THE WRITING CENTER—Peck 1419, Ext. 2045
APA Documentation Style from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
References and Parenthetical Citations in Text
(NIMH, 1999) (subsequent text parenthetical citations)
3.94 One Work by One Author
In APA, use the author-date method of citation with the
author’s surname followed by the date of research as
follows:
3.97 Works with No Author or Designated Anonymous
(Including Legal Materials)
In parenthetical citations use the first few words of article or chapter
titles in quotation marks and book or periodical, etc., titles in italics
followed by date:
Walker (2000) compared reaction times . . ..
In study of reaction times (Walker,2000) data
on free care (“Study Finds,” 1982). . ..
showed that . . ..
The book College Bound Seniors (1979) is helpful . . ..
However, if the source is mentioned again in the same
paragraph, the study’s date can be omitted but only when
doing so does not cause confusion with other studies.
on free care (Anonymous, 1998). . ..
Walker later found . . ..
3.98 Authors with the Same Surname
R. D. Luce (1959) and P. A. Luce (1986) found . . ..
The studies of M. Goldberg and Neff (1961) and M. E.
3.95 One Work by Multiple Authors
For two authors always cite both names:
As Nightlinger and Little (1993) demonstrated,
As has been shown (Nightlinger & Little, 1993),
For three, four, or five authors cite all the authors in the first
reference, and thereafter use et al. (no italics) as follows:
Wasserstein, Zappulla, Rosen, Gerstman, and Rock
(1994) found . . ..
(first citation in text)
Wasserstein et al. (1994) found . . ..
(subsequent first citation per paragraph)
Wasserstein et al. found . . ..
(subsequent citations in paragraphs)
For six or more authors cite only the first author’s surname
followed by et al. and the year in all references. If two
references shorten to the same form, cite the surnames of the
first authors as necessary to distinguish them apart followed by
a comma and et al.:
Goldberg and Wurtz (1972) show . . ..
3.99 Two or More Works within the Same Parentheses
Order references within parenthetical citations chronologically and
alphabetically saving in-press citations for last:
Past research (Edeline Weinberger, 1991, 1993) in . . ..
Past research (Gogel, 1984, 1990, in press) in . . ..
Several studies (Johnson, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c; Singh,
1993, in press-a, in press-b) report that . . ..
3.101 Specific Parts of a Source
Indicate page, chapter, figure, table, or equation and always give
page numbers for quotations as follows:
(Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 332)
(Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3)
For electronic sources not providing page numbers use ¶ or para.
to indicate the paragraph. With neither available, cite the heading
and the number of the paragraph following it:
Kosslyn, Koenig, Barrett, et al. (1996) and Kosslyn,
Koenig, Gabrieli, et al. (1996) found that . . ..
(Myers, 2000,
¶ 5)
(Beutler, 200, Conclusion section, para. 1)
3.96 Corporations, Associations, Government Agencies
and Study Groups as Authors
Usually names of groups serving as authors such as the
University of Pittsburgh are spelled out throughout the text;
however, some are spelled out in the first citation but
abbreviated thereafter:
National Institute of Mental Health. (1999).
(entry in References list)
(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 1999)
(first parenthetical text citation)
3.102 Personal Communications
Letters, memos, e-mail, or messages from nonarchived discussion
groups or electronic bulletin boards, personal interviews, telephone
conversations, etc., are cited in the text only giving the
communicator’s name and date of communication:
T. Drew (personal communication, May 18, 2001) says . . ..
(V.-G. Nguyen, personal communication, October 2, 2001)
an uppercase or lowercase letter and also change any end
punctuation to fit the syntax.
Quotations and Citations
3.34 Quotation of Sources
In APA all material directly quoted from another’s
work or your own work must be acknowledged and
reproduced exactly as it appears in the original.
Put quotations of fewer than 40 words directly into the
text but place those of 40 or more words in a
freestanding block of text as follows:
She stated, “The ‘placebo effect’. . .disappeared
3.38 Changes from the Source
To omit material within a sentence, use three ellipsis points (. . .)
spacing them out. Use four points (. . . . ) when omitting material
between two sentences. Ellipsis points are generally omitted at the
beginning and ending of sentences unless they are needed to prevent
confusion.
when behaviors were studied in this manner”
(Miele, 1993, p. 276), but she did not clarify
which behaviors were studied.
not introduced in text)
(author’s name
Miele (1993) found that “the ‘placebo effect,’
which had been verified in previous studies,
disappeared when [only the first group’s]
behaviors were studied in this manner” (p.276).
(author’s name included in text)
Miele(1993) found the following:
The “placebo effect,” which had been verified
in previous studies, disappeared when behaviors
were studied in this manner.
Furthermore, the
behaviors were never exhibited again [italics
mine], even when reel [sic] drugs were administered.
Earlier studies (e.g., Abdullah, 1984;
Fox, 1979) were clearly premature in attributing
the results to a placebo effect. (p. 276)
3.36 Double or Single Quotation Marks
When the quoted material is within the text, it is placed within
double quotation marks. Any material within the quotation
that was enclosed in double quotation marks then gets put
into single quotation marks.
When the quoted material is in block form, there are no
quotation marks used unless the original or source material
has them.
Periods and commas go within closing single or double
quotation marks; unless they are part of the quoted material, other
punctuation marks go outside.
3.37 Changing the Text or Punctuation
You may change the first letter within a quotation to either
When inserting your own words within a quotation, use brackets
[ ] to indicate the material is not from the source author.
To add emphasis to a word or words italicize and immediately
indicate your addition with the bracketed phrase [italics added].