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APA Style Guide: Home

Created by Health Science Librarians

Help with 7th edition

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Help with 6th edition

For more help, you can

APA 7th Edition

Please note that this guide reflects the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual, which was released in October 2019. For help with the 6th edition, see the box of resources on the bottom left side of this page.

Commonly Used Sources

Journal Article

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy

 

In-press Articles

Author, A. A. (in press). Title of article. Title of Periodical.

 

Pre-prints

Author, A. A. (year). Title of article. Repository Name. DOI or URL

See also the APA Style Blog entry on Preprint Article References.

 

Magazine Article

Author, A. A. (year, month day). Title of article. Title of Magazine, issue, pages.
 

Newspaper Article

Author, A. A. (year, month day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, pp. A1, A2.*

*for one page use p. A1; for two or more pages use p.p. A1, A2,A3.


Lots of authors? See how to cite with one or two authors, 3-20 authors, 21 or more authors, or unknown authors in your reference list at the Purdue OWL Authors page.

Wondering how to write an in-text citation for them?  See this Purdue OWL In-text Citation Authors page too.

Whole Websites

There is no need to create references for whole websites. You can mention the website in the text. For example:

We created our visualizations using Vos Viewer (https://www.vosviewer.com/).

For more information, see the APA Style Blog entry on Whole Website References.

 

Webpages from one website

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-a). Divisions. http://www.apa.org/about/division/

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-b). Exercise and sport psychology. http://www.apa.org/about/division/div47.aspx

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-c). For division leaders. http://www.apa.org/about/division/officers/index.aspx

For more information, see the APA Style Blog entry on Webpage on a Website References.


Online periodicals

American Psychological Association. (2009). Blog guidelines. APA Style Blog. https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/blog-guidelines.html

For more information on citing online resources, visit the Electronic Resources page of the Purdue OWL website or see the APA online media reference examples.

Print book

Author, A. A. (Copyright year). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher.
 

Electronic book

Author, A. A. (Copyright year). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher. URL  

 

Electronic book chapter

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright year). Chapter title. In: A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.). Book title (pp. #-#). Publisher. DOI or URL
 

Edited book without author

EditorName, B. B. & EditorName, C. (Eds.). (Copyright year). Title of book. Publisher. DOI or URL
 

Edited book with author

Author, A. A. (Copyright year). Title of book. B.B. EditorName (Ed.). Publisher. DOI or URL

Presented paper/poster: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year, Month Day). Title of paper or poster [Description]. Title of Conference, Location.

Published Proceedings: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of paper or poster. Title of Proceedings, Volume, Issue, Pages-Pages. DOI or URL

Guideline with named authors

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of guideline. Publisher. URL
 

Guideline with institution as author

Name of the organization. (Year). Title of guideline. Publisher. URL
 

Guideline published in journal

Name of the organization. (Year). Title of guideline. Title of Journal, volume(issue), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy

 

For more information on citing guidelines and clinical references, see the APA Style Blog entry on Clinical Practice References.

Rightsholder, A. A. (year). Title of software or program (Version number) [Mobile application software]. Publisher. URL

Author, A. A. (Year). Name of data set (Version No.) [Data set]. Publisher. DOI or URL

See more information on the APA Style Blog entry on Data Set References.

For tweets, status updates, photo or video posts, infographics, blog posts, etc.

Author [screen name]. (year, month day). Title [Type of content*]. Site name. URL


For real examples of these, see the APA social media reference examples.

 

*Types of content: Tweet, Facebook status update, Video file, Infographic, Web log post, etc.

Two Authors:
Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...
(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

Three or More Authors:
Harris et al. (2001) argued...
(Harris et al., 2001)

Unknown Author:
A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using APA," 2001).

Organization as an Author:
According to the American Psychological Association (2000),...
First time: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000)
Next time: (MADD, 2000)

Indirect Sources
Johnson argued that...(as cited in Smith, 2003, p. 102).

See the Purdue OWL site for these examples and more details.

APA Style Guidelines (apastyle.apa.org)

The style and grammar guidelines pages present information about APA Style as described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition and the Concise Guide to APA Style, Seventh Edition.

View more style guidelines at apastyle.apa.org.