-one-of-the-cheapest-sources-of-electricity-and-its-getting-cheaper/ 

 

Wikipedia entry

Title of entry. (Year, Month Day). In Wikipedia. https://xxxx 

  • Note- cite the archived version of a page so your reader can look at the version of the page you used (available in "View History" section at top of page)

Wind turbine. (2021, December 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wind_turbine&oldid=1062380510

 

Podcast episode

Author, A. (Host). Title of episode (No. Episode) [Audio podcast episode]. In Title of the podcast. Production Company. https://xxxx

Santos, L. (Host). (n.d.). Psychopaths and superheroes (No. 1) [Audio podcast episode]. In The happiness lab with Dr. Laurie Santos.

Pushkin Industries. https://www.happinesslab.fm/season-2-episodes/episode-1

 

TEDTalk

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of TedTalk [Video]. Ted Conferences. https://xxxx

Giertz, S. (2018, April). Why you should make useless things [Video]. TED Conferences.

https://www.ted.com/talks/simone_giertz_why_you_should_make_useless_things

 

If TEDtalk came from YouTube

TED. (Year, Month Day). Creator Name: Title of Talk [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/xxxx

TED. (2012, March 16). Brené Brown: Listening to shame [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psN1DORYYV0

  • Use similar format for non-TEDTalk YouTube video (TED becomes YouTube creator)

PowerPoint slides or lecture notes from Canvas

Mack, R., & Spake, G. (2018). Citing open source images and formatting references for presentations [PowerPoint slides].

WyoCourses. http://wyocourses.uwyo.edu/

 

Infographic

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of infographic [Infographic]. Publisher of Infographic.  https://xxxx  

Rossman, J., & Palmer, R. (2015) Sorting through space junk [Infographic]. World Science Festival.              

https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2015/11/space-junk-infographic

 

Tweet

Author, A. A. [@Username]. (Year, Month Day). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Tweet]. Twitter. https://xxxx

  • If the tweet includes images, links, videos, indicate that in square brackets. For tweet replies, do not include replying information.

Obama, B. [@BarackObama]. (2020, April 7). It’s World Health Day, and we owe a profound debt of gratitude to all our medical

professionals. They’re still giving [Tweet]. Twitter.  https://twitter.com/ BarackObama/status/1247555328365023238

 

YouTube

Name of account/Creator. (Year Uploaded, Month Day Uploaded). Title of video [Video]. YouTube (or other video hosting platform). URL

Above The Noise. (2017, October 18). Can procrastination be a good thing? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=FQMwmBNNOnQ

Many examples from Publication Manual of American Psychological Association, 7th edition

  • American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (Seventh ed.). American Psychological Association.