APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.
APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.
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TIP: Play this interactive game to help you prepare for the quiz. Unless you are playing the game with another person, you can ignore the timer. Simply open the game and use it to learn like you might use flashcards.
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This tutorial is designed for those who have no previous knowledge of APA Style®. It shows users how to structure and format their work, recommends ways to reduce bias in language, identifies how to avoid charges of plagiarism, shows how to cite references in text, and provides selected reference examples.
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References
In APA, the list of sources at the end of the paper (bibliography) is called the reference list. The reference list must include all references cited in the text of your paper.
The word References should appear at the top of your reference list, and it should be centred on the page (Rule 2.11, p. 37).
Order of references in the reference list is alphabetical, by the last name of the first author (Rule 6.25, p. 181) or, if author is not available - by title.
Alphabetize letter by letter. "Nothing precedes something". 'Brown, J. R.' comes before 'Browning, A. F.'.
For the author's first name use only initials: 'Smith, J.', not 'Smith, Jennifer'.
For several works by the same author cite them in your reference list by year of publication with the earliest first - Smith, A. (1999) ... Smith, A. (2002)
Second and subsequent lines of each entry are indented 1/2 inch or 5 spaces. The chosen format should be consistent throughout the references.
Double-space between all lines of your work, including references.
When citing books (not periodicals), capitalize only the first word of the title and of the subtitle (i.e. the first word after a colon or a dash) and proper nouns (Rule 6.29, p. 185).
If more than one city of publication is listed in the book you are citing, use the first one listed.
If there is no date of publication, use the abbreviation (n.d.).
See Rules 6.22 to 6.32 of the APA Publication Manual [print] for more information on the preparation of the reference list.
You can use Microsoft's Format or Customize a Table of Contents to learn how to set this up in Microsoft Word.
The word References should appear at the top of your reference list, and it should be centred on the page (Rule 2.11, p. 37).
Order of references in the reference list is alphabetical, by the last name of the first author (Rule 6.25, p. 181) or, if author is not available - by title.
Alphabetize letter by letter. "Nothing precedes something". 'Brown, J. R.' comes before 'Browning, A. F.'.
For the author's first name use only initials: 'Smith, J.', not 'Smith, Jennifer'.
For several works by the same author cite them in your reference list by year of publication with the earliest first - Smith, A. (1999) ... Smith, A. (2002)
Second and subsequent lines of each entry are indented 1/2 inch or 5 spaces. The chosen format should be consistent throughout the references.
Double-space between all lines of your work, including references.
When citing books (not periodicals), capitalize only the first word of the title and of the subtitle (i.e. the first word after a colon or a dash) and proper nouns (Rule 6.29, p. 185).
If more than one city of publication is listed in the book you are citing, use the first one listed.
If there is no date of publication, use the abbreviation (n.d.).
See Rules 6.22 to 6.32 of the APA Publication Manual [print] for more information on the preparation of the reference list.
You can use Microsoft's Format or Customize a Table of Contents to learn how to set this up in Microsoft Word.
Other APA resource guides:
- Purdue University Online Writing Lab's APA Formatting and Style Guide (6th ed.). Includes images of APA style formatting for titles pages, running head, sample papers, tables and other information.
- College of DuPage APA Guide for citing Multimedia sources. Includes podcasts, images & videos found online, and software.
- How to cite business sources in APA. From McGill University.
