APA
American Psychological
Association
What is APA?
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APA is the way that disciplines within the social sciences
reference their citations.
The social sciences include:
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Social Studies
Anthropology
Communication Studies
Criminology
Economics
Education
History
Linguistics
Law
Political Science
Psychology
Social Psychology
Social Work
Why use APA?
 APA
allows you to reference your citations
when you quote, paraphrase, or use
information that you found within a
source such as a book, magazine,
webpage, etc.
What happens if you don’t
reference your sources?
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You could be accused of PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism happens when you advertently – or
even inadvertently! – use someone else’s
ideas and don’t say where you got them
from.
Plagiarism is not just “cutting & pasting” whole
paragraphs or essays from a book or the web;
it also happens when you put someone else’s
ideas into your own words, but don’t give the
author of those ideas credit for them.
If in doubt, make a reference!
What information do you
need?
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There’s a lot of information you need to
include in a reference:
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Author’s full name, including middle initial, if
given
Date of latest publication
Title of the article, book, and/or journal in which
the source is printed
Publishing company
Place of publication (include state or country if
not readily recognizable)
Page numbers, if your source is printed in a
compilation or journal.
What order do you put the
information in?
 Ordering
the information in a reference is
the trickiest part of writing your
bibliography.
 The order of the information and how you
format it is really important. You want to
provide the information in a clear manner
that is standardized internationally so that
anyone, anywhere can read your
reference and find your source.
Books – print:
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Deal, T. E. & Peterson, K. D. (2009). Shaping
School Culture: Pitfalls, Paradoxes and
Promises. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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Last name, first and middle initials (if given) of
first author, followed by the ampersand sign
(&) and the last name, first and middle initials
of second author, etc. up to three authors.
Date in parentheses. Title in italics. Place of
publication: publication company.
Textbook – print:
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Gardner, R., & Lavold, W. (2007). Exploring
globalization, student text. Whitby,
ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
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Last name, first initial of first author listed,
ampersand, Last name and first initial of
second author listed. (Date of publication in
parentheses). Title of Text book in italics,
followed by student text. City and
Province/State of publication: publishing
company.
Books – online:
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Deal, T. E. & Peterson, K. D. (2009). Shaping School
Culture: Paradoxes, Pitfalls and Promises.
Retrieved from http://www.jossey-bass.com
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Author’s last name, first name, middle initial.
Ampersand followed by second author’s last
name, first name, middle initial, etc. Date of
publication or edition in parentheses. Title in italics.
Retrieved from and include the website
* note there is no period after the web address!
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Article or essay in a
compilation:
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Deal, T.E & Peterson, K.D. (2009). “Toxic Cultures.”
In J. Armstrong & F. Davis (Eds.), School
Culture Handbook (238-301). New York, NY:
Jossey-Bass.
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Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication).
Title of chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of
book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.
Article in a journal – print:
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Deal, T.E. & Peterson, K.D. (2009). Renovating
school culture.
Education Today, 12(3), 21-33).
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Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year).
Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
number(issue number), pages.
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* Note that the title of the article is not in quotation
marks, and only the first word of the title is
capitalized.
Article in a journal – online:
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Deal, T.E. & Peterson, K.D. (2008). Working with
school leaders. Leadership Today, 8(2).
Retrieved from http://www.leadershiptoday.org
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Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication).
Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume
number(issue number if available). Retrieved from
http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
* Note that the title of the article is not in quotation
marks, and only the first word of the title is
capitalized. There is also no period after the website
url.
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Online Article with a DOI*
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Brownlie, D. (2007). Toward effective poster
presentations: An annotated bibliography. European
Journal of Marketing, 41, 1245-1283.
doi:10.1108/03090560710821161
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Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication).
Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number, page
range. doi:0000000/000000000000 or
http://dx.doi.org/10.0000/0000
* DOI stands for “Digital Object Identifier.”
It’s a way of
giving a unique number to every online text. It’s similar
to an ISBN in a print text.
Other sources…
 There
are many other sources you will run
across when you conduct your research,
such as films, documentaries, newspaper
articles, blogs, podcasts, etc.
 Make sure you consult an APA Style
Guide to check you are referencing that
source correctly.
Style Guides:
 Publication
Manual of the American
Psychological Association. 6th Edition.
 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resour
ce/560/01/
 www.apastyle.org