APA Citations

References Page Formatting

  • Heading: At the top of a new page, type the word References, centered.
  • Spacing: All entries should be double-spaced
  • Indentation: Hanging indent of 5 spaces
  • Capitalization:  Capitalize only the first word of article and book titles and the first word after a colon

How to Cite…

Articles from a scholarly journal/periodical

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (2007). Title of article. Title of
     Periodical, vol , 12-23.

Thelwell, R. C., Lane, A. M., & Weston, N. J. (2007). Mood states, self-set
     goals, self-efficacy and performance in academic examinations.
     Personality and Individual Differences, 42,, 573-583.

Book

Author, A. A. (2006). Title of book. Location: Publisher.

Hirsch, G. (2001). Helping college students succeed: A model for effective
     intervention. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

Online Document

 

Johnson, K. A., & Becker, J. A. (1999) The Whole Brain Atlas. Retrieved
     January 22, 2007 from http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html.

In-Text Citation

In-text citation must include the author(s) and the year of publication.

1st citation:

Thelwell, Lane and Weston (2007) examined the relationship…or
In a recent study on college students…(Thelwell, Lane & Weston, 2007).

2nd citation in new paragraph; replace all but first author with “et al.”:

Thelwell et al. (2007) manipulated the variable…or
As demonstrated in previous studies…(Thelwell et al., 2007).

2nd citation in same paragraph; omit year of publication:

Thelwell et al. demonstrated that…or
On the basis of previous investigations…(Thelwell et al.).

Note: If there are only two authors always cite both names. For articles with six or more authors include only the first authors name in every citation (e.g., Miller et al. (2007)).

APA style note:
Unlike the styles of MLA and Chicago, APA citations are almost always paraphrasing. Quotations are very rare because it is more important in APA to report the ideas than the actual wording or phrasing.