APA Style (5th) 
APA Style (6th) MLA Style
This guide gives basic examples of APA style for references in a research paper. For a complete overview of APA style, consult:
| Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association |
Current edition is the 6th (2010) published by the American Psychological Association. |
Reference Area
808.02 P976 2010 |
| Supplemental Materials to the APA Manual |
Site contains supplemental materials (in PDF format) that are not printed in the the 6th edition of the APA Manual. |
Internet Resource
http://www.apastyle.org/manual/supplem
ent/index.aspx |
The following examples are taken from or are modified from examples
from these guides. They are single-spaced to save space. See the Format the References List section for the correct formatting.
The 6th edition of the APA Manual recommends including a digital object identifier (DOI)
when citing an electronic source. The DOI is a permanent link to
the published electronic full text and the location of the text. The DOI consists
of a long alphanumeric code (e.g. doi: 10.1007/b105055) and is unique
to its document. Not all publishers provide a DOI number to a document,
but when it is available, use the DOI in the citation. If you cannot find a DOI number for your source, you can try looking it up using the CrossRef free DOI lookup. To learn more about the DOI system, visit http://www.doi.org/.
Books
Author. (Date). Book title. Publisher City: Publisher.
- Single Author
Bain, K. (2004).What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press.
- Multiple Authors
Cone, J. D., & Foster, S. L.(1993). Dissertations and theses from start to
finish:
Psychology and related fields.Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.
- Edited Book
Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L. N. (Eds.), (1991). Children of color: Psychological
interventions with minority youth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Article/Chapter in an Edited Book
LaFromboise,
T. D. & Low, R. G. (1998). American Indian children and adolescents.
In J. T. Gibbs, & L. N. Huang (Eds.), Children of color: Psychological
interventions with minority youth (pp. 112-142). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Entry in an Encyclopedia
Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Vol. 26,
pp.501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.
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E-Books
- Entire book with a DOI assigned:
Loewy, E. H. (2004). Textbook of healthcare ethics (2nd ed.). doi: 10.1007/1-4020-
2252-2
- Chapter in a book with a DOI assigned:
Ernest, P. (2005). Agency and creativity in the semiotics of learning mathematics. In M. G.
Hoffmann, J. Lenhard, & F. Seeger (Eds.), Activity and sign: Grounding
mathematics education (pp. 23-34). doi: 10.1007/b105055
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Periodical Articles
Print Articles in Periodicals (Journals, Magazines, Newspapers)
Author. (Date). Article title. Periodical Title, volume # (issue number), page #s.
- Journal Article, Continuous Pagination
Bekerian, D.A. (1993). In search of the typical eyewitness. American Psychologist, 48,
574-576.
- Journal Article, Journal Paginated by Issue, 2 or more Authors
Klimoski, R., & Palmer, S. (1993). The ADA and the hiring process in organizations.
Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 45 (2), 10-36.
- Magazine article
Posner, M. I. (1993, October 29). Seeing the mind. Science, 262, 673-674.
- Newspaper Article, Discontinuous Pages
Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economics, social status. The
Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.
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Online/Electronic Articles in Periodicals (Journals, Magazines, Newspapers)
- Magazine article
Clay, R. (2008, June). Science vs. ideology: Psychologists fight back about the misuse of
research. Monitor on Psychology, 39(6). Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/monitor/
- Newspaper article
Brody, J. E. (2007, December 11). Mental reserves keep brain agile. The New York
Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
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Web Site/Page
Include the author (if listed), title of the Web page and, in some
cases, the title of the site on which the page is located, and date of
creation or last update. If no date is given on the page, use "n.d"
("no date") in its place. Then add "Retrieved [date page was accessed]
from [URL of the page]." Date of retrieval is included because the content is likely to change (www.apastyle.org)
Hanes-Ramos, M. (2009, February 5). Bare bones 101: A very basic tutorial on
searching the web. University of South Carolina, Beaufort Library.
Retrieved October 28, 2009, from
http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/bones.shtml
GVU's 8th WWW user survey.(n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2009, from
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-1997-10/
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Format the References List
(See Chapter 6, "References List," in the APA Manual)
When writing a research paper in APA style, you need to list all
your sources (cited as indicated in the examples above) in a References
page that goes at the end of the paper.
- "References" should appear as the heading on the first page containing the list of sources consulted.
- Entries
should begin flush left, and the second and subsequent lines should be
indented 5 spaces. Double-space the entire list as indicated in the
example below:
Brown, H., & Milstead, J. (1968). Patterns in poetry: An
introductory anthology. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
- Alphabetize by author's last name followed by initials of the author's given name. For anonymous authors or where no author is given, begin the entry with the title.
- Capitalize only the first word of title and subtitle and proper names. Use italics instead of underlining.
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Book Citation Format Periodical Article Format Full-text Journal Article from an Electronic Database
Internet Site Basic Format References List at End of Paper
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