APA Citation Style QuickGuide

The following source was referenced: American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 5 th Ed. New York: American Psychological Association of America.

APA References Page

The basic format for all APA works cited entries, no matter what the source, includes as much of the following as is available: 1. the authors name 2. the year of publication 3. the title of the work (italicized if a book or larger publication) 4. the city of publication 5. the publisher For electronic or internet sources, you should also include the following as well: 6. the date the source was accessed online 7. the complete web URL address References pages are double -spaced. Use the indenting format that your instructor preferseither can be acceptable: Hanging indent: Stoessinger, J.G. (1998). Why nations go to war, 7th ed. New York: St. Martins Press. BASIC FORMAT FOR A BOOK: Author Last name, First initial. (Year of Publication). Title of book. City of Publication: Publisher. One author: Tapscott D. (1998). Growing up digital. New York: McGraw-Hill. Multiple authors: Hamer, D., & Copeland, P. (1998). Living with our genes. New York: Doubleday. BASIC FORMAT FOR AN EDITED BOOK: Duncan, G.J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. For books that appear online or for electronic versio ns of books in print, follow the format below: ONLINE BOOK: Author Last name, First initial. Name of editor [if relevant] (Ed.). (Year of Publication). Title of book. Publication information for the original print version. Title of Internet site . Other relevant site information. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIAS, DICTIONARIES, AND THESAURI: Brogaard, B., & Salerno, J. (2002). Fitchs Paradox of knowability. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved March 23, 2006, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fitchparadox
This handout is also available online at the George Mason University Writing Center web site: http://writingcenter.gmu.edu Updated 2007

Paragraph-style indent: Stoessinger, J.G. (1998). Why nations go to war, 7th ed. New York: St. Martins Press.

ARTICLE IN AN EDITED BOOK: Fesmire, S. (1997). The social basis of character: An ecological humanist approach. In H. LaFollette (Ed.), Ethics in practice (pp. 282-292). Cambridge, MA : Blackwell. ARTICLE IN A MONTHLY MAGAZINE: Author Last name, First initial. (Year, Month of Publication). Title of article. Title of Magazine, Page number or range. Kadrey, R. (1998, March). Carbon copy: Meet the first human clone. Wired, 6, 46-50, 56, 62. ARTICLE IN A NEWSPAPER: Haney, D. Q. (1998, February 20). The mystery of appetite. The Oregonian, pp. A1, A17. Precede page numbers for newspaper articles with p. if the article is one pageor pp. if the article is longer than a pagefollowed by the section and page number. ARTICLE IN AN ONLINE NEWSPAPER OR NEWS SERVICE: Author last name, first initial. (Year, Month Day of Publication). Title of article. Title of site or online newspaper. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL ARTICLE IN A JOURNAL: Paginated by issue: Roberts, P. (1998). The new food anxiety. Psychology Today, 31(2), 30-38. Paginated by volume: McLoyd, V. (1998). Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. American Psychologist, 53, 185-204. ARTICLE IN AN ONLINE JOURNAL: Author last name, first initial. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of article. Name of Periodical, Volume, issue number, [or other ID number], Page number or range. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements in the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123. Retrieved December 25, 2002, from http://www.usc.edu/psych/ref ARTICLE FROM LIBRARY DATABASE: Author last name, first initial. (Year of Publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume (Issue), page range. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from Title of the database or information service. Publisher or retrieval service. Burman, S., & Allen-Mirs, P. (1994). Neglected victims of murder: Childrens witnessed parental homicide. Social Work, 39 (1), 28-34. Retrieved July 25, 2006, from Academic Search Premier. EbscoHost. If citing abstracts or reviews of an article from library database, include the word Abstract or Review in the citation before the title information (as shown in the example below): Magnus, A.L. (2003). Abstract. Inquisitive Pattern Recognition. Diss. Retrieved July 5, 2006, from Air Force Institute of Technology, 2003. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. ProQuest.

WEB PAGE: Author Last name, First initial (Date of publication and/or last modification). Title of page. Title of site [if . applicable]. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL Cressia, L.L. (1997). Copyright and fair use: Future of fair use. Retrieved March 26, 2006, from http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/courses/fall97/concl.html WEB SITE: Author/Editor Last name, First initial [if given]. (Date of electronic publication or of latest update). Title of the site. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL GOVERNMENT, CORPORATE, OR ORGANIZATION WEB SITE: Name of government or organization. (Date of publication or n.d. if no date). Title of the site or online document [or description: Home Page]. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL United States Sentencing Commission. (n.d.). 1997 sourcebook of federal sentencing statistics. Retrieved December 8, 1999, from http://www.ussc.gov/annrpt/1997/sbtoc97.htm CD-ROM: Author Last name, First initial [if available] or name of vendor. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of publication. Publication medium [CD-ROM]. City of publication: Publisher. Pearson Education. (2002). What is plagiarism? Avoiding plagiarism. CD-ROM. New York: Longman. PERSONAL EMAIL Personal communications are not listed in the Reference List, because they do not provide recoverable data. They are cited in -text only in the following format: (First initial, Last name, personal communication, date) T.K. Lutes (personal communication, April 18, 2001) claims that rumor of the presidents retirement is only heresay (V.G. Nguyen, personal communication, September 29, 1998). GRAPHICS, AUDIO, AND VIDEO FILES: CBS News. (2006, January 16). MLK Jr.s legacy [Video]. CBS Evening News. Retrieved March 24, 2006, from http://www.cbsnews.com (Keyword: Videos/MLK) Leyster, J. (c. 1633). The Concert. In National Museum of Women in the Arts, The permanent collection: The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Retrieved August 3, 2006, from http://www.nmwa.org/collection/detail.asp?WordID=4968 PODCASTS: ESPN Radio Daily. (2006, January 30). Favre mulls retirement [Audio]. ESPN Radio podcast. Retrieved January 31, 2006, from http://sports.edpn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2092153 BLOGS, NEWSGROUPS, MAILING LISTS, AND WIKIS (i.e. WIKIPEDIA ENTRIES): Author Last name, First initial (Year, Month Day of posting). Subject line of posting. Title of the Newsgroup. . Retrieved Month Day, Year from URL Bartow, A. (2006, March 26). Parody is fair use! Sivacracy.net. Retrieved March 30, 2006, from http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva
This handout is also available online at the George Mason University Writing Center web site: http://writingcenter.gmu.edu Updated 2007

APA In-text Citations

A signal phrase introduces a quotation in order to help the reader understand why it is important and how it fits into the rest of your paper. In the first example below, Miele found that is the signal phrase. IF THE AUTHOR IS NAMED IN SIGNAL PHRASE: If the author is named while introducing the quotation, the year of publication is included in parentheses directly following and only the page number is included in the in-text citation. Quotation: Miele (1993) found that the placebo effect, which had been verified in previous studies, disappeared when only the first groups behaviors were studied in this manner (p. 276). Paraphrase: According to Miele (1993), though identified in previous studies, the placebo effect was non-existent. Note that the above source is paraphrased and not quoted. When paraphrasing specific information from a source, that source still must be cited in the paper and in the references list. APA does not require page numbers when citing paraphrases in -text; however, page numbers are recommended when using a longer work. IF THE AUTHOR IS NOT NAMED IN SIGNAL PHRASE: When the authors name does not appear in the signal phrase, place the authors name, the date of publication, and the page number in parentheses at the end of the quotation. Use commas between items in the parentheses, like this: (Hart, 2006, p. 159). Quote: Research found that the placebo effect, which had been verified in previous studie s, disappeared when only the first groups behaviors were studied in this manner (Miele, 1993, p. 276). Paraphrase: There have been two periods of revolutionary change in history: the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution (Toffler, 2006, p. 10). A WORK WITH TWO AUTHORS: The gorilla Koko acquired language more slowly than a normal child (Patterson & Linden, 1981, p. 457). A WORK WITH THREE TO FIVE AUTHORS: Researchers found a marked improvement in the computer skills of students who took part in the program (Levy, Bertrand, Muller, Vining, & Majors, 1997, p. 255). In subsequent citations, the first authors name followed by et al. in either the signal phrase or the parentheses. For example: (Levy et al., 1997, p. 255). IF CITING MORE THAN ONE SOURCE: If your information or quote comes from more than one source, separate them alphabetically with a semicolon in your citation: (Gilbert, 1995, p. 122; Patterson & Linden, 1981, p. 255). If the sources are by the same author, simply include each year of publication: (Gogel, 1984, 1990). IF YOUR PAPER USES AN ELECTRONIC SOURCE WITH NO AUTHOR OR PAGE NUMBER: Author Unknown: Use the first few words of the reference list entry and the year of publication: (Study Finds 1982). Page Number Unknown: If a web source numbers its paragraphs, give the abbreviation para. in the citation: (Smith, 2000, para. 4). If referencing an entire chapter, include the abbreviation chap. in the citation. Treat all other cases as unpaginated.