APA Documentation Style

by Amy Herman, Library Adjunct Faculty, 9/29/05

librarians@oc.ctc.edu ~or~ 360.475.7252

Academic writing standards require you to credit all sources that you use to write a paper, report, or study. The America Psychological Association (APA) documentation style provides a guideline for properly crediting your sources by requiring notes in the text of your work that point the reader to an alphabetical list of your sources, called "References". Properly citing your sources of information allows a reader to locate the original sources of information you used in your writing and will also help you avoid the serious offense of plagiarism.

For more detailed information about the APA documentation style and to see examples not listed on this handout, consult the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed. (Ref. 808.02 Pu960a5), or Diana Hacker’s APA website: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/social_sciences/intext.html,

or the Purdue University website on using the APA format: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html

PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION

Parenthetical documentation directs the reader to the specific sources of information that you are referencing in the body of your paper. These listings must direct the reader to a particular work listed on your "References" page. In most cases the author’s last name and the year of publication, in parentheses, are enough to identify the source you used. If you need to cite a specific part of the source, you should also include the page number.

Example: A recent study of global inflation (Rogoff, 1998) showed that…

Example: During the 1980s global inflation remained steady at around 15 percent (Rogoff, 1998, p.49).

If you are already referring to the author’s name in the text of your paper, then you need only cite the publication year, and if applicable, the specific page number, in parentheses.

Example: In a recent study, Rogoff (1998) found that…

For more information and examples, see the section beginning on p.207 in the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed..

CITATIONS

The basic components of an APA citation are:

Book

Author’s Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year). Title of chapter or essay if applicable. Title of

        book. Publication location: Publisher.

Article, print version

Author’s Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year or date of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical, 
        Vol.#, page number(s).

Article, electronic version

Author’s Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year or date of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical, 
        Vol.#, page number(s) if applicable. Retrieved date, from database name or URL

Internet citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle initial. (date of posting). Title of webpage. Retrieved date, from

        responsible entity: URL

PRINT / VIDEO RESOURCES

Book with one author

Smith, N.W. (1992). An analysis of ice age art: Its psychology and belief system. New York: Peter Lang Pub.

Book with two authors

Donohoe, T, & Johnson, N. (1987). Foul play: Drug abuse in sports. Oxford: Blackwell.

*** Note: if there are three to six authors, list each author in the order they appear on the title page/citation. After the sixth author, use "et al" to indicate remaining authors of the book or article.

Chapter in a volume in a series

Weissman, J.D. (1989). World health has worsened. In D.L. Bender & B. Leone (Series Eds.) & B. Szumski 
        (Vol. Ed.), Opposing viewpoints. The health crisis (pp.17-26). San Diego: Greenhaven.

Encyclopedia article

Sobieszek, R.A. (1998). Photography. In The world book encyclopedia (Vol. 15, pp.408-430). Chicago: World 
        Book, Inc.

Magazine article

Murphy, A. (2003, September 29). Make way for the Ducks. Sports Illustrated, 99, 54-59.

Newspaper article

Callimachi, R. (2004, February 19). Bi-Mart offers employee buyout. The Seattle Times, p.E3.

Article from journal with continuous pagination

Pace, J.L. (2003). Revisiting classroom authority: Theory and ideology meet practice. Teachers College 
        Record, 105, 1559-86.

Article from journal with new pagination in each issue

Rogoff, K. (2003). Globalization and global disinflation. Economic Review, 88(4), 45-79.

Government publication

Congressional Budget Office. (1998). The economic and budget outlook: Fiscal years 1999-2008. 
        Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Television broadcast

Marshall, L. & Clare, A. (Producers). (2004, February 22). Holy cow [Television broadcast]. New York: Public 
        Broadcasting Service.

Motion picture

Rhine, G. (Producer), & Rhine, G.& Moreno, F. (Directors). (1992). Wiping the tears of seven generations 
        [Motion picture]. (Available from Kifaru Productions, 1550 California Street #275, San Francisco, CA 
        94109)

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

Online periodical article from an electronic database (i.e. Proquest)

Weyandt, L. L., Iwaszuk, W., Fulton, K., Ollerton, M., Beatty, N., Fouts, H., et al. (2003). The internal 
        restlessness scale: Performance of college students with and without ADHD. Journal of Learning 
        Disabilities, 36, 382-389. Retrieved January 20, 2004, from Proquest database.

Online periodical article from a website

Dickey, C. (2004, February 20). Garbage in, garbage out. Newsweek. Retrieved February 23, 2004, from 
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4315416/

Information from a website

Kochanek, K.D. & Martin, J.A. (2004, February 11). Supplemental analyses of recent trends in infant mortality. 
        Retrieved February 20, 2004, from National Center for Health Statistics Web site
        http://www.cec.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/infantmort/infantmort.htm

 

Email

J. J. Doe (personal communication, January 23, 2004)

Online posting (discussion group, listserv, etc.)

Dewsbery, V. (1999, September 24). Electrical installations [Msg 106]. Message posted to

        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/term/message/106

Weblog ("blog") entry

Cool, J. (2002, October 4). Learning to Dress Cool. Blog entry. Retrieved on November 15, 2002, from

        http://joe.cool.com/diary/

SAMPLE REFERENCES LIST

Your "References" page(s) should include the first two or three words from the title and page number in the upper right hand corner, and the title "References" centered on the page. Entries should be in alphabetical order by author, double-spaced throughout, and subsequent lines of individual entries are indented ½".

Callimachi, R. (2004, February 19). Bi-Mart offers employee buyout. The Seattle Times, p.E3.

Dickey, C. (2004, February 20). Garbage in, garbage out. Newsweek. Retrieved February 23, 2004, from 
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4315416/

Murphy, A. (2003, September 29). Make way for the Ducks. Sports Illustrated, 99, 54-59.

Pace, J.L. (2003). Revisiting classroom authority: Theory and ideology meet practice. Teachers College 
    Record, 105, 1559-86.

Rhine, G. (Producer), & Rhine, G.& Moreno, F. (Directors). (1992). Wiping the tears of seven

    generations [Motion picture]. (Available from Kifaru Productions, 1550 California Street #275,

    San Francisco, CA 94109)

Sobieszek, R.A. (1998). Photography. In The world book encyclopedia (Vol. 15, pp.408-430). Chicago:

    World Book, Inc.

Weyandt, L. L., Iwaszuk, W., Fulton, K., Ollerton, M., Beatty, N., Fouts, H., et al. (2003). The internal

    restlessness scale: Performance of college students with and without ADHD. Journal of Learning

    Disabilities, 36, 382-389. Retrieved January 20, 2004, from Proquest database.