Brief Guide to APA Format for Citations, Quotes, and References

David Fendrich last revised on 9/08 These guidelines were taken from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Fifth Edition). Examples are shown in boldface. This is not a complete guide to APA style, see the manual for more details. A more extensive on-line APA guide is available at http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/apa4b.htm. If you find mistakes in this guide please send corrections to dwfendrich@widener.edu

Citations (always included author(s) last name(s), year, and page numbers) Citations should be used whenever any information you read in a source is included in your paper. Citations must be used even though the information was written in your own words; you must give an author credit for an idea or finding. General knowledge (e.g., that George Washington was the first president of the United States) does not require a citation. When in doubt about whether information is general knowledge, use a citation. Rogers (1994) measured simple reaction times. Simple reaction times are about 150 ms., on average (Rogers, 1994).

Old works where original date is known but source used in more recent (in the reference list give the reference to the source you used) James (1890/1983) Very old works without an original date that have been translated (Aristotle, trans. 1931) Citation of a sources citation If you want to cite some information that was cited in a source you read but you dont have accessed to the cited source do the following. Avoid this practice, if possible, Jones (1985) found a high incidence of drug use among high school students (cited in Smith, 1994).

In the above example, Jones made the finding that you read in a book by Smith and you dont have access to the original source by Jones.

Multiple authors Many sources have multiple authors and there are conventions for listing them in quotes and citations. In references all authors are always listed. 1. two authors list both last names in all citations and quotes Smith and Jones (1984) found that 2. three to five authors list all authors the first time and then use first author and et al. for subsequent quotes or citations first quote or citation Smith, Jones, and Brown (1988) found that subsequent citations or quotes Smith et al. (1988) found that 3. six or more authors -- first author and et al. for all citations and quotes Black et al. (1991) found that 4. author names within parentheses use the ampersand (&) in place of the word "and" (Smith & Jones, 1984) (Smith, Jones & Black, 1989) 5. multiple citations for the same statement If you want to include two or more citations by different authors for a the same statement list them alphabetically by the first author's last name and separate citations with a semicolon. If the citations are by the same author, then list them by year of publication. Divorce has many negative effects on children (Jones, 1986; Smith, 1994; Zimmer, 1991). Divorce has many negative effects on children (Jones, 1986; 1992). Quotes (always include author(s) last name(s), year, and page numbers)

Quotes should be used whenever you use a sources exact words. When quoting, it is important that your quote exactly matches the text found in the source you are quoting, even if it is ungrammatical or misspelled. Smith (1992) theorized that "dreams appear to be due to random brain activity" (p. 87). "Dreams are an important clue to understanding mental illness" (Smith, 1984, pp. 211-212). enclose text you insert within a quote in square brackets "[Joe] was abandoned at age three" (Smith, 1986, p. 34). use ellipsis () when text has been deleted from the middle, not beginning or end, of a quote "Depressed personswere excluded from the study" (Smith, 1978, p. 12). Quotation of a sources quotation If you found a quote in a source that you want to quote but dont have access to the source with the original statement do the following. Avoid this practice, if possible. "Most people are a little bit crazy" (Jones, 1985, p. 66, quoted in Smith, 1994, p. 102). In the above example, Jones made the statement that you read in a book by Smith and you dont have access to the original source by Jones. Quotations with spelling or grammatical mistakes do not fix the mistake but include [sic] immediately after it. "Skydiving are [sic] fun" (Smith, 1976, p. 4).

References References go on a separate page at the end of the paper with the heading References centered at the top of the page. References are listed alphabetically by the first author's last name and are not numbered. Each reference should correspond to a citation or quote in the text and each quote or citation should have a reference. There should be no missing or extra references. Journal article [order of information authors last name, first and middle initials, year, title of article, title of journal, volume number of journal, page numbers of article] Smith, A. D. (1997). A study of high school drug use. Journal of Important Research, 12, 34-42. Authored book

[order of information authors last name, first and middle initials, year, title of book, place of publication, publisher] Bandura, A. J. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Chapter from an edited book

[order of information -- chapter authors last name, first and middle initials, year, title of chapter, first and middle initials of books editor, title of book, page numbers of chapter, place of publication, publisher] If multiple chapters are cited from the same edited book then each chapter should get its own complete reference. Brown, J. J. (1984). Effects of divorce on children. In W. T. Terris (Ed.), Studies of divorce (pp. 124-150). New York: Springer.