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The Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association, 5th edition, is located in the Reference
section of the Library (BF76.7.P83) and in the stacks, and
is for sale at any bookstore. APA format is used in the social
sciences, including education, adventure education, psychology,
history, and anthropology - check with your professor if you're
not sure which style format to use for a particular class.
APA format uses an author-date, in-text citation, meaning
the author's last name and the year of publication for the
source appear in parentheses in the text, and a complete citation
is given in the "References" page.
This handout is intended to be a brief overview of
basic APA style. APA has very specific rules about punctuation,
quotation marks, etc. - please refer to the manual for details
not covered here!
In-Text Citations
The information you provide in the text will lead
your reader to the full citation in the REFERENCES page. For
more information, see Sections 3.94 - 3.103.
Examples:
| Walker (2000) compared reaction times...
|
|
Two Authors: always cite
both names |
| In a recent study of reaction times (Walker, 2000)... |
|
Three to Five Authors: List all authors
in the first reference, but in subsequent references list
only the first author followed by et al. and the year.
Example: Wasserstein et al. (1994) found... |
| Note: If you are quoting a source or referring
to a specific part of a source, include the page number,
or specific chapter: |
|
Six or More Authors: cite only the
surname of the first author followed by et al. |
| (Cheek & Buss, 1981, p.332). |
|
Organization as Author: ...(National
Institute of Mental Health, 1999). |
| (Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3). |
|
No Author: Use the first few words
of the title, plus the year. Use quotation marks around
articles; italicize the title of a book, periodical, brochure,
or report. When a work is designated "Anonymous,"
cite in text as (Anonymous, 1998). |
The References Page
The References list includes all the sources cited
in your paper, and provides the information necessary for
a reader to locate your sources. See Chapter Four for details.
BASIC RULES:
- Authors' names are listed last name first, in
alphabetical order; if there is no author, alphabetize by
title of the book or article, excluding "A" "An"
and "The"
- Capitalize only the first word of a title. Italicize
titles of books and journals (extend the italics to include
commas, periods, and/or journal volume - but not issue -
number)
- Indent second and subsequent lines of the citation
(hanging indent)
- Double space between all lines - do not add an
extra double space between entries
- Interviews & Personal Communications should
be cited in the paper but not listed in "References"
Example: T.K. Lutes (personal communication, April
8, 2001)
Examples: (double
spacing, hanging indent not shown)
Journal article, one author
Mellers, B.A. (2000). Choice and the relative pleasure
of consequences. Psychological Bulletin, 126,
910-924.
Book, one author
Parke, R.D. (1981). Fathers. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press. |
|
Report from a private organization
Employee Benefit Research Institute. (1992, February).
Sources of health insurance and characteristics of
the uninsured (Issue Brief No. 1243). Washington,
DC: Author. |
Book with editors
Gibbs, J.T., & Huang, L.N. (Eds.). (1991). Children
of color: Psychological interventions with minority youth.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. |
|
Newspaper article
Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic,
social status. The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4. |
Chapter in an edited book
O'Neil, J.M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's
gender role journeys: Metaphor for healing, transition,
and transformation. In B.R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender
issues across the life cycle (pp.107-123). New York:
Springer. |
|
Dissertation abstracted in DAI and
obtained from the university (i.e., not from UMI)
Ross, D.F. (1990). Unconscious transerence and mistaken
identity: When a witness misindentifies a familiar but
innocent person from a lineup (Doctoral dissertation,
Cornell University, 1990). Dissertation Abstracts
International, 51, 417. |
Unpublished paper presented at a meeting
Lanktree, C., & Briere, J. (1991, January).
Early data on the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children
(TSC-C). Paper presented at the meeting of the
American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children,
San Diego, CA.
|
|
Proceedings of Meetings and Symposia
Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1991). A motivational
approach to self: Integration in personality. In R.
Dienstbier (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation:
Vol. 38. Perspectives on motivation (pp. 237-288). Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press. |
Online Citations
For more details, see additional examples in Section
4.16, 71-95, and APA
(http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html).
Other helpful sites: Sources,
Online!,
APA
Style Essentials, and APA
Research Style Crib Sheet.
Include as much of the following as possible:
- author
- date of publication or last revision (if known),
in parentheses
- title of document
- title of complete work (if applicable), in italics
- date of access
- URL
- e-mail communications should be cited as personal
communication; mailing list messages are included in "References"
Examples:
Multipage document created by private
organization, no date
Greater New Milford (CT) Area Healthy Community 2000,
Task Force on Teen and Adolescent Issues. (n.d.). Who
has time for a family meal? You do! Retrieved October
5, 2000, from http://www.familymealtime.org |
|
U.S. government report available
on government agency Web site, no publication date indicated
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 |
Article in an online journal database
Borman, W.C., Hanson, M.A., Oppler, S.H., Pulakos, E.D.,
& White, L.A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience
in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied Psychology,
78, 443-449. Retrieved October 23, 2000, from
PsycARTICLES database. |
|
Stand-alone document, no author identified,
no date
GVU's 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved
August 8, 2000, from
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/
user_surveys/survey-1997-10/ |
Article in an Internet-only journal (e-journal)
Fredrickson, B.L. (2000, March 7). Cultivating positive
emotions to optimize health and well-being. Prevention
& Treatment, 3, Article 0001a. Retrieved
November 20, 2000, from http://journals.apa.org/prevention
/volume3/pre0030001a.html |
|
Electronic copy of a journal article, three
to five authors, retrieved from database
Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H.,
Pulakos, E. D., & White, L. A. (1993). Role of early
supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved October
23, 2000, from PsycARTICLES database.
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