Distance Learning Library Resources

APA citation style refers to the rules and conventions established by the American Psychological Association for documenting sources used in a research paper. APA style requires both in-text citations and a reference list. For every in-text citation there should be a full citation in the reference list and vice versa.

For additional examples and more detailed information about APA citation style, refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition.

 For automatic generation of citations in appropriate citation style, use a bibliographic citation management program such as RefWorks.

APA 7 General Guidelines:

• The first line of a reference should have a normal alignment. All subsequent lines of a single reference should have a hanging indentation (indented .5 inches from the margin).
• Invert author names (last name first) and include first initials with a period following each initial.
• Include up to seven authors; for items with more than seven authors, include the first six authors' names, followed by ellipses and the final author name.
• Alphabetize references by the last name of the first author.
• Use the full journal title.
• Maintain punctuation and capitalization used by journal.
• For books, chapters, articles, and web pages, only capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle, the word after a colon or a dash, and proper nouns. 
• Italicize book and journal titles.

In-line Citations:

One - two authors:

(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

Three or more authors:

(Harris et al., 2019) - use first author's name

Unknown author:

("Using APA," 2019) 

Use the first small phrase of title. Books titles are italicized and underlined; article titles and chapters are in quotations.

Journal Articles:

In Print:

Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5-13.

Online:

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/

Bernstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 149. Retrieved from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving

***If the article has a DOI:

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

Brownlie, D. (2007). Toward effective poster presentations: An annotated bibliography. European Journal of Marketing, 41, 1245-1283. doi:10.1108/03090560710821161

Books:

In Print: 

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Online:

De Huff, E. W. (n.d.). Taytay’s tales: Traditional Pueblo  Indian tales. Retrieved from http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/dehuff/taytay/taytay.html 

Website (APA format has specific citation formats for items like blog entries, etc. This is the basic website format, but make sure to check that there isn't a specific format that fits your needs:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Retrieved from http://Web address

Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderland, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

All information adapted from: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

No author?

If you are unable to find the author/artist then use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses.

No date?

If there is no date available then use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date").

In text citation 

The webinar below was adapted from Academic Writer^®, APA’s tool for teaching and learning effective writing. Academic Writer is intended for use by instructors with their students in courses that require papers to be written in APA Style. 

Citing Works in Text Using Seventh Edition

This webinar provides an in-depth look at the APA Style citation system, including how to create and format in-text citations, integrate source material into a paper, and cite at an appropriate level.

In narrative citations, the author is written in the text and the date appears after in parentheses. The number of authors that appear follow the same rules as parenthetical citations.

Example: Reichert (2010) indicated that graphic design could be a lucrative field for those who wished to work from home

Parenthetical versus narrative

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/parenthetical-versus-narrative

APA Style is part of the American Psychological Association website.  The In-Text Citations page offers multiple examples of in-text cites and explains the formatting. 

Check chapter 8 of the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition, for additional information.