APA Documentation

The information for this handout has been taken from The Confident Writer: A Norton Handbook by Constance J. Gefvert (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985), from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed. (Washington: APA, 2001), and from Electronic Style: A Guide to Citing Electronic Information by Xia Li and Nancy B. Crane (Westport: Information Today, 1996). All publications may be found in the University Writing Center and should be consulted for more detailed information.

Things to remember when creating your References page

• Center the word References at the top of the page, then double space to start your first entry.
• Entries are alphabetized by the author's last name or the first significant word in a titled text with no author.
• Each entry is flush left for the first line.
• Each subsequent line is indented 1/2 inch.
• All entries are double-spaced.
• First names are not important. Use surnames only to cite within text and surnames plus first initial to cite within the reference list.
• Capitalization is important. In the title of an article, as well as of a book, only the first word of the title--and subtitle, if there is one--is capitalized (except proper nouns, which are always capitalized). In the titles of journals, newspapers, and magazines, however, each word (other than the, a, an, etc.) is capitalized.
• Only the name of the publisher, NOT Inc. or Company, is included in the reference list.
• Substitute Author for publisher's name when a book is published by its author.

BOOKS

Books by a single author

Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman's place. New York: Harper & Row.

Books by two or three authors

Miller, C. & Swift, K. (1977). Words and women. Garden City, NY: Anchor.

Crane, L. B., Yeager, E., & Whitman, R.L. (1981). An introduction to linguistics. Boston: Little, Brown.

Books by more than three authors

Nilsen, A. P., Bosmajian, H., Greshuny, H.L., & Stanley, J.P. (1977). Sexism and language Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

NOTE: References by the same author are arranged by year of publication, the earliest first. However, references by the same author with the same publication date are arranged alphabetically by the title (excluding A or The), which follows the date.

Books by corporate authors

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4^th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Anonymous books

Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10^th ed.). (1983). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

Edited books with selections by different authors

Morahan, S. (Ed.). (1981). A woman’s place: Rhetoric and readings for composing yourself and your prose Albany: State University of New York Press.  

NOTE: Cite books with two, three, or more editors in the same way as books with two, three, or more authors.

Parts of books by a single author

Wilson, E. O. (1978). Heredity. In On human nature (pp. 15-53). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Parts of collections by different authors

Foerster, L. (1982). Regardless of sex: Toward communication free of bias. In J.E. Pickens (Ed.),

Without bias: A guidebook for nondiscriminatory communication (2nd ed.) (pp. 23-44). New York: Wiley.

Encyclopedia articles

Olmstead, D. L. (1982). Language, science of. In Encyclopedia Americana (Vol. 16, pp. 718- 724). Danbury, CT: Grolier.

Author’s work translated or edited by another

Camus, A. (1946). The stranger (S. Gilbert, Trans.). New York: Knopf. (Original work published 1942)

Brochures

Research and Training Center on Independent Living. (1993). Guidelines for reporting and writing about people with disabilities(4^th ed.) [Brochure]. Lawrence, KS: Author.

PERIODICAL ARTICLES

Articles in journals with continuous pagination throughout annual volumes

Sklar, E. S. (1983). Sexist grammar revisited. College English, 45, 348-358.

Articles in journals with separate pagination for each issue

Kamin, J. (1979). Writing: Painting with words. Journal of Basic Writing, 2(3), 91-95.

NOTE: "2(3)" indicates the volume and issue numbers respectively.

Articles in monthly or weekly magazines or newspapers

Hofstadter, D. R. (1982, November). Metamagical themes: Default assumptions and  their effects on writing and thinking. Scientific American, pp. 18, 22, 26, 30, 36.

Chairman's lib: The British draw the line. (1979, April 2). Time, p. 87.

Articles in daily newspapers

Kifner, J. (1983, September 1). Thousands march in Polish cities on the founding day of Solidarity. New York Times, pp. A1, A10.

Chinese musician seeks asylum in U.S. (1983, September 3). Washington Post, p. C3.

Editorials and letters to the editor in daily newspaper

Stenholm, C. W. (1983, September 3). Organ transplants: Personal pleas work [Letter to the editor]. Washington Post, p.A13.

REVIEWS

Book:

Schatz, B. R. (2000). Learning by text or context? [Review of the book The social life of information ]. Science, 290, 1304.

Motion Picture:

Kraus, S. J. (1992). Visions of psychology: A videotext of classic studies [Review of the motion picture Discovering Psychology]. Contemporary Psychology, 37, 1146-1147.

TECHNICAL AND RESEARCH REPORTS

Reports from government printing office

National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical training in serious mental illness (DHHS Publication No. ADM 90-1679). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Reports from a government agency

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1992). Pressure ulcers in adults: Prediction and prevention (AHCPR Publication No. 92-0047). Rockville, MD: Author.

Reports from a university

Broadhurst, R. G., & Maller, R.A. (1991). Sex offending and recidivism (Tech. Rep. No. 3). Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia, Crime Research Centre.

Reports from the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)

Mead, J.V. (1992). Looking at old photographs: Investigating the teacher takes that novice teachers bring with them (Report No. NCRTL-RR_92-4). Eat Lansing, MI: National Center for Research on Teacher Learning. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED346082).

LEGAL MATERIALS

Court Decisions

Court decisions are formatted according to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (17th ed., 2000), and reference entries appear as Name v. Name, Volume Source Page (Court Date):

Lessard v. Schmidt, 349 F. Supp. 1078 (E.D. Wis. 1972).

NOTE that in the above example the published source, the court location, and the date have all been abbreviated in a very specific way. The print source is volume 349 of the Federal Supplement, beginning on p.1078. The court location is the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and the decision was rendered in 1972. For more information on formatting legal materials, you can find The Bluebook in the reference section of Hunter Libarary under call number KF245B58.

NON-PRINT SOURCES

Interviews conducted by the author of the research paper

Personal communications are not included in the reference list but are cited in text only. Give the initials as well as the surname of the communicator and provide as exact a date as possible.

Example: (K. W. Schaie, personal communication, April 18, 1993).

NOTE that e-mails sent from one person to another are also cited as personal communications.

Motion pictures

Scorsese, M. (Producer), & Lonergan, K. (Writer/Director). (2000). You can count on me [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures

NOTE: Producer OR director OR both is sufficient to cite the film. The country listed is the country of origin, where it was primarily made and released.

Television and radio programs

Miller, R. (Producer). (1989). The mind [Television series]. New York: WNET.

Single episode of a television series

Hall, B. (Writer), & Bender, J. (Director). (1991). The rules of the game [Television series episode]. In J. Sander (Producer), I'll fly away. New York: New York Broadcasting Company.

Songs

Goodenough, J. B. (1982). Tails and trotters [Recorded by G. Bok, A. Mayo, & E. Trickett]. On And so will we yet [CD]. Sharon, CT: Folk-Legacy Records. (1990)

NOTE: If the song is recorded by its writer, you can omit the [Recorded by] information.

ELECTRONIC INFORMATION

Basic web sites:

Author/editor. (Year). Title. Retrieved [access date], from URL

NOTE that if there is no date given, use (n.d.).

Prizker, T. J. (n.d.). An early fragment from central Nepal. Retrieved June 8, 1995, from http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritzker/pritzker.html

NOTE that if there is no author, you begin a citation with the title.

GVU's 8^th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-1997-10/

Internet article based on a print source:

VandenBos, G., Knapp, S. & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements in the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates [Electronic version]. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123.

NOTE that this is only used when the article appears on-line in its original form.

Document available on university program or department website:

Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F, & Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and education: New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures. Retrieved August 24, 2000, from Columbia University, Institute for Learning Technologies Web site: http://www.ilt.Columbia.edu/publications/papers/newwine1.html

Electronic copy of a journal article retrieved from a database:

Neto, F., & Barros, J. (2000). Psychosocial concomitants of loneliness among students of Cape Verde and Portugal. Journal of Psychology, 134 (5), 503-515. Retrieved May 17, 2001, from Academic Search Elite Database.  (See following NOTE.)

NOTE that if the article appears in its original form, you should cite it as an Internet article based on a print source (see example above) regardless of the database used.

Daily newspaper article, electronic version available by search:

Hilts, P.J. (1999, February 16). In forecasting their emotions, most people flunk out. New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2000, from http://www.nytimes.com 

DOCUMENTATION WITHIN YOUR PAPER

• Documentation of your research paper gives credit for both direct quotations and paraphrases or summaries of facts, ideas, or opinions. This is done in the form of parenthetical citations.
• Citations should include the last name(s) of author(s), or if no author, the first two or three words of the title, and date of publication.
• On first mention in the text, specify all authors' names. For second and subsequent mentions in the text, use the first author's name and et al. for all works by three to five authors.

  First in-text citation:
  Wasserstein, Zappulla, Rosen, Gerstman, and Rock (1994) found….

  Subsequent citations:
  Wasserstein et al. (1994) found

• For a work by six or more authors, give the first author's name and et al. In the reference list, however, you must list each name, up to six authors. After that, conclude with et al.
• Within your paper, page numbers are needed for direct quotations only, and then are listed after the year within the citation. Use p. to note one page or pp. to indicate the quote was on more than one page.  For example: (Perlman & Peplau, 1981, p. 31).
• Often in electronic sources, page numbers are difficult to locate. Within your paper, use the paragraph number, if the paragraphs in the document are obvious. Example: (Myers, 2000, para. 5).
• In addition, if there are headings within the document, cite that as well. Example: (Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para. 1).
• Also note that true APA style requires only one space after the end of a sentence. If this is difficult to remember, use the find and replace option listed under the "edit" tab in most word processors.

NOT CITING INFORMATION, EVEN IF IT IS PARAPHRASED, IS CONSIDERED PLAGIARISM!!

There are typically three ways of citing information within your paper.

1. ) All citation information in parenthesis

   Research has shown that men and women use generic pronouns in different ways (Martyna, 1978). Loneliness is typically defined as "the unpleasant experience that occurs when a person's network of social relationships is deficient in some important way, either qualitatively or quantitatively" (Perlman & Peplau, 1981, p. 31).

2. ) Author plus date mentioned in sentence

   According to Stanford (1981), numerous differences . . . 
   Rogers and Rosen (1989) found

3. ) Author plus date mentioned in sentence followed by page number

   Kwitzel (1976) notes that "humanistic values in literature, science, ethics and society cut across religious commitments and are common possessions of the culture" (p. 5).

While the above are most typical, other circumstances may require the following:

Court Decisions (italicize the name of the case and include the year)
In Lessard v. Schmidt (1972), the court found in favor of....

No author (quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter; title of periodical, book, brochure, or report underlined)
...on free care ("Study Finds," 1982)
...the book College Bound Seniors (1979)

Author designated as "Anonymous"
(Anonymous, 1993)

Work discussed in a secondary source Seindenberg and McClelland's study (as cited in Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993) found that...

NOTE: In the reference list, give only the secondary source (Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller), NOT the work cited from within its text (Seindenberg & McClelland).

Block quotations (quotations of 40 or more words)--NOTE that in a block quotation, the period precedes the closing citation.

Neto and Barros (2000) state:

Such a deficit occurs when an individual's interpersonal needs cannot be satisfied within his or her social network. As a result of these unmet needs, the individual experiences a variety of aversive affective states. Feelings of loneliness are often situationally determined and tend to be short-lived. However, some people feel loneliness in many different settings and so frequently that it comes to resemble an enduring personality trait. (para. 3)

NOTE: that in a block quotation, the period precedes the closing citation.

. . . prepared by Barbara Hardie and Jana Hooper, APA Research Documentation, 2000, University Writing Center, Western Carolina University.  Revi