This is a concise guide to the American Psychological Association (APA) style for citations. Additional information on the APA style can be found at the APA Style web site or in the APA Publication Manual.
Publication manual of the American Psychological Association by APA
Copies can be checked out at the service desk on the second floor of the library.
Citations are included at the end of your in the reference section. They are organized in alphabetic order by the author's last name. Each entry on the list uses a hanging indent format.
General format:
Author, A.(Year). Title of work. Source Title. URL
| Author | Date | Title | Pub Info | DOI/URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
List each author's last name and initial as Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. Use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name. |
(Year) |
Only the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns are capitalized. |
Capitalize and italicize journal title and volume. Put issue number in parenthesis if included (add comma before page range if not). |
Add DOI if document has one. See APA DOI Guidelines for additional info. |
Examples:
| Author | Date | Title | Edition | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
List each author's last name and initial as Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. Use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name. |
(Year) |
Only the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns are capitalized. |
Include edition or volume in parenthesis |
Information about the publisher is optional. |
Examples:
Lockley, S. W., & Foster, R. G. (2012). Sleep : a very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
Romm, A. J. (2018). Botanical medicine for women’s health. (Second edition). Elsevier.
| Author | Date | Title | Publication Info | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
List each author's last name and initial as Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. Use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name. |
(Year, Month Day) Provide specific date if availaible. Use the date last updated. If there is no date use (n.d.). |
Italicize the title of the page. |
Use the official name of the website (this is optional if it is the same as the author). |
URL |
Examples:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Preventing HPV-associated cancers. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/basic_info/prevention.htm/
| Author | Date | Title | Publication Info | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
List each author's last name and initial as Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. Use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name. |
(Year, Month Day) |
Only the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns are capitalized. |
Capitalize and italicize journal title. Volume is also italicized. Put issue number in parenthesis if included (add comma before page range if not). |
URL |
Notes:
Additional information can be found on the APA's Grammar Guidelines page for citing newspaper articles.
Examples:
In-text citations in APA include two pieces of information - author(s) and date.
In-text citations may be parenthetical or narrative.
Parenthetical citations
Author information and date are included in parenthesis.
Example:
(Luna, 2020)
Narrative citations
Author names are not in parenthesis but embedded directly into the sentence. The date of the publication is still added in parenthesis in most cases.
Example:
According to Coffy et al. (2021) China, Brazil and India have recorded a reduction in rheumatic heart disease
More comprehensive information on In-text citations can be found on the APA style web site (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/author-date)
| Parenthetical | Narrative | |
|---|---|---|
| Two Authors | (Smith and Cinelli, 2021) | Smith and Cinelli (2021) |
| Three or More Authors | (Tolson et al., 2010) | Tolson et al. (2010) |
| Group Author |
First mention include full name: Later citations are abbreviated: |
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 2020) EPA (2020) |
The information on the above table came from the APA Author-Date Citation System page.
Check the APA Sample Papers page for additional examples that were published in the APA Style Manual. Papers are available for download as PDF or Word files. This page also includes professional paper templates that can be downloaded to get you started.
Adapted from California State University, Dominguez Hills Library's APA 7th ed. guide. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License 