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Citation Guide

General APA Format

How to format your paper using APA Guidelines

  • double-spaced
  • 1" margins on all sides
  • 12 pt. Times New Roman font (recommended, but any clear readable font is acceptable)
  • include a page header or running head at the top of every page that includes page numbers in the upper right. Include the title of your paper in the upper left in all caps.

For more information, visit the Excelsior Online Writing Lab or Long Island University Citation Guide.

Additional help can be found below or at APA Style Help

ONLINE TUTORIAL FROM APA

DOI

A DOI (Digitial Object Identifier) is a unique code for an electronic document. The DOI will never change, even even if the URL changes. 

Some citation formats require the DOI if there is one.

To look for a document's DOI: crossref.org.

To find a document using the DOI: click on the DOI or go to doi®.

APA CITATION STYLE

Nursing, education, and many of the sciences use APA citation style.

The final authority for APA is the American Psychological Association, specifically the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., 2020). The final authority for the bibliographic form used in your paper is your professor.

APA REFERENCES, ELECTRONIC

Full-text journal article from a database:

  • APA prefers a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) when available.  No period follows the doi or URL.
  • APA also accepts the URL of the journal article, see 2nd example.
  • For journals, date only includes the year.
  • Provide the name of the database or archive only when it publishes original, proprietary works available only in that database or archive (e.g., UpToDate or the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), see 3rd example.

Oleschuk, M. (2019). Gender, cultural schemas, and learning to cook. Gender & Society,

   33(4), 607–628. https://doi-org/10.1177/0891243219839669

or

Epler-Ruths, C. M., McDonald, S., Pallant, A., & Lee, H. S. (2020). Focus on the notice:

   Evidence of spatial skills’ effect on middle school learning from a computer simulation.

   Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 5(1), 1-16.

   https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-020-00263-0

or

Yu, D. T., & van Tubergen, A. (2020). Treatment of axial spondyloarthritis (ankylosing

   spondylitis and nonradiographic axial spondyloarthritis) in adults. UpToDate. Retrieved

   December 18, 2020 from

   https://www.uptodate-com/contents/treatment-of-axial-spondyloarthritis-ankylosing-spondylitis-

   and-nonradiographic-axial-spondyloarthritis-in-adults

 

Magazines, newsletters, and newspapers:

  • Give the year and the exact date of the publication (month and month or day), separated by a comma and enclosed in parentheses.  If the date is given as a season, give the year and the season, separated by a comma and enclosed in parentheses.

Latinos in school: Why do many fail? (1983, August 1). Los Angeles Times, A3.

or

Sanger, D. E., & Perlroth, N. (2020, December 17). More hacking attacks found as

   officials warn of ‘grave risk’ to U.S. Government. The New York Times.

   https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/us/politics/russia-cyber-hack-trump.html

Website:

Managing stress: A guide for college students. (2010, July 22). Retrieved from

   University of Georgia, University Health Center. http://www.uhs.uga.edu/stress/

APA REFERENCES, PRINT

Book:

Gladwell, M. (2019). Talking to strangers: What we should know about the people we  

   don't know. Little, Brown and Company.

  

Book with more than one author:

Fung, J., Mayer, E., & Ramos, M. (2020). Life in the fasting lane: How to make

   intermittent fasting a lifestyle--and reap the benefits of weight loss and better health. Harper Wave.

   

Journal article:

Egan, S. E., & Perry, D. G. (2001). Gender identity: A multidimensional analysis

   with implications for psychosocial adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 37(4),

   451-464.

   

Chapter in a book:

Nguyen, V. T. (2020). Stromberg v. California (1931). In M. Chabon & A. Waldman (Eds.),

   Fight of the century: Writers reflect on 100 years of landmark ACLU cases (pp. 1–5).

   Avid Reader Press.

  

Essay in a multivolume work (each volume with a unique title):

Bloom, L. Z. (1985). Maya Angelou. In T. M. Davis & T. Harris (Eds.), Dictionary

   of literary biography: Vol 38 Afro-American writers after 1955: Dramatists and

   prose writers. Gale.

   

Article in a reference work:

Lieberman, L. S. (2003). Diabetes. In K. Kiple (Ed.), The Cambridge Historical

   Dictionary of Disease. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved December 21, 2020, from

   https://ezproxy.goshen.edu/login?url=http://search.credoreference.com/content

   /entry/cupdisease/diabetes/0

   

Biblical citation:

All religious works (including the Bible) published as books follow the book reference format. Religious works published as websites follow the webpage reference format. Do not include a author, and use the year of the publication of the Bible translation you are using.

The Holy Bible (New Revised Standard Version). (1989). Oxford University Press.

APA REFERENCES, OTHER

Video:

Lazarus, M., & Wunderlich, R. (Producers). (2000). Beyond killing us softly:

   The strength to resist: The impact of media images on women and girls.

   [Video]. Cambridge Documentary Films.

Online Video:

The University of Chicago. (2020, December 8). The Himalayas: An ecological

   battle [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/C3T8dJwJSbs

IN-TEXT APA CITATIONS

  • Include the author's last name with the year, e.g., (Coltrane, 1998)
  • Include the page number if quoting directly, e.g., (Coltrain, 1998, p. 33)
  • If there is no author, use one or two words of the title, e.g., ("Afro-American," 1985)
  • If there are multiple works by the same author, use lowercase letter assigned to the year in the reference list, e.g., (Lazarus, 2000b)
  • When a book has two authors, use both names and the year, e.g, (Day & Neubauer, 2001)
  • Biblical in-text citations: identify the version you used, in the first in-text citation; for example:  (2 Cor. 5:17 New International Version)

MORE THAN 20 AUTHORS?

From Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed, 2020:

In-text citations
When a work has six or more authors, cite only the surname of the first author followed by et al. and the year for the first and subsequent citations.

Reference list

List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the first 19 authors’ names, use an ellipsis in place of the remaining author names. Then, end with the final author's name (do not place an ampersand before it). There should be no more than twenty names in the citation in total. (e.g. Author, A. A., Author, B., B., Author, C. C., Author, D. D., Author, E. E., Author, F. F., Author, G. G., Author, H. H., Author, I. I., Author, J. J., Author, K. K., Author, L. L., Author, M. M., Author, N. N., Author, O. O., Author, P. O., Author, Q. Q., Author, R. R., Author, S. S., ... Author, T. T.).