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Documentation in the Style of the American Psychological

Association (APA)

An Introduction to Citing and Referencing According to

the 6th Edition of the APA Publication Manual

Prepared by the staff of the UHCL Writing CenterSeptember, 2010

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Overview

This presentation introduces APA guidelines as described in the 6th edition of the association’s manual.

We begin with a description of in-text citations and conclude with an explanation of reference page formatting and reference page entries.

If you have used the 5th edition of the APA, you will notice changes, especially regarding documentation of electronic/Internet sources.

Note: This presentation is intended to serve as an introduction to APA style. It is not intended to replace the manual. Any writer who is working with APA style should own and refer frequently to the most recent APA manual.

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In-text Citation:The Author–Date System

When citing a work in your paper, include the author’s last name and the date of publication. Reasons behind these guidelines are as follows:

1) APA references mask the author’s gender because the style values gender neutrality.

2) APA style highlights the publication date of material because in the fields in which APA is used it is important to work with recent material.

Author’s name in text: Put the year in parentheses following the author’s name.Example: Johnson (2008) argues for the continuation of . . .

Author’s name in reference: Put the author and date (separated by a comma) in parentheses at the end of the cited segment.

Example: In a recent study of chemical reactions, . . . (Johnson, 2008).

Quoted material in text: Enclose quotations of fewer than 40 words in double quotation marks (do not indent or block off). In parentheses, include the page number of the quoted text preceded by “p.”.

Example: Johnson (2008) found that "earlier studies on reactions could not be verified” (p. 32).

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Long or “Block” QuotationsManage direct quotations longer than 40 words as a block:

1. Start block quotation on a new line.

2. Indent the quote ½ inch from the left margin—all subsequent lines should also be indented.

3. Maintain double-spacing throughout the quote.

4. Do not use quotation marks.

5. Place the in-text citation after the closing punctuation.

Jones's (2007) study found the following:

Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially

when it was their first time citing sources. This

difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many

students failed to purchase a style manual or to ask

their teacher for individual help. (p. 199)

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Paraphrasing and Citation

Each time you paraphrase an author, you need to credit the source in the text. Page numbers are encouraged, but not required.

As stated in the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA, 2010), the ethical

principles of scientific publication are designed to ensure the

integrity of scientific knowledge and to protect the intellectual

property of others. As the Publication Manual explains, authors

are expected to correct the record if they discover errors in their

publication; they are also expected to give credit to others for

their prior work when it is quoted or paraphrased.

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What to do if no author is provided

When a work’s author is designated as “Anonymous,” cite the word Anonymous followed by a comma and the date.

When no author is identified, cite the first few words of the reference entry. (This will usually be the first few words of the title.)

Example: . . .given the number asking for free care (“Study Finds,” 2007).

Example: . . . there were only a handful left at the scene (Anonymous, 1998).

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Quoted material from an Internet source without

paginationIf paragraph numbers are provided, use them in place of page numbers.

Example: Basu and Jones (2007) suggest the need for an “intellectual . . . cyberspace” (para. 4).

If neither page nor paragraph number is provided, but headings are used, cite the appropriate heading and the number of the paragraph following it.

Note: You will need to count the paragraphs yourself.

Example: Verbunt (2008) found that “the level . . . condition” (Discussion section, para. 1).

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Quoted material from an Internet source without

pagination, cont.

Example: According to Golan (2007), “Empirical . . . behavior” (“Mandatory Labeling Has Targeted,” para.4).

(The original heading was “Mandatory Labeling Has Targeted Information Gaps and Social Objectives.”)

 Note: For a more complete discussion of this topic, see pp 171-2 of the APA manual.

If neither page nor paragraph is provided and headings are too long to be cited in full, use a shortened heading with quotation marks.

Note: You will need to count the paragraphs yourself.

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Mechanics of the References page(s)

• Formatting the page:

• Center the word References at the top of the page.

• Double space all lines.

• indent the second (and following) lines of each reference entry ½ inch. (This is called a hanging indent.)

• To maintain gender anonymity, use only the author’s initials.

• Put the date of publication in parentheses following the author’s name and initials.

• Punctuating titles:

• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays.

• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.

• In titles of articles and books, capitalize only the first word of titles, subtitles, and proper names.

• Capitalize important words in titles of periodicals/journals.

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Works taken from the Internet

Two important changes in how to construct the References section entries when works come from the Internet:

• Previous editions required a retrieval date for online sources. The 6th edition no longer requires a retrieval date.

• The 6th edition discusses a new way of locating online material—the digital object identifier, or DOI. The DOI, now used by 2600 publishers, is a unique series of numbers assigned to online books and journal articles.

• The series of numbers, usually found on the first page of an electronic document, should be used to replace the URL in an entry in the References section. If DOI is not available, use the URL.

• (For more information on the DOI see pages 188 and 198 of the APA manual.)

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Using the DOI

Herst-Damm, K. L. (2005). Volunteer support and terminally ill

patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi: 10.1037/0278-

6133.24.2.225

To find an article using the DOI, go to http://www.doi.org or http://www.crossref.org and type in the doi.

Once you locate the abstract for your article, you will be able to retrieve the article. (In some cases, you will have to pay for the article.)

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On-line journal articles and the DOI

Herst-Damm, K. L. (2005). Volunteer support and terminally ill patients. Health

Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225

Journal article with DOI:Locate the DOI on the first page of the database reference.

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

Journal article with no DOI:If the database does not provide a DOI, supply the URL.

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Articles in periodicals

Basic Form

List the author’s last name first, followed by initials. Add publication year in parentheses. Then, list the title with only the first word and proper nouns capitalized. Include the periodical title and volume number in italics, followed by the page numbers in which the article is found.

Alexander, R. A., Christian, A. B., & Singh, I. G. (2009). New tips for

the care of tubes after feedings. Australian Journal of Geriatric

Nursing, 15, 23-25.

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Articles in journals paginated by volume

Journals that are paginated by volume begin with page 1 in issue 1, and continue numbering issue 2 where issue 1 ended, etc.

Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal

articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55,

893-896.

Articles in journals paginated by issue

Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(30), 5-13.

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Articles in magazines

Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today's schools. Time,

135, 28-31.

Magazine article

Online magazine

Clay, R. (2008, June). Science vs. ideology: Psychiatrists fight back.

Monitor on Psychology, 39(6). Retrieved from

http://www.apa.org/monitor

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Articles in newspapers

Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy

policies. The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.

Note: Precede page numbers for newspaper articles with p. or pp. Single page numbers are preceded by “p.” and multiple pages are preceded by “pp.”

Newspaper article

Online newspaper article

Brody, J. E. (2007, December 11). Mental reserves keep brain agile. The New York

Times. Retrieved from http//www.nytimes.com

As prices surge, Thailand pitches OPEC-style rice cartel. (2008, May 5). The Wall

Street Journal, p. A9.

Newspaper article, no author, in print

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Basic Form

As with the periodicals list, the author’s last name comes first, followed by initials, and then the publication year. Again, only first words and proper nouns are capitalized. If the title is in two parts, capitalize the first word of the second part.

Sternglass, M. S. (1997). Time to know them: A longitudinal study of writing and

learning at the college level. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Print Book

Electronic book without DOI

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

Note: When a work shows no date use the initials n.d.

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Edited book with an author or authors:

Plath, S. (2000). The unabridged journals (K.V. Kukil, Ed.). New York:

Anchor.

Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of

growing up poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Edited book with no author:

Edited collections

Article or chapter in an edited book:

Barnes, C. K., & Neuhauser, H. M. (2005). The art of leadership. In J.

Daniels & J. Webb (Eds.), Manual for military officers (pp. 48-66). New

York: Prentice-Hall.

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Encyclopedia entries

Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia britannica

(Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.

Online Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Feminism. (n.d.). In Encyclopedia Britannica online. Retrieved from http://

www.britannica.com

Print Encyclopedia

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Works with no surname for the author:

Heuristic. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (11th ed.). Retrieved from

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/heuristic

If there is no author identified, move the title to the author position, alphabetize using the first word of the title.

Note: In the following example, you’ll see the initials “n.d.” Use this abbreviation whenever no date is provided.

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Works with no surname for the author, cont.

If the author is identified as “Anonymous,” begin with Anonymous as if it were the author’s name.

If the author is a group such as an association or government agency, use the full official name of the group in place of the author.

Note: In the following example, you’ll see that the word “author” is in the place where the publisher’s name goes. When the document is self-published, handle it this way.

Employee Benefit Research Institute. (1992, February). Sources of health insurance and

characteristics of the uninsured (Issue Brief No. 123). Washington DC: Author.

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Handling author names

Last name first, followed by the author’s initials.

Works by a single author

Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in

Psychological Science, 11, 7-10.

Works by two authors

List by their last names and initials. Use an ampersand (&).

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states. Journal

of Personality & Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048.

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Handling author names, cont.

Works by three to seven authors

List by last names and initials. Commas separate names and the ampersand (&) precedes the last name.

Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., & Harlow, T. (1993). There's more to

self-esteem. Journal of Personality, 65, 1190-1204.

Works by more than seven authors

List the first six authors by name and initial, apply three dots (ellipses) and end with the last author’s name and initials.

Gilbert, D.G., McClern, J.F., Rabin, N.E., Sugai, C., Plath, L.C., Asgaard, G. . . . Botros,

N. (2004). Effects of quitting smoking on EEG activation. Nicotine Research, 6,

249-267.

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Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are the same thing as indirect quotes in MLA. The APA manual recommends that secondary sources be used sparingly.

The APA manual (APA, 2010) provides the following example of how to cite a secondary source: perhaps you read a work by Nicholson, and he quotes Allport’s diary. You want to quote Allport, but you never read his actual diary. APA style says to list the Nicholson reference in the reference list (that is the work you actually read). However, in the text, refer to Allport as follows:

Allport’s diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003).

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Conclusion

This presentation has covered many of the commonly used resources in APA documents. If you are using a source not covered here, please consult the APA manual. The manual includes directions for a wide variety of sources including the following:

• Government reports

• Books in translation

• Doctoral dissertations

• Meetings and symposia

• Book/movie reviews

• Movies and music recordings

• Legal documents

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Please come visit us in the Writing Center!

If you are having trouble finding information in the APA manual and you would like some assistance, please come see the tutors in the Writing Center. We are happy to help you learn to navigate the style book and give you feedback on your paper.

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