CITATION& REFERENCES

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 APA STYLE
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

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 Example of citation for book
Year of
Author Edition Title
Publication

Rumsey, Sally. (Eds.). (2008). How to find

information: a guide for researchers.
England: Open University Press.

Place of
Publication Publisher
CITATION

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The APA style includes three kinds of information in in-text citations.

• The author's last name*

• The work's date of publication*
• The page number, appears only in a citation to a direct
quotation.

(*these items must match exactly the corresponding entry)

American Psychological Association

AUTHORS (AND EDITORS)

• Take names from the first page of an article or from the title
page of a book.
• Authors’ or creditors names are listed in the order in which
they appear (not alphabetical order), and initials are used
instead of first or middle names.
• Authors are listed with the last name first, followed by a
comma and the initials of the authors.
• The names of group, institutional, or organizational authors
are spelled out completely.
American Psychological Association

PUBLICATION DATES

• For journals and books, include the publication year in

parentheses.
• For sources that use specific dates, such as popular magazines,
newspapers, television broadcasts, or websites, include the year
and the month or the year, month, and day in parentheses.
• If the source has no author, the entry begins with the title,
followed by the date.
American Psychological Association

TITLES

• List titles completely, taking information from the first page of

an article or from the title page of a book.
• Include both titles and subtitles, no matter how long they are.
American Psychological Association

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Include any of the following information in the order

presented here if it is listed on the first page of the article, essay,
chapter or other subsection, or the page of the book:

 Translator
 Edition number
 Volume number
 Issue number (if journal is paginated separately by issue)
 Inclusive pages
American Psychological Association

FACTS OF PUBLICATION

• For periodicals, take the volume number, issue number (if

needed), and date from the first few pages in journals and
magazines.
• For books, use the first city listed on the title page and provide
a two-letter abbreviation for the state or the full name of the
foreign country.
• Take the publisher full name of the foreign country. Take the
publisher’s name from the title page, presenting in it
abbreviated form.
• Use the recent date of from the copyright page.
American Psychological Association

RETRIEVAL INFORMATION

• For electronic sources, provide a retrieval statement to direct

readers to the electronic copy.
American Psychological Association
• APA style is primarily used in the social sciences, so
if you're taking a psychology or sociology course,
When should I chances are you'll be expected to write papers in APA
use it? style.
• Your instructor will let you know whether you need
to use APA style for your papers.

• In any paper that refers to other sources, you MUST

What do I really cite these sources properly.
need to know? • Failure to do so could result in charges of plagiarism
by your instructor.

• Determine what types of sources you have (journal

articles, books, or interviews, etc.). Then use these pages to
learn how to cite them within the body of your paper using
APA parenthetical citations and also how to create an APA
How should I best reference list.
use this resource? •Once you've cited everything properly, refer to the APA
Headings and APA Formatting pages to find out how to make
your paper visually conform to APA guidelines.
•When in doubt whether to use a particular aspect of APA
style, always ask your lecturer to clarify.
 Parenthetical Citations
American Psychological Association :

There are three options for placing citations:

Option Description Sample Citation
1. Idea- Place the author(s) and Researchers have pointed out that
focused date(s) in parentheses the lack of trained staff is a
at an appropriate place common barrier to providing
in or at the end of a adequate health education (Fisher,
sentence 1999) and services (Weist &
Christodulu, 2000).
2. Researcher- Place only the date in Fisher (1999) recommended that
focused parentheses health education be required for
high school graduation in
California.
3. Chronology- Integrate both the In 2001, Weist proposed using the
focused author and date into Child and Adolescent Planning
your sentence Schema to analyze and develop
community mental health
programs for young people.
 Parenthetical Citations
American Psychological Association : First and subsequent
citations
• Within a paragraph, omit
the year in citations after
the first one if no confusion
with other studies will
result
• Fisher (1999)
administered a
questionnaire … Fisher's
results indicated…
• [new paragraph] The
questionnaire administered
by Fisher (1999) was used
by…
A source with 3 - 5
authors
• In all citations after the
first, use the first author’s
name followed by et al.
• First citation : (Baldwin,
Bevan & Beshalke, 2000)
• Subsequent citation :
(Baldwin et al., 2000)
A source with 1 or 2
authors
• Cite name(s) in first and all
subsequent citations
• (Adkins & Singh, 2001)
• Adkins and Singh (2001)
A source with 6 or more
authors
• Use the first author’s name
followed by et al. in all
citations
• 6 authors: (Utley et al.,
2001)
• 7 authors : (Yawn et al.,
2001)
• [Note: In the reference list,
use of et al. Begins with 7
author-author references.]
Authors with the same
surname
• Use initials even if the years
are different
• D. Baldwin (2001) and M. L.
Baldwin (1999)
Sources with 2 or more 6-
author groups with same
first surname
• If 2 or more 6-author
groups shorten to the same
surname, cite the surnames
of as many subsequent
authors as needed to
distinguish refereences
• (Baldwin, Utley et al., 2001)
• (Balwin, Bevan et al., 2000)
 Parenthetical Citations
American Psychological Association :
A source with no author

• Use the first few words of the title – in quotation marks for
article or chapter, in italics for self-contained item
• (“Mad Cow,” 2001)
• (Sleep Medicine, 2001)

An editor’s work with no author

• Use editor(s) names in the author position

• See guidelines for citing authored work
 Parenthetical Citations
American Psychological Association :

When you have have: What you do: Sample Citation

1. Two or more Arrange by order of Several researchers (Greenberg,

works in the reference list; use Domitrovich, & Bumbarger, 2000;
parentheses a semicolon (;) Roy, 1995; Yawn et al., 2000)
between works

2. Representative Use e.g. (for Sample The need for more effective
works Citation) before prevention of mental illness in
parenthetical children has been the focus of
citations many reports (e.g. National
Institute of Mental Health, 1998;
U.S. Public Health Service, 2000;
Weist, 2001).

3. Major work plus Use see also after (Roy, 1995; see also Embar-
others major work Seddon, 2000; Greenberg, 2001)
 Parenthetical Citations
American Psychological Association :

When you have have: What you do: Sample Citation

1. Entire Web Site Don’t put on The APA’s site is an excellent

reference list. Include source of information on writing
URL in-text instead (http://).

2. Direct quotation Use paragraph Universal interventions “target

from electronic numbers (preceded the general public or a whole
without page by para.) ; add population group that has not
numbers section numbers for been identified on the basis of
long documents individual risk” (Greenberg et al.,
2000, Section I, para. 20).
REFERENCING

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 Format for the Reference List
American Psychological Association :

TITLE
Type the word “References” at the top of a new page, centered.
Title
 Format for the Reference List
American Psychological Association :

SPACING
All entries should be double-spaced, unless your assignment/
lecturer instructs you otherwise.

Double spacing
 Format for the Reference List
American Psychological Association :

INDENTATION
The standard for indentation is as follow:
• First line flush left
• Following lines five spaces indent
• For references used only single spacing
Indentation

1st line
Following lines
, 5 spaces
 Format for the Reference List
American Psychological Association :

CAPITALIZATION
Capitalize only the first word of titles of books and articles and
the first word after a colon (:), question mark (?) or Exclamation
mark (!). Capitalization Capitalization

1st word of the title 1st word after colon

Abualuda, A. (2003). Quality management practices and

perceived organizational performance : An exploratory
study of Malaysian hospitality industry in Klang Valley
(Master’s thesis). Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Kelana
Jaya.
 Format for the Reference List
American Psychological Association :
PUNCTUATION
Use a comma (.) to separate
• surname from initials
• a newspapers title from p. or pp.
• a journal title from volume number
• a volume number from page numbers
• when given, an issue number from page numbers
• (Ed.) from book title (editor)
• city of publication from state

Abualuda, A. (2003). Quality management practices and

perceivedorganizational performance : An exploratory study of
Malaysian hospitality industry in Klang Valley (Master’s thesis).
Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Kelana Jaya.
Shetty, Y.K. and Ross, J.E. (1987). Quality and its management in service
business. In Sepehri, Mehran (Eds.), Quest for quality (pp. 187-192).
Norcross, G.A. : Industrial Institute of Engineering.

After a comma, must followed by a space tab.

QUOTING

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American Psychological Association

IN-TEXT QUOTATIONS
When using APA format, follow the author-date method of
citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of
publication for the source should appear in the text, and a
complete reference should appear in the reference list.

• Examples:
Smith (1970) compared reaction times . . .
In a recent study of reaction times (Smith, 1970), . . .
In 1970, Smith compared reaction times . .
American Psychological Association

SHORT/ BRIEF 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 reference in the reference list.
• When paraphrasing, the citation (author and page number) must still
be included. Paraphrasing is preferred over direct quoting.
• Examples:
She stated, "The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors
were studied in this manner" (Miele, 1993, p. 276), but she
did not clarify which behaviors were studied.
According to Miele (1993), "The placebo effect disappeared
when behaviors were studied in this manner" (p. 276).
Miele (1993) found that "the placebo effect disappeared" in
this case (p. 276), but what will the next step in researching
this issue be?
American Psychological Association

LONG QUOTATIONS
• Quotations longer than 40 words in a freestanding block of typewritten
lines, and omit quotation marks.
• Start the quotation on a new line, indented five spaces from the left
margin.
• Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of
any subsequent paragraph within the quotation five spaces from the new
margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout.
• The parenthetical citation should come after closing punctuation mark.
• Example:
Miele's 1993 study 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 at the hospital were clearly premature in attributing the
results to a placebo effect. (p. 276)