APA Survival Skills
What you need to know, when you
need to know it.
http://ssw.unc.edu/students/writing
SSW website
Current Students
Writing Resources
Correcting Word Default to APA Line
Spacing
Correct spacing = doublespaced lines
Extra line spacing inserted
by Word’s default setting.
Disable Auto-Formatting in Word
Before you type a word:
• From Home tab, click arrow
in lower right corner of
Paragraph box
• Opens Paragraph pop-up box
• Click on Lines and Page
Breaks tab
• Uncheck first 4 boxes
– default settings keep single line
from appearing at top & bottom of
page = space waster!
• Click OK – then repeat and click
tab for Indents and Spacing
Line Spacing
• On Indents and Spacing
tab, set values to 0
• Set Line Spacing to Double
• Click OK
• Word default inserts 10 pts
of white space after
paragraphs
Title page: Start title at mid-point on page = 4” on left
margin ruler. No bold font.
Double line spacing between elements
Insert Page Numbers
• Place cursor on page
½” from right margin
• Click on Insert tab on
Word ribbon
• Click on Page
Number in Header &
Footer section
• Click Current
Position and choose
Plain Number format.
Check Different first page, then delete number on title page
• Bold font for
Levels 1 thru 4
APA Headings
72
Formatting rules for the paper – no bolding, no underlining, not bullets, APA headings
Attitudes Toward Substance Use Among Social Work Students
•1&2 use Headline
style capitalization
Level 1
Use double-spacing throughout the paper including the title
page, abstract, body of the document, reference list, appendixes,
tables, and figure captions. APA does permit single spacing within
references but double spacing between references. (See p. 326
• 3,4,5 use Sentence
style capitalization
• No
Introduction
header
of the Publication Manual.)
Undergraduate Students
Level 2
Major headings require specific formatting: (a) the first word of
the heading is capitalized as well as all major words; (b) articles,
short prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions are not
capitalized; and (c) the heading is not italicized.
3 & 4 : ½” indent, period.
Sample and
Exceptions
forpopulation.
dissertation. Other issues also need to be
Subsample and subpopulation.
Level 3
Series or Lists
In-line seriation (i.e., list in
sentence format) uses lowercase letters in full parentheses
to separate elements
Comprehensive standards
address workers’ ability (a) to
determine the nature of the
information need, (b) to access
information efficiently, and (c)
to evaluate information.
Commas or semicolons
to separate elements?
• Use commas to separate 3
or more elements IF there
are no internal commas or
other punctuation within
an element.
• Use semicolons to
separate elements if one
or more elements has
internal punctuation.
Serial comma precedes the conjunction
joining the last element to the series.
Fix me!
The three groups were: 1) parents of children being
observed; 2) parents of matched children who were not
being observed; 3)and childless adults matched on age to
parents of children being observed.
• misused colon – delete
• in-line series use lowercase letters, not numbers
• lowercase letters should be encased in parentheses = (a)
• do not italicize
• separate elements with commas if no element has internal
punctuation
• Conjunction “and” joins the last two elements (comes before the
letter for last element).
Fixed!
The three groups were (a) adults who were parents
of children being observed, (b) adults who were
parents of matched children who were not being
observed, and (c) adults who were not parents and
who were matched on age to parents of children
being observed.
• Note the additional revision to (c) to ensure parallel
construction of list elements.
Paragraph Series
• Each element on separate
line and indented
• Bullet points or numbers
Example
The project has a two-fold
goal:
• to determine short-term
program effects on
learning, and
• to assess which factors
contribute to increased
student motivation.
• Bullet points
• All lines indented 1/2”
• Each point is a phrase in
a complete sentence
Numbered lists
1. First line is indented 1/2”
and subsequent lines wrap
back to margin.
2. Each item is phrased as a
complete sentence (multiple
sentences OK).
Paragraph Series
All participants underwent the same sequence of events:
1.They completed a baseline survey, which included
demographic information.
2. They observed the videotape appropriate for the
group to which they were assigned.
3. They completed the survey again.
Numbers or Bullets?
Bullets have a neutral presentation whereas numbers can be
interpreted as implying a hierarchy of importance.
Note. In this example the colon is used correctly; that is, an independent
clause —which could stand on its own as a sentence—precedes the colon.
Abbreviations
:
Define the abbreviation on first use, then use only the
abbreviation (abbr).
Rule of thumb: Don’t abbreviate unless the abbr. will be
used 3 or more times.
Three kinds of odor tests were presented to
participants: odor recognition (OR), odor
discrimination (OD), and odor matching (OM).
Tests were administered in either the OD-OR-OM
or OM-OR-OD sequence. OD-OR-OM results …
OK to start sentence with an abbr.
Abbr.
• Use square brackets to define an abbr. within
parentheses.
Data were obtained from the Youth Risk Behavior
Surveillance Survey (YRBSS; Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention [CDC], 2003).
Quote Marks vs. Italics vs. Slang vs.
Linguistic Terms vs. Scale Anchors
• The students reported they felt “slammed” by the e-mail.
One girl described slammed as “equal parts of shock and
humiliation.”
• The term conversational snow refers to snow
accumulations of 1 inch or less. Conversational snow
lacks novelty after the first major snowfall.
• All responses were recorded on a 5-point scale ranging
from never (=1) to 3 to 4 times a week (=3) to always (=
5). Students who responded always to Items 2,4, and 7
had the highest odds of graduating in the top percentile.
Numbers
Numbers written as words
Written as Arabic numerals
• Generally, numbers less than 10
(many exceptions)
• Numbers 10 or greater
• Approximate days, months, years
(Follow-up took about three months
to complete.)
• Used to designate a specific part
in a series, book, tables (Grade 2,
Step 4, Chapter 3, Table 5).
• Used with a precise unit of
measurement (3 feet, 8 tons)
• Numbers used to begin a sentence
• Used as a measure of time, ages,
• Common fractions (one half, a
dates, points on a scale, exact
two-thirds majority*)
sums of money, scores
• Ordinal numbers less than 10
• Examples: 1 hour, 9 minutes;
(fourth grade students, first prize,
ages 2 to 4 years; 7-point scale; a
seventh hour)
score of 3; $5 incentive
• All numbers in the abstract.
Combine Words and Arabic Numerals…
• For large sums
– 7 trillion-dollar stimulus; 3 million children in
• Back-to-back numbers
–
–
–
–
The pack of 30 4-year-olds left a mess
The pack of 30 four-year-olds left a mess in their wake.
Respondents chose which of the 10 seven-point scales…
Respondents chose which of the ten 7-point scales to use.
• If the combination doesn’t improve readability, spell out both
numbers
– The first two items… the first three sets of questions
were asked four times.
Roman numerals?
Keep Roman numerals for accepted uses such as Title IX funds,
Type II errors, Type II diabetes
Arabic numerals improve readers’
speed and comprehension
Students in Grade 7 were…
Seventh-grade students …. (hyphenated compound
adjective)
Students in the seventh grade …
Twelfth grade can be a difficult time…
Students in the 12th grade…
The 12th-grade students… (hyphenated compound
adjective)
Note. APA does not use superscripts; 12th not 12th
1. Tenth-grade students ate in the cafeteria. 
or
2. 10th-grade students ate in the cafeteria.
1. The seventh grade went on a field trip.
or
2. The 7th grade went on a field trip.
1. Students in Grades 4 and 5 took the test. 
or
2. Students in grades 4 and 5 took the test.
or
3. Students in grades four and five took the test.
Hyphenate Compound Adjectives and
Modifiers
APA manual, pp. 98 - 100
Don’t Hyphenate
APA manual, pp. 98 - 100
Compound with adverb ending in -ly randomly assigned groups
federally funded research
widely used text
relatively knowledgeable trainees
Modifier with letter or numeral as
type II error
second element
Group B participants
Step 1 procedures
Foreign phrases used as
adjectives/adverbs
post hoc comparisons
ad hoc committees
Compound including a
comparative/superlative adjective
higher scoring students
less informed interviewers
better written paper
higher order functioning
Common fractions used as nouns
one third of participants
Commas
Use commas:
• Between independent clauses:
Jane went to school, but Dick stayed home.
APA (6th ed.), pp. 88-89
Commas
Commas
Use commas:
• Between independent clauses:
Jane went to school, but Dick stayed home.
• Series of three or more
Jane, Dick, and Harry argued about money.
APA (6th ed.), pp. 78-79
Commas
Commas
Use commas:
• Between independent clauses:
Jane went to school, but Dick stayed home.
• Series of three or more
Jane, Dick, and Harry argued about money.
• Nonessential or nonrestictive clauses
Direct TV, which is available in South Florida,
offers some nice features.
Bonus info: “South” in South Florida is capitalized because it is part of the name of a
region, whereas geographical directions (east, north, west, south) are not capitalized when
used to indicate direction such as “We drove south for 3 hours.”
APA (6th ed.), pp. 78-79
Commas
Commas
Use commas:
• Between independent clauses:
Jane went to school, but Dick stayed home.
• Series of three or more
Jane, Dick, and Harry argued about money.
• Nonessential or nonrestictive clauses
Direct TV, which is available in south
Florida, offers some nice features.
But:
• Commas are not used to separate a compound predicate*
Jane baked a cake and worked on her homework.
APA (6th ed.), pp. 78-79
Compound predicate = same subject is doing two things
Capitalizing Titles
Capitalize all words of four letters or more as well as verbs
in the title (title page or in text) but not in the reference list.
Article title
In text: The article entitled “An Assessment of the Reading Skills
of Inner-City Students”(Sly, 1999) blames current techniques.
Sly, D. (1999). An assessment of reading skills of inner-city
students. Journal of Innovations for the Classroom, 14(3), 45-46.
Capitalize first word after a hyphen in a title
but not in the reference list.
APA manual, p. 101
Capitalizing Titles
Capitalize all words of four letters or more as well as verbs
in the title (title page or in text) but not in the reference list.
Book title
In text: Although a modern classic, The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire (Gibbon, 1963) is vanishing from required
reading lists.
Gibbon, E. (1963). The decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
New York, NY: Dell.
Smith, D. (2001). Evaluating the Assessment of Behavioral
Characteristics test for children with autism. Behavior, 6, 111123.
Maintain capitalization of proper nouns in titles in
the reference list (test’s name is a proper noun)
APA manual, p. 101
Capitalizing Proper Names of School/
University Departments and Courses
• Department of Education, Valparaiso University
• Doctoral Studies Orientation 8000
Proper names
• Educational Assessment 101
• UNC School of Social Work…the School …
• UNC is part of …. The University determines course
credits …
Capitalize a shortened name when
referring to a specific school, university,
department, center, office, official body
APA manual, pp. 96-97
Capitalizing Proper Names of School/
University Departments and Courses
• Department of Education, Valparaiso University
• Doctoral Studies Orientation 8000
• Educational Assessment 101
But don’t capitalize informal / shortened names that don’t
refer to a specific entity
• an education department
• a doctoral orientation
• an educational assessment course
APA manual, p. 102
Other Proper
Names
• In the third week, the class will be… (no proper noun)
but
• In Week 3, the class will be … (a proper noun)
• In the second chapter, read section …(no proper noun)
but
• In Chapter 2, read the section on …. (a proper noun)
In midsentence
Formatting for Direct Quotes
The principal stated, “Instructors may or may not want to require
an abstract for class assignments” (Tunon, 2006, p. 34), but she
conceded that abstracts are valuable because students learn to
summarize the essential content of the paper. See APA , pp. 92, 171
At end of a sentence
Tunon (2006) found that “instructors may or may not want to
require an abstract for class assignments” (p. 34).
Formatting for Direct Quotes
Block quote
= 40 words or more
Use a colon if preceded by
an independent clause
Students in many MSW programs have faced challenges in
learning how to use APA formatting. When discussing the
challenges, Tunon (2006) found the following:
Use quotes around an article title or book chapter, but italicize
the title of a book, journal, … or report when used in the body
of the paper. Note. Titles of non-periodicals (e.g., books,
monographs) have all words of 4 [sic] letters or more
capitalized when used in text but not [emphasis added] when
used in the reference entry. (p. 342)
Citing Direct Quotes
Citing direct quotes
“… victims of emotional abuse” (O’Higgins, 2004, p. 237) .
Vest (2008) reported that "empirical research verified
compliance" (p. 48).
***Hint: NEVER separate author’s name and publication
date
in a definition (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary,
2001, p. 346).
See APA manual, pp. 92, 171-173.
Text Citations for Quotes From Electronic
Resources w/o Page Numbers
In another case, Scanlon, Gallego, Duran, and Reyes
(2005) found that the results should be “based on
assumptions that individuals are capable of self-directed
and self-initiated learning” (Methods section, para. 7).
Use name of section.
“The qualitative research methods discussed by Durango
were challenged by Bambang and Totonumu” (Pival,
Falcao, & Quinlan, 2009, “Problems with Qualitative
Research,” para. 5).
Use shortened section title in quotation
marks.
See APA (6th ed.), p. 172
Paraphrasing
• To avoid plagiarizing, express other people’s
ideas, theories, and research in your own words.
• You still must give credit to the author(s) by citing
the source using author-date of publication
method.
• Self-plagiarism is gray area unless your work is
published – then it’s a big problem!
Paraphrasing
Direct quote
“Signed into law in January 2002 by President George W. Bush, the
No Child Let Behind (NCLB) Act signaled the nation’s most sweeping
education reform of federal education policy in decades. NCLB laid
the groundwork for education reforms and the president’s attempt to
strengthen America’s education system” (Smith, 2004, p. 212).
Paraphrased
Acceptable paraphrase = more than 50% reworded
When the No Child Let Behind (NCLB) Act was signed into law in January
2002 by President Bush, the law provided the most sweeping educational
reform to the U.S. public school system in decades and provided a
foundation for strengthening educational policy at the national level for
years to come (Smith, 2004).
Source is always cited with paraphrase!
APA manual, p. 349
46% of Paper Plagiarized Found Using
Turnitin
Words in blue
were taken
• Researchers have noted adjustment problems during a rising ninth
grader’s
verbatim
from
transition period. The rising ninth graders’ grade point averages and attendance
one source.
tend to decrease. The upcoming freshman experience feelings of connectedness,
and co-curricular participation. They also experience an increase in anxiety
concerning school procedures and older students, social difficulties. So far,
transition programs
have
varied widely within schools, and designs range from a
Words
in
red
one-day overview of a new school to a full school year of career-focused
were taken
curriculum. Although
the scope of research varies as much as the programs
themselves, several
verbatim
important
from a aspects have been emphasized, and it is apparent
that longer-term
comprehensive
transition programming can be beneficial.
second
source.
Dropout There is a high school dropout epidemic in America. Each year, almost
one-third of all public high school students – and nearly one-half of all blacks,
Hispanics and Native Americans – fail to graduate from public high school
(Bridgeland, Dilulio, Jr., and Morison, 2006). The most common reasons for
dropping out of high school are attitude towards school, poor school performance,
and poor relationship with teachers. Dropouts also had lower academic
Theperformance,
original idea was
decreased motivation, and an increased sense of alienation from the
(Lan&&Lanthier,
Lanthier,2003).
2003). Research also revealed that high
school
from
Lan &environment
Lanthier, (Lan
students
often consider the social organizational changes and academic
but school
the source
of this
work as the most difficult part of transition (Akos, 2004).
“paraphrase” was not
Only a few
cited.
words were
paraphrased.
Basic
Citations in text:
Citation Styles
Quinlan, Jones, Byron, and Montgomery (2008) stated
Quinlan et al. (2008) observed
(et al. is used after first use when source has ≥ three authors)
(al. is an abbreviation, thus ALWAYS includes a period)
Parenthetical citations in text:
(Quinlan, Jones, Byron, & Montgomery, 2008)
(Quinlan et al., 2008)
Note. No comma between 1st author and et al. but comma separates
author info from publication year)
One work by six or more authors:
Wienhorst et al. (2009)
(Wienhorst et al., 2009)
Always use et al. for
six or more authors.
See APA manual, p. 177
Organizations as Authors
American Psychological Association (APA) was founded in…
First citation in text:
American Psychological Association (APA; 2009) stated…
All subsequent citations of the source :
APA (1999, 2009) observed…
Parenthetical format, first and subsequent citations:
(American Psychological Association [APA], 2009)
(APA, 2008)
NOTE: Always use abbreviation after it is introduced in the text. Do not switch
back and forth between the full name and the abbreviation.
See APA manual, p. 177
Citing Several Sources
Within Same Parentheses
Recent studies showed X (Jordan, 2012, 2014). same author,
separate years with comma
…but two experiments (Erg & Gott, 1999; Skinner, 1956)
found.... (different authors , list alphabetically by first author,
separate with semicolons)
Several studies (Department of Defense, 2002, 2008, in press-a;
Smith & Jones, 2009a, 2009b)
(lowercase letters added when SAME source has more than one
work with same publication date)
See APA manual, pp. 176-178.
Multiple Sources With Same First Author &
Same Publication Year
• Noel, Green, Banks, & Yule, 2011
• Noel, Banks, Green, & Munch, 2011
NOT identical authors, so adding lowercase
letters is incorrect/misleading.
Distinguish by adding second author:
(Noel, Banks, et al., 2011; Noel, Green, et al., 2011
• Note the serial comma separates the 2nd author and et al.
• Same first 2 authors? Add third, fourth… as many as needed!
Secondary Sources
Text citation:
Findings reported by Seidenberg and McClelland
(1983, as cited in Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, &
Haller, 1993) …
List the primary source in the reference list entry:
Coltheart, M., Curtis, B., Atkins, P., & Haller, M.
(1993.) Models of reading aloud. Psychological
Review, 100(5), 589-608.
Formatting Reference List
Citations
Citing Course on Sakai
Format depends on your intended audience and whether they can
access the Sakai course.
For a paper for a class whose members have access to site:
Brief History of Oppression and Resistance (n.d.).
Marginalization. Retrieved from
https://sakai.unc.edu/portal/site/6fcf56f7-818b42bc-8a65-5235f84b83cb
In-text citation: (“Brief history,” n.d.)
Title of course is used because the website doesn’t indicate
authorship.
In-text citation shortens the title to as few words as necessary for the
reader to locate the entry in the reference list.
Citing Sakai Course for Non-SSW Audience
Option 1. Technically, the correct APA format is to cite as
personal communication (i.e., non-retrievable source)
In-text citation:
… legacy of exploitation of Native Americans (Brief
History of Oppression and Resistance [online course],
personal communication, February 11, 2016).
• Use date you last accessed the information, not website
publication date.
Reference entry: None
Forms of personal communication are not included in the
reference list (use for letters, e-mail, conversations, other nonretrievable sources).
Citing Sakai Course for Non-SSW Audience
Option 2: Bends the APA rules a bit to include the
School’s info, making it a retrievable source
Brief History of Oppression and Resistance (n.d.).
Marginalization [Online class module]. School of
Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.
In-text citation: (“Brief history,” n.d.)
Eight or More Authors in Reference List
Zapeta, L., Ramirez, L., Jones, K., Smith, R.
Bardeen, E., Stonebraker, M. B., …
Obata, H. (2007). The greening of
…
America. Journal of Environmental
Studies, 12(4), 43-47.
When you have eight or more authors, list the first six authors’
names and then insert an ellipses, followed by the last author’s
name.
See APA manual, pp. 184, 198
Spacing after Punctuation:
Use the find and replace feature
Students’ scores
improved. The study
demonstrated that …
Brown, J. D. (2003). Pitfalls of formatting.
Reading Teacher, 24(3), 22-24.
Exception: Hyphenated initials
Smith, E.-R. (2009).
Magazines, Newsletters, and Newspapers:
Formatted Differently Than Journals
Kandel, E. R., & Squire, L. R. (2000, November
10). Neuroscience: Breaking down scientific
barriers. Science, 20, 1113-1120.
The new health-care lexicon. (1993, Spring).
Copy Editor News Roundup, 4, 1-2.
Newspaper article – no author listed
New drug appears to sharply cut risk of death
from heart failure. (1993, July 15). The
Washington Post, p. A12.
In text: (“New drug appears,” 1993)
See APA manual, p. 200
Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)
Need to Find a DOI for an Article?
Ingham, R. J., Warner, A., Byrd, A., & Cotton, J. (2006). Speech
effort measurement and stuttering: Investigating the
chorus reading effect. Journal of Speech, Language, and
Hearing Research, 49(3), 660-670.
Go to CrossRef.org and use the Simple Text Query tool.
Paste in formatted reference list.
Right click on returned DOIs to “Copy Link Location” and
then paste to reference entry.
Either short form (doi:10.1209.jkl234567) or long form DOIs
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1209.jkl234567) is acceptable in APA – but
be consistent.
Reference with a DOI
Ingham, R. J., Warner, A., Byrd, A., & Cotton, J. (2006). Speech
effort measurement and stuttering: Investigating the
chorus reading effect. Journal of Speech, Language, and
Hearing Research, 49(3), 660-670. doi:10.1044/1092
-4388(2006/048)
Break URLs and DOIs BEFORE an internal punctuation
mark [ (- / _ ]. DO NOT add a space. DO NOT add period at end.
Article and Book with Assigned DOIs
Borman, W. C. (1993). Role of early supervisory
experience in supervisor performance. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 78(5), 443-449. doi:10.1037
/0002-9432.76.4.482
Electronic book:
Schaeffer, A. (2009). Life in the fast lane.
doi:10.2312/ 2342113949
• No URL is needed because the DOI functions as both a
unique identifier of the content and a link to the content.
• No location or publisher is included for an electronic
version of a book.
When to Use Retrieval Statements:
• If source does not have a DOI, then ask:
• Was it obtained from an open access source or
can you provide URL?
DOI available
Compare
two
formats
Borman, W. C. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 43-49.
doi:10.1037/0002-9432.76.4.482
Provide exact URL for open access journal
Borman, W. C. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 43-49. Retrieved from
http://ojs.swin.edu.au /index.php/ejap/article/view/71/100
No DOI for article retrieved from subscription database (e.g. via
UNC library access). Give journal homepage
Borman, W. C. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 43-49. Retrieved from
http://ojs.swin.edu.au
In-Press Article and Advance Online Publication
Clark, K. F. (in press). What can I say besides “sound it out”?
Coaching word recognition in beginning reading. Reading
Teacher. Retrieved from http://rtprints.org/2009/1/clark.pdf or
Copy on file with author.
Clark, K. F. (2016). What can I say besides “sound it out”?
Coaching word recognition in beginning reading. The Reading
Teacher. Advance online publication. doi:10.2134/palgrave
.jnro.231623
• Use (in press) [lowercase] when the article is not yet published.
•How can reader get copy of in press article?
•Advance online publication = articles posted on journals website, not
in print yet. Advance PDFs do not have page numbers that will appear in
print version.
•Update the reference with the final info when print version is published.
APA (6th ed.) pp. 199-200
Unpublished Dissertations
Batson-George, A. (2008). Evaluating social media training
programs for graduate psychology students (Unpublished
doctoral dissertation). Psychology Department,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jenson, J. (2006). Effects of field safety training on attitudes
of volunteers toward consumers in public health clinics
(Unpublished master’s thesis). School of Public Health,
University of Hawaii, Manoa.
• Identify unpublished status in parentheses after title.
APA (6th ed.) pp. 207-208
Dissertation from a Commercial Database:
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database
DAI – vol.#, issue #, p. #, etc
• If the dissertation is available through PD&T, give the accession
number in parentheses at the end of the reference.
• Use (UMI No. 9934633) Do not put a period after the number.
APA (6th ed.) p. 208
Dissertation Obtained from PD&T
Published dissertation citation –
Clarke, D.C.(2001).Differences
student dropout rate,
5thined.
attendance rate, and grade point average after the
implementation of the North Carolina Dropout
Prevention/Drivers License Law (Doctoral dissertation).
Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
database.(UMI No. 45689011)
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses is a commercial
database so include (Doctoral dissertation) in parentheses
after the dissertation title.
• Use Available from because the name of the database is
provided
• Use (UMI No. XXXXXXXX) instead of (AAT XXXXXXXX).
APA manual, p. 208, # 40
Online Newspaper Citation
“Give the URL of the home page when the online version of
the article is available by search to avoid nonworking URLs”
(APA, 2009, p. 201) .
Hilts, P. J. (1999, February 16). In forecasting their
emotions, most people flunk out. The New York
Times. Retrieved fromhttp://www
.nytimes.com/
No period
after Web
addresses
Break URLs after slash or before
period. (APA, p. 271)
Before most punctuation (APA p. 192)
Electronic-Only Book
Peltier-Davis, C., & Renwick, S. (Eds.) (2007).
Caribbean libraries in the 21st century
[Monograph]. Retrieved from http://www
.infotoday .com/1212.html
 Include http:// in the URL and remove hyperlink.
Do not use superscript for 21st
 Use square brackets at end of title to specify the
type of resource such as [e-Book], [Monograph], [Treatment manual].
 Use Retrieved from instead of Available from
when the URL leads to the material itself rather than to information on
how to obtain the cited material.
Although not required for e-books, it’s helpful to add publisher’s name
and location because URLs change frequently.
Archival Documents
• Discontinued journals, monographs,
dissertations, or papers not formally published.
• If you cannot easily locate through primary
publishing channels, give the home or entry
page URL for online archives such as ERIC and
JSTOR.
APA (6th ed.), p. 192
ERIC Report
Citation for Document in ERIC Archive
Boone, Young, & Associates. (1984). Minority
enrollment in graduate and professional
schools: Recruitment, admissions, financial
assistance [Handbook]. Princeton, NJ:
Educational Testing Service. Retrieved from
ERIC database. (ED396652)
Data Sets
U.S. Department of Education, Institution of
Education Sciences, National Center for
Educational Statistics. (2008). Profiles of
undergraduates in U.S. postsecondary institutions
[Data file]. Retrieved from http://nces.ed
.gov/globallocator/col_info
_popup.asp?ID=136215
• Italicize the title of a data set.
• In brackets immediately after the title, identify the type of
source – [Data file].
APA manual, pp. 210-211
Software
• Citations for commonly used software (e.g., Word, Excel,
SPSS) are not required by APA
Other software requires text citation and reference entry:
Tunon, J. (2007). Citation analyzer [Computer
software]. Nova Southeastern University, Fort
Lauderdale, FL.
• Titles/names of computer software are not italicized.
• Put [Computer software] in square brackets after the
title.
APA (6th ed.), pp. 210-211
Measurement Instrument
Unpublished instrument
Malkasian, C. (2007). Malkasian Information Literacy Scale
(Unpublished instrument). Copy on file with the School
Success Project, Jordan Family Institute, School of Social
Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Published instrument
Purring, A. (2012). Charisma and Tenacity Survey [Measurement
instrument]. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/tests
/measures/instruments/surveys/charisma.html
• Note: Instrument titles are set in headline style capitalization
because the names are proper nouns
• Do not capitalize names of theories in text or references.
APA (6th ed.), pp. 210-211
Questions?
Thanks!