APA reference style

The APA Publication Manual now
instructs authors to use hanging indents for references, and to use
italics for titles. The hanging indent is one-half inch (1.25 cm), just
like paragraph indents. All titles in references are set in sentence caps, but
titles quoted in the text are set in heading caps. No quotation marks are used
around titles of articles in references, but quotes are used when citing article
titles in the text. The APA Publication Manual (2001) contains 95
examples of different reference types (pp. 240-281). Here are a few examples of
the most commonly used formats.

Anonymous or unknown author (common in newspapers):

Caffeine linked
to mental illness. (1991, July 13). New York Times, pp. B13, B15.

Citation: ("Caffeine Linked," 1991). Use heading caps when citing titles in
text citations.

Books (Group author, 3ñ5 authors, reprint/translation, edition other than
first):

American Psychiatric Association. (1990). Diagnostic and statistical
manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.).
Washington, DC: Author.

Citation: (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1990); next citation (APA,
1990). Note: "Author" is used as above when author and publisher are identical.

Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (1995). The craft of
research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Citation: (Booth, Colomb, & Williams, 1995); next citation (Booth et al.,
1995).

 

Ebbinghaus, H. (1913). Memory (H. A. Rueger & C. E. Bussenius,
Trans.). New York: Teachers College. (Original
work published 1885)

Citation: (Ebbinghaus, 1885/1913).

Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style
(3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan.

Citation: (Strunk & White, 1979).

 

Chapter or section in a book (online & print):

Beers, M. H., & Berkow, R. (1999). Mood disorders. In The Merck
manual of diagnosis and therapy (17th ed.,
sec. 15, chap. 189). Retrieved January 17, 2003, from
http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/section15/
chapter189/189a.htm
Stephan, W. G. (1985). Intergroup relations. In G. Lindzey & E.
Aronson (Eds.), The handbook of social
psychology (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 599ñ658). New York: Random House.

Citations: (Beers & Berkow, 1999, chap. 189); (Stephan, 1985). Note:
Break a URL to wrap a line only after a slash or before a period. Do not add a
hyphen or any other punctuation.

Conference paper (unpublished):

Shrout, P. E. (Chair), Hunter, J. E., Harris, R. J., Wilkinson, L.,
Strouss, M. E., Applebaum, M. I., et al.
(1996, August). Significance testsóShould they be banned from APA
journals? Symposium conducted
at the 104th Annual Convention of the
American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.

Citation: (Shrout et al., 1996). APA references list up to the first six
authors to a work. If there are more add et al. (and others) to the list of
names. In text citations give just the lead author, et al. Published papers are
referenced as a chapter in a book.

Government report online accessed through GPO database:

National Institute of Mental Health. (2002). Breaking ground, breaking
through: The strategic plan for mood
disorders research of the National Institute of Mental Health
(Publication No. 0507-B-05). Retrieved
January 19, 2003, from NIMH Web site
via GPO Access: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS20906 Citation:
(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2002); next citation (NIMH, 2002).

Journal articles (Print, electronic copy, changed source, online journal,
paged by issue):

Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group. (2002). Effect of Hypericum
perforatum (St John's Wort) in major
depressive disorder: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA, 287,
1807ñ1814.

Citation: (Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group, 2002). The APA
Manual requires citing the full name of a corporate author like this; the
acronym would not be easily recognized. However, shortening the author to
"Hypericum Depression Trial" in subsequent citations would probably be
acceptable to editors of APA journals.

Journal article, electronic facsimile:

 

Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group. (2002). Effect of Hypericum
perforatum (St John's Wort) in major
depressive disorder: A randomized controlled trial [Electronic version].
JAMA, 287, 1807ñ1814.

Many documents are now available online as exact facsimile copies of the
print original (usually in Adobe's PDF format). References to these facsimiles
just add the note [Electronic version] to the reference. If the document is not
an exact copy of a print version--"(e.g., the format differs from the print
version or page numbers are not indicated)"--add the date you retrieved the
document and the URL to the reference (APA, 2001, p. 271).

Journal article, changed/doubtful source:

 

Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group. (2002). Effect of Hypericum
perforatum (St John's Wort) in major
depressive disorder: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA, 287,
1807ñ1814. Retrieved July 7, 2002,
from http://www.jama.org/articles.html

Journal article, retrieved from a database:

 

Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group. (2002). Effect of Hypericum
perforatum (St John's Wort) in major
depressive disorder: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA, 287,
1807ñ1814. Retrieved July 7, 2002,
from MEDSYS database.

Online only journal (paged by issue):

 

Kortepeter, M. G., & Parker, G. W. (1999). Potential biological
weapons threats. Emerging Infectious
Diseases, 5(4). Retrieved January 20, 2003, from http://www.cdc.gov/
ncidod/EID/vol5no4/kortepeter.htm

Citation: (Kortepeter & Parker, 1999). There is no period after the URL
in a reference.

Note: When directly quoting or citing a document, a page number or other
means of identifying a specific passage is required. In the absence of page
numbers, if paragraph numbers appear in an electronic document, add the
paragraph symbol or the abbreviation para. and the paragraph number to
the citation (e.g., Kortepeter & Parker, 1999, ¶ 17). If there is no
paragraph number, cite the nearest preceding section heading and count
paragraphs from there (e.g., Kortepeter & Parker, 1999, Method section,
para. 4).

Note: Occasionally a research journal may be paged by issue, that is, page
numbering in each issue begins at page one. Add the number in the volume (in
parentheses in plain text) to these references immediately after the volume
number, as in the example above.

Letter to the editor:

O'Neill, G. W. (1992, January). In support of DSM-III [Letter to the editor].
APA Monitor, 4-5.

Magazine article:

Gardner, H. (1991, December). Do babies sing a
universal song? Psychology Today, 70-76.

Newsletter/newspaper articles:

Brown, L. S. (1993, Spring). My
research with orangs. The Psychology Department Newsletter, 3, 2.

 

Goleman, D. (1991, October 24). Battle of insurers vs. therapists: Cost
control pitted against proper
care. New York Times, pp. D1, D9.

 

Markoff, J. (1996, June 5). Voluntary rules proposed to help insure
privacy for Internet users. New York
Times. Retrieved April 1, 1996, from
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/yo5dat.html The date is
given as it appears on the publication. For anonymous newspaper articles, see
the previous section on "Anonymous or unknown authors."

Pamphlet:

Just Say No Foundation. (1992). Saving our youth.
(9th ed.) [Brochure]. Washington, DC: Author.

Web page:

Dewey, R. A. (2002). Psych Web by Russ Dewey.
Retrieved January 25, 2003 from http://www .psywww.com/