APA Style Citation Guide
Gerald B. James Library
Print Sources
Books, Basic Format:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for first word in
subtitle. Location: Publisher.
[For location, always list the city and state using the two letter postal abbreviation without
periods (Chicago, IL). For books with multiple authors, always place the ampersand symbol
(“&”) before the last author. Second line of citation and any subsequent lines are indented 0.5
inch.]
A book with one author:
Parkes, H. B. (1959). The American experience: An interpretation of the history and
civilization of the American people. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
A book with two authors:
Collier, P., & Horowitz, D. (1996). Destructive generation: Second thoughts about the
Sixties. New York, NY: Free Press.
A book with three authors:
Kim, J., Nie, N. H., & Verba, S. (1978). A seven-nation comparison: Participation and
political equality. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
A book with four or more authors (follow this format for up to and including seven authors):
Wayland, A., Pierce, H., Morrison, E., & Dawson, L. (1988). Killers of civilization’s dream.
Boston, MA: The Morton-Tenney Press.
An edited book:
Lagowski, J. J. (1964). The structure of atoms H. Hart, (Ed.). New York, NY: Houghton
Mifflin.
A book other than first edition:
Hogan, M. A. (2008). Pathophysiology: Reviews & rationales (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
A book other than first edition with an editor:
Shakespeare, W. (1919). The tragedy of Julius Caesar (5th ed.). L. Mason, (Ed.). New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Article or chapter by another author in an edited book:
Lopez, R. S. (1959). Hard times and investment in culture. In K. H. Dannenfeldt (Ed.),
The Renaissance: Medieval or modern? (pp. 50 - 61). Boston, MA: D.C. Heath and
Company.
A previously published journal article in an anthology (CLC, Short Story Criticism, etc.):
Frank, J. (1992). The art of austerity. San Francisco Review of Books, 17(3). 54-56. In
J.W. Hunter (Ed.). Contemporary Literary Criticism: Vol. 227 (pp. 354-385). Detroit,
MI: Thomson Gale.
A research journal article paginated by volume:
Clark, W. K. & Levin, P. L. (2009). Securing the information highway: How to
enhance the United States’ electronic defenses. Current, 518, 18-21.
A research journal article paginated by issue:
Scott, S. A. (2010). Life support interventions at the end of life: Unintended
consequences. American Journal of Nursing, 110 (1), 33-39.
An image:
Duvaneck, Frank (Artist). (1872). Whistling boy [Painting]. Cincinnati, OH; Cincinnati Art
Museum.
Online/Electronic Sources
eBook, Google Books:
Goldstein, M. C. & Kapstein, M. T. (Eds.) (1998). Buddhism in contemporary Tibet:
Religious revival and cultural identity. Berkeley, CA.: University of California
Press. Retrieved June 15, 2010 from NetLibrary.
Kenworthy, J. & Newman, P. (1999) Sustainability and cities: Overcoming automobile
dependence [Google Books version]. Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?id=pjatbiavDZYC&pg=PA155&dq=light+rail+city+
design&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yitUUoGVIYTo8gSg3oGwBA&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=on
epage&q=light%20rail%20city%20design&f=false
Journal Article in database (Academic Search Premier, Literary Reference Center, etc.):
Delaney, B. (2005). Poe’s “The cask of amontillado.” Explicator, 64(1), 39- 41. Retrieved
June 28, 2010 from Academic Search Premier.
Book chapter reprinted in Literary Ref Center database:
Bloom, H. & Griffith, C. (1986). Substance and shadow: Language and meaning in “The
house of the seven gables.” In Harold Bloom (Ed.) Bloom’s modern critical views:
Nathaniel Hawthorne (pp. 13-23). Retrieved June 15, 2010 from Literary Reference
Center.
CQ Researcher Report from NCLive:
Weeks, J. (2009, October 2). Nuclear disarmament. CQ Researcher, 19, 813-836.
Retrieved from CQ Researcher Online.
[NOTE: Example above is CQ’s version of APA format for this CQ Researcher report. Since page
numbers do not appear in the online version that students use, content is stable and
retrieval date is irrelevant, online versions are listed by issue and volume number and we
do not know if the URL would work off-campus away from proxy network, below is
another version]:
Weeks, J. (2009, October 2). Nuclear disarmament. CQ Researcher, 19(34), 432-453.
Retrieved June 15, 2010 from CQ Researcher Online.
Newspaper Article found through an online database such as NCLive:
Pincus, W. (2010, January 18). GAO urges changes in security budgeting. The
Washington Post, p. A15. Retrieved June 15, 2010 from Newspaper Source Plus.
Newspaper article found on a newspaper’s web page:
Patterson, D. W. (2010, January 27). New runway at PTI could fuel growth. The
Greensboro News and Record. Retrieved June 15, 2010 from http://www.newsrecord.com/blog/52992/entry/81052
Corporate/Organization Web page article with named author (if no author is listed, use
organization or company name as author):
Walker, T. (2010, January 27). Oregon voters stand up for schools. Retrieved January
28, 2010 from http://www.nea.org/home/37820.htm
Online Video (YouTube, etc.):
Johnson, E. (2007). The art of playing guitar (part 1) [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRtrMbSzZEI
A Motion Picture:
Eastwood, C., Hoyt, J. G. & Lorenz, R. (Producers), & Eastwood, C. (Director).
(2003). Mystic River [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Brothers.
A Music Recording:
Love, G. (1997). Ain’t that enough [recorded by Teenage Fanclub]. On Songs from
Northern Britain [CD]. London, England: Creation Records.
A Podcast (The “Retrieved from” URL in the example is the homepage URL, not the individual
podcast URL, which is much more likely to change over time):
Rissian, L.C. (Producer). (2012, May 4). Twelve parsecs [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from
http://itunes.apple.com
Online image (painting, photograph, etc.):
dougshow (Artist). (December 2005). Rio_de_Janeiro.jpg [photograph]. morgueFile.
Retrieved August 17, 2012, from http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/97747
Personal Communication (email, chat, texts, online discussion boards, personal interviews;
these are not listed in the reference list; cite as “personal communication” within your paper.
Cite the source in parentheses, using the communicator’s full name (if you have not already
stated it in your sentence) and the date of the message.):
(Eleanor Perkins, personal communication, January 08, 2012).
Councilman David Pearson also claimed that many residents had difficulties with the
garbage collection schedule (personal communication, November 3, 2012).
Facebook Post:
[When the post date is unknown, use n.d. for “no date”. Page type examples include fan page,
group page, political page, etc. When the date can be reasonably certain but isn’t stated on the
document, use a bracketed date and “ca.” ]
The Concord Coalition. [2013, January 16]. In Facebook [Group page]. Retrieved
February 1, 2013, from https://www.facebook.com/ConcordCoalition
Rockingham County Beekeepers Association. [ca. 2012]. In Facebook [Fan page].
Retrieved January 26, 2013 from
https://www.facebook.com/RockinghamCountyBeekeepers
Twitter Content:
[Place twitter poster’s user name at beginning of cite. The first URL is the post URL; the next
one is the user’s Twitter account URL.]
mtgrove. (2013, February 5). Yes war is a terrible thing, you know what’s more terrible?
Going to work on a sunny morning and having someone fly a plane into your
office: https://twitter.com/mtgrove/status/298764865005318145 [Twitter Post].
Retrieved from https://twitter.com/mtgrove
Recommended by the RCC English Faculty
in cooperation with James Library
Revised 7/13