Dixie OWL: APA Style Guide

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• Parenthetical References within your text
• Bibliographic Entries--Periodicals
• Bibliographic Entries--Books
• Bibliographic Entries--Electronic Sources
• Brief APA Guide--PDF

Parenthetical References In Your Text:

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of citation. Include the author's last name and year of publication in your text. Examples: - Smith (1970) compared reaction times . . . . - In a recent study of reaction times (Smith, 1970) . . . . - In 1970, Smith compared reaction times . . . . If there are 2 authors, always use both names; for 3, 4, or 5 authors, use all the names the first time, then use only the first name and et al. example: Miller et al. (1998) noted that....

For Short Quotations:

To indicate short quotations (fewer than 40 words) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author, year, and specific page citation in the text, and include a complete citation on the Reference page(s).

Examples: He stated, "The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner" (Smith, 1982, p. 276), but he did not clarify which behaviors were studied.  

Smith (1982) found that "the placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner" (p. 276).

For Long Quotations:

Place quotations longer than 40 words in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit the quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented five spaces from the left margin. Type the entire quotation double-spaced on the new margin and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation five spaces from the new margin.

Smith (1982) found the following:

The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner. Furthermore, the behaviors were never exhibited again, even when real drugs were administered. Earlier studies conducted by the same group of researchers were clearly premature in attributing the results to a placebo effect. (p. 276)

For References to the Entire Work (omit page numbers)

Adams (2001) concluded that pigeons were more likely to be influenced by sunflower seeds than were rats.

Web Citations in Text

    For quotations, give page numbers (or paragraph numbers) if they are available.  If page or paragraph numbers are not available (i.e., they are not visible to every reader), they can be omitted from the in-text citation. 

Lopez (1999) said that "drug enforcement contamination" was widespread in Florida (para. 16).

Schjeldahl (2002) pointed out that "post modern ennui" is easily visible in modern art.

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At the End of Your Text:

At the end of your paper, list in alphabetical order all the references you cited in the text of your writing on a page titled References. While in the MLA style, books and periodicals are underlined, in the APA style they are italicized.  Citations of references are double-spaced within and between citations. Remember to indent five spaces at the beginning of each line after the first line in each citation. (Note:  some browsers may not show the correct spacing or margins.)

Style for Citing References -- Documentation for Periodicals:

one author

Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of

Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.
        [Here with continuous pagination, only the volume number is included.]

Roy, A. (1982). Suicide in chronic schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141,

            171-177.

two authors

Atkinson, R. C. & Schiffrin, R. M. (1971). The control of short-term memory. Scientific

American, 225 (2), 82-90.
    [Here with a journal paginated by issue,  the volume  and issue numbers are included.]

Herbst-Damm, K.L., & Kulik, J.A. (2005). Volunteer support,  marital status, and the

            survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi:

            10l1037/0278-6133,24,2,225  [When a print or electronic source has a

three-six authors

Baldwin, C. M., Bevan, C., & Beshalske, A. (2000). At-risk minority populations in a

            church-based clinic: Communicating basic needs. Journal of Multicultural

Nursing & Health, 6(2), 26-28.

Seven or more authors

Yawn, B. P., Algatt-Bergstrom, P. J., Yawn, R. A., Wollan, P., Greco, M., Gleason, M., et

            al. (2000). An in-school CD-ROM asthma education program. Journal of School

            Health, 70, 153-159.

five authors

Ohnishi, T., Matsuda, H., Tabira, T., Asada, T., & Uno, M. (2001). Changes in brain morphology

in Alzheimer’s disease and exaggerated aging process? American Journal of

Neuroradiology, 22, 1680–1685.

no author

The blood business. (1972, September 11) Time, pp. 47-48.

newspaper article, no author

Eight APA journals initiate controversial blind reviewing. (1972, June). APA Monitor, pp. 1, 

5.

magazine article

Gardner, H. (1981, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today, pp. 

70-76.

monograph

Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of

reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80 (1, Serial No. 609).

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Documentation for Books:

one author

Bernstein, T. M. (1965). The careful writer: A modern guide to English usage. New York:

Athenaeum.

Shipley, W. C. (1986). Shipley Institute of Living Scale. Los Angeles: Western Psychological

Services.

Shotton, M. A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency.

            London, England: Taylor & Francis.

two authors

Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan.

three authors

Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, I., & Lushene, R. E. (1970). Manual for the State–Trait Inventory.

Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

five authors

Wilson, B. A., Alderman, N., Burgess, P. W., Emslie, H. C., & Evans, J. J. (1996). The

Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome. Flempton, Bury St.

Edmunds, England: Thames Valley Test Company.

corporate author

U.S. Public Health Service. (2000). Report of the surgeon general's conference on

            children's mental health: A national action agenda. Washington, DC:U.S.

            Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved on August 25, 2001, from

            http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/cmh/chilreport.htm

edited volume

Maher, B. A. (Ed.). (1964-1972). Progress in experimental personality Research (6 vols.). 

New York: Academic Press.

article in edited book

Raz, N. (2000). Aging of the brain and its impact on cognitive performance: Integration of

structural and functional findings. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.),

Handbook of aging and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 1–90). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Chow, T. W., & Cummings, J. L. (2000). The amygdala and Alzheimer’s disease. In J. P.

Aggleton (Ed.), The amygdala: A functional analysis (pp. 656–680). Oxford,

England: Oxford University Press.

Riesen, A. H. (1966). In E. Stellar & J. M. Sprague book) (Eds.), Progress in

            Physiological  Psychology (Vol. 1). New York: Academic Press.

Manuscript in progress or submitted for publication

Ting, J. Y., Florsheim, P., & Huang, W. (2008). Mental health help-seeking in ethnic

            minority populations: A theoretical perspective. Manuscript submitted for

            publication.

government publication

Clements, S. D. (1966). Minimal brain dysfunction in children (NINDS Monograph No. 3, 

U.S. Public Health Service Publication No. 1415). Washington, D. C.: U.S.

 Government Printing Office.

technical and research report

Birney, A. J. & Hall, M. M. (1981). Early identification of children with written language

disabilities (Report No. 81-502). Washington, D.C.: National Education 

Association.

ERIC document

Mead, J. V. (1992). Looking at old photographs: Investigating the teacher tales that novice

teachers bring with them (Report No. NCRTL-RR-92-4). East Lansing, MI: 

National Center for Research on Teacher Learning. (ERIC Document

 Reproduction Service NO. ED 346082)

ED 346082)

brochure, corporate author

Research and Training Center on Independent Living. (1993). Guidelines for reporting and 

writing about people with disabilities (4th ed.) [Brochure]. Lawrence, KS: 

Author.

National Institute of Mental Health. (1998). Priorities for prevention research (NIH

            Publication No. 98-4321). WashingtonDC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

interview, email, telephone conversation, letters, memos, etc.

Interviews, like other forms of personal communication (e.g., e-mail, telephone conversations, electronic bulletin boards), since they do not provide recoverable data, are not included in the reference list. Cite personal communication in text only. Give the initials and the surname of the source, and provide as exact a date as you can.

 J. Snodgrass (personal communication, April1, 2009) argues . . . .

T.K. Lutes (personal communication, April 18, 2001) . . . .

(R. E. Lee, personal communication, September 22, 1862).
 

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Electronic Sources

Citing Specific Documents on a Web Site
    Web documents are similar to print documents; however, they require additional data, as shown below:

An article from the journal American Psychologist:

Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A., & Schwartz, A. A. (1995). A history of facilitated 

communication: Science, pseudoscience, and antiscience: Science

 working group on facilitated communication. [Electronic version].American 

Psychologist, 50, 750-765.  [Note: Date of Access is not needed if content is unlikely to change.]

An article from the APA Monitor (a newspaper) (If you are referencing an electronic version of a source that you have reason to believe may differ from the print version, you will need to add the date you retrieved the document and the URL):

DeAngelis, T. (2008, September). Priming for a new role. APA Monitor, pp. 28+. 

Retrieved November 31, 2008, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/09

/pregnancy.html

An article from a database: Because this article has been assigned a DOI (digital object identifier) that functions a unique identifier of the content (taking the place of a database name) and a link to the content, no database name or URL is required.

Stultz, J. (2006). Integrating exposure therapy and analytic therapy in trauma treatment.

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76, 482-488. doi: 10.1037/0002

-9432.76.4.482

Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G., & Steer, R. A. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical

anxiety: Psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,

56, 893–897. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.56.6.893

Von Ledebur, S. C. (2007). Optimizing knowledge transfer by new employees in

            companies. Knowledge Management Research & Practice. Advance

Article with no DOI assigned. Retrieval date is not included if the final version of the article is being referenced.

Sillick, T. J., & Schutte, N. S. (2006). Emotional intelligence and self-esteem mediate between

perceived early parental love and adult happiness. E-Journal of Applied

Psychology, 2(2), 38-48. Retrieved from http://ofs.lib.swin.edu.au/indes.php

/ejap/article/view/71/100

On-line abstract

Meyer, A.S., & Bock, K. (1992). The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: Blocking or partical 

activation? [On-line]. Memory & Cognition, 20. 715-726. Abstract from: 

DIALOG File: PsychINFO Item: 80-16351

brochure, corporate author

American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. (2007).

            Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Retrieved from

            http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html

E-book (with DOI-Digital Object Identifier)

Rogriguez-Garcia, R., and White, E. M. (2005). Self-assessment in managing for results:

Conducting self-assessment for development practitioners. doi:

 10.1596/9780-82136148-1

E-book with no DOI

Niehoff, D. (2005). Language of life: How cells communicate in health and disease. Retrieved

from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dixie/document/display.jsp?docID

=10078705&page=1

Shotton, M. A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency [DX

            Reader version]. Retrieved from http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co

E-book from gutenberg.org

Greville, H. (2008). The little Russian servant. Available from http://www.gutenberg.org

/etext/27103 

[Use "Available from" instead of "Retrieved from" when the URL
leads to information on how to obtain the cited material rather than to the material
itself.]

Message posted to an electronic mailing list

Smith, S. (2006, January 5). Re: Disputed estimates of IQ [Electronic mailing list

            message]. Retrieved from http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group

            /ForensicNetwork/message/670

Abstract on CD-Rom

Bower, D. L. (1993). Employee assistant programs supervisory referrals: Characteristics of 

referring and nonreferring supervisors [CD-ROM]. Abstract from: Proquest 

File: Dissertation Abstracts Item: 9315947

Reference Materials

Online encyclopedia

Graham, G. 920050. Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of

            philosophy. Retrieved January 28, 2007, from http://plato.stanford.edu

            /entries/behaviorism/

Online dictionary

Heuristic. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster's online dictionary. Retrieved October 20, 2005, from

http://www. m-w.com/dictionary/

Electronic correspondences, such as e-mail or discussions via bulletin boards or discussion groups, are considered to be personal communications (like phone conversations or memos), because it generally is not recoverable by others. Personal communications are cited only within the text and not the reference page.

personal communication

Do not include these in the list of references. In the text, give the initials and surname of the author and provide as exact a date as possible:

R.W. Runyon (personal communication, April 18, 1993) . . . .

(M. Kohel, personal communication, June 28, 1993)

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Copyright (C) by Ed Reber, October 2009. Some of this material may be copyrighted by other entities. All rights reserved. This document may be distributed as long as it is done entirely with all attributions to organizations and authors. Commercial distribution is strictly prohibited.