APA Writing Style Documentation
For a more comprehensive look at APA documentation guidelines, please consult the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association located at the reference desk.
Book Citation Format:
Author. (Date). Book title. Publisher City: Publisher.
Multiple Authors
Cone, J. D., & Foster, S. L. (1993). Dissertations and theses from start to finish:
Psychology and related fields. Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.
Edited Book
Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L.N. (Eds.), (1991). Children of color: Psychological
interventions with minority youth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Entry in an Encyclopedia
Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Vol. 26, pp.
501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.
Periodical Article Format:
Author. (Date). Article title. Periodical Title, volume # (issue number), page #s.
Journal Article, Continuous Pagination
Bekerian, D.A. (1993). In search of the typical eyewitness. American Psychologist, 48,
574-576.
Journal Article, Journal Paginated by Issue, 2 Authors
Klimoski, R., & Palmer, S. (1993). The ADA and the hiring process in organizations.
Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 45 (2), 10-36.
Magazine article (For date, give year, month for monthlies; year, month and day for weeklies)
Posner, M. I. (1993, October 29). Seeing the mind. Science, 262, 673-674.
Newspaper Article, Discontinuous Pages
Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economics, social status. The
Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.
Full-text Journal Article from an Electronic Database:
Basic format: Author. (Date). Article title. Periodical Title, volume # (issue #), page #s.
Retrieved [month, day, year] from database.
Full-text Journal Article from Online (Web-delivered) Database
Schneiderman, R. A. (1997). Librarians can make sense of the net. San Antonio
Business Journal, 11 (31), pp. 58+. Retrieved January 27, 1999, from General
Business File database.
Schaefer, B. E. (1998, December). Meteors that changed the world. Sky and
Telescope, 96, 68-75. Retrieved May 22, 2001, from ProQuest Direct PA
Research II database.
Chahbani, M. H., & Tondeur, D. (2001). Pressure drop in fixed-bed absorbers.
Chemical Engineering Journal, 81, 23-34. Retrieved May 22, 2001, from Science
Direct database.
Internet Site Basic Format:
Include the author (if listed), title of the Web page and, in some cases, the title of the site on
which the page is located, and date of creation or last update. If no date is given on the page, use
"n.d" ("no date") in its place. Then add "Retrieved [date page was accessed] from [URL of the
page]." Always include a date of retrieval, as Web pages might change or be deleted from a site.
Examples from APA Manual
Chou, L., McClintock, R, Moretti, F, & Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and education:
New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures.
Retrieved August 24, 2000, from Columbia University, Institute for Learning
Technologies Web site:
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/papers/newwine1.html *
*[NOTE: If the document is contained within a large and complex Web site (university or
government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department
before giving the URL for the document itself. Precede the URL with a colon.]
Glueckauf, R. L., Whitton, J., Baxter, J., Kain, J., Vogelgesang, S., Hudson, M., et al.
(1998, July). Video counseling for families of rural teens with epilepsy--Project
update. Telehealth News, 2(2). Retrieved from
http://www.telehealth.net/subscribe/newslettr_4a.html#1
GVU's 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-1997-10/
Other Examples:
Wessell, C. B. (1998). AIDS and HIV: Alternative medicine resources. The Alternative
Medicine Homepage. Retrieved May 22, 2001, from
http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/hiv.html
Greater New Milford (Ct) Area Health Community 2000, Task Force on Teen and
Adolescent Issues. (n.d.) Who has time for a family meal? You do! Retrieved
October 5, 2000, from http://www.familymealtime.org
National Institute of Mental Health. (1997). Questions and answers about St. John's
Wort. Retrieved May 22, 2001, from
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/stjohnswort.html
Chamberlain, Ellen. (2001, January). Bare bones 101: A very basic tutorial on
searching the web. University of South Carolina, Beaufort Library. Retrieved May
22, 2001 from http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/bones.html
References List at End of Paper
(See Chapter 4, "References List," in the APA Manual)
When writing a research paper in APA style, you need to list all your sources (cited as indicated
in the examples above) in a References page that goes at the end of the paper.
"References" should appear as the heading on the first page containing the list of sources
consulted. Entries should begin flush left, and the second and subsequent lines should be
indented 5 spaces. Double-space the entire list as indicated in the example below:
Brown, H., & Milstead, J. (1968). Patterns in poetry: An
introductory anthology. Glenview, IL: Scott,
Foresman.
Alphabetize by author's last name. For anonymous authors or where no author is given, begin the
entry with the title. Capitalize only the first word of title and subtitle and proper names. Use
italics instead of underlining.
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