Cite Your Sources: APA

APA format is a citation style created by the American Psychological Association. It is used for research papers in many college classes, including Social Science classes. The style manual for APA is in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by the American Psychological Association Staff. The seventh edition was published in October 2019.

General guidelines for American Psychological Association citation style:

• Center the word References one inch from the top of the page, on a new page, at the end of the paper. References should be in bold.
   
• Double-spacing is used between, as well as within, each entry.
   
• Use a hanging indent: begin the first line of each entry at the left margin, and indent all subsequent lines of an entry one-half inch (5 spaces).
   
• List reference sources alphabetically by author’s last name. If the source has no author, alphabetize by the first significant word in the title ignoring the word A, An, or The.
   
• List author by last name, then a comma, followed by first and second initials (if available).
   
• Place publication year in parentheses ( ) following the author(s)’ name(s).
   
• Use italics for titles of books, journals, newspapers, encyclopedias, or websites.
   
• Capitalize only certain words in the title on the References page: the first word, the first word in a subtitle, and all proper nouns. However, when referring to a work within the body of the paper, capitalize all major words of four letters or more.
   
• Separate the author(s)’ name(s), the date (in parentheses), the title, and the publication information with periods.
   
• Acceptable fonts now include: 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode. Serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the default font for LaTeX) are also acceptable.
   
• Use “they” as a singular pronoun. The manual advises writers to use “they” for a person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant.
   
• Use “person-first” language whenever possible. For example, “a child with autism” is generally preferable to “autistic” or “an autistic child.”
   
• Use one space after a period at the end of a sentence unless an instructor says otherwise.
   
• Use quotation marks around linguistic examples rather than highlighting these examples with italics. For example, one might write that a computer user should press the “A” key, rather than press the A key.
   
• In the references list, up to 20 authors should now be included in an entry.
   
• Digital object identifiers (DOIs) and URLs are now both presented as hyperlinks for electronic sources. The label “DOI:” is no longer used for entries that include a DOI.
   
• If your document is to be viewed electronically, hyperlinks should be active.
   
• The words “Retrieved from” (preceding the URL or DOI) are now only used when a retrieval date is also provided in the citation.

In-text parenthetical citations: Whenever you use a quotation, a paraphrase, or a summary, you should give the author’s last name (or the title if no author is included) and the year in parentheses; if no date is provided, use the abbreviation “n.d.” for no date. You should also add the page number if you are using a quotation from a printed source. A parenthetical source for a quotation from a printed source might look like this: (Ross, 2020, p. 42).

Parenthetical/In-text Citation: (Mallon, 1989) or (Mallon, 1989, p. 13), if a direct quotation is used.

If the author is not named in the signal phrase, place the author’s name, the year, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation. Example: Bolton (2020) pointed out that students who do not use libraries often find frustration in their research efforts (p. 74).

For more examples, consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2019).

All sources with three authors or more are now attributed in-text using the name of the first author followed by “et al.”

What is a digital object identifier, or doi?

A digital object identifier (doi) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned by a registration agency ( the International DOI Foundation) to identify content and provide a persistent link to it's location on the Internet. The publisher assigns a doi when the article is published and made available electronically.

We recommend that when doi's are available, you include them for both print and electronic sources. The doi is typically located on the first page of the electronic journal, near the copyright notice. The DOI will be included in the citation of articles found in our databases.