APA Format

*NOTE: all page numbers in bold in sections I through IV of this

handout refer to the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, 5th edition, 2001*
For complete information and
more examples please consult I. Formatting the text: General instructions
the manuals from which the
information for this handout
was taken: Font (p. 285)
Publication Manual of the Select a serif typeface such as Times Roman or Courier and choose
American Psychological 12 point as your type size. A serif typeface has short horizontal lines at
Association (5th edition). the top and/or bottom of some letters. This is a serif
typeface…This is a sans serif typeface.
Hale Library Reserves – 2nd
Floor, Hale Library
BF76.7 .P83 2001 Indentation (p. 289)
Social Sciences/Humanities
Indent the first line of each paragraph and the first line of each
Ready Reference – 2nd Floor, footnote with a five-to-seven-space (or ½ inch) indent. For
Hale Library consistency use the tab key. The remaining lines should be flush with
BF76.7 .P83 2001 the left margin. The title page (p. 296), abstract (p. 298), block
Weigel Architecture Library,
quotations (p. 292), headings (p. 290), table titles and notes (p. 301),
Reference, 323 Seaton Hall figure captions (p. 302), running headers (p. 288), and reference list
BF76.7 .P83 2001 citations (p. 223) have separate rules governing indentation.
APA Style Guide to
Electronic References Justification (p. 287)
Do not justify the right margin, except in page headers.
Hale Library Reserves – 2nd
Floor, Hale Library
PN171 .F56 A63 2007 Line spacing (p. 286)
Social Sciences/Humanities Use double-spacing for all parts of the paper, including the title page
Ready Reference – 2nd Floor, and the reference list.
Hale Library
PN171 .F56 A63 2007
Margins (p. 286)
Weigel Architecture Library,
Use a margin of at least 1 inch on all four sides of each page. The top
Reference, 323 Seaton Hall
PN171 .F56 A63 2007 margin limit does not apply to the page header.

Page headers & page numbers (p. 288)

Place a header in the upper right corner of each page (except pages
comprised entirely of figures or artwork). The header should be ½
inch from the top of the page and should consist of the first two or
three words of your paper’s title either above or five spaces to the left
of the page number.

example: Counterfactual Thinking 12

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Punctuation spacing (p. 290)
Space once after:
• commas, colons, and semicolons
• punctuation marks at the ends of sentences
• periods that separate parts of a reference citation
• periods following the initials in personal names (example: J. R. Zhang)

Space once before, but not after:

• a hyphen used to indicate a negative value (example: the value was -6.34)

Space once before and once after:

• a hyphen used to indicate subtraction (example: 5 - 2)

Use no spaces before or after:

• internal periods in abbreviations (examples: a.m., i.e., U.S.).
• colons in ratios (example: 3:4)
• hyphens (example: trial-by-trial analysis)
• dashes (example: studies–published and unpublished–are. . .)

Quotations–long (p. 292)

Display quotations of 40 or more words in a double-spaced block of typewritten lines with no
quotation marks. Indent each line of the quotation five to seven spaces or ½ inch. If the
quotation is more than one paragraph, indent the first line of second and subsequent paragraphs
an additional five to seven spaces or ½ inch.

Quotations–punctuation (p. 293)

Place periods and commas within closing quotation marks. Place other punctuation marks inside
quotation marks only when they are part of the quoted material (there are two exceptions:
ellipses used to indicate that you have omitted material from a quotation, and brackets used to
indicate material that has been inserted into a quotation by someone other than the original
author).

Quotations–short (p. 292)

Quotations of fewer than 40 words should be incorporated into the text and enclosed by double
quotation marks (“ ”).

Quoted material within quotations (p. 292)

Enclose direct quotations within a block quotation in double quotation marks. Use single
quotation marks to embed a quotation within a quotation that is already enclosed by double
quotation marks.

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Title page (p. 296)
Type the title in uppercase and lowercase letters, centered between the side margins and
positioned in the upper half of the page. Double space between lines. Type the name of the
author in uppercase and lowercase letters, centered between the side margins, one double-spaced
line below the title. For names with a suffix (e.g. Jr. or II), separate the suffix from the rest of the
name with a space instead of a comma.

II. Reference Citations in the text: General instructions

Citing an entire source (p. 207)
Identify the author(s) and the year of publication. You can do this in either of two ways:

By identifying the author(s) in the narrative of your text and cite the year of publication in
parentheses.
example: Rogers (1994) compared reaction times....

Or by identifying the authors and the publication year in parentheses, separating these elements
with a comma.
example: In a recent study of reaction times (Rogers, 1994) it was found...

Citing a specific part of a source (p. 213)

To cite a quotation, chapter, appendix, figure, table, graph, or other specific part of a source in
the text of your paper, identify the author(s) and year of publication (see above). Also indicate
the specific location of the information you are citing by listing one or more of the following as
appropriate: chapter number(s), page number(s), appendix number(s), table number(s), figure
number(s), etc.... Abbreviate chapter (chap. or chaps.) and page (p. or pp.).
example: (Cheek, 1981, p. 332)
example: Several investigators, including Rogers (1994, pp. 10-12) have described...
example: Prior to this, Shimamura (1989, chap. 3) had shown...
example: (Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3)

How to indicate multiple, group, anonymous, or no authors:

Two authors (p. 208)
Identify both authors each time you cite the work in your text.
example: Nightlinger and Littlewood (1993) demonstrated conclusively that ....
example: A recent study (Nightlinger & Littlewood, 1993) showed ....

Three, four, or five authors (p.208)

Identify all authors the first time you cite the work.
example: Wasserstein, Zappulla, Rosen, Gerstman, and Rock (1994) found ...
example: A recent study (Wasserstein, Zappulla, Rosen, Gerstman & Rock, 1994)
found...

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In subsequent citations to that work, include only the first author followed by “et al.”
example: Wasserstein et al. (1994) argued that ...
example: A prior demonstration of this principle (Wasserstein et al., 1994) settled ....

Six or more authors (p. 209)

Identify only the first author followed by “et al.”

Groups (corporations, associations, agencies, etc..) as authors (p. 209)

Spell out the complete name the first time you cite the work.
example: The National Institute of Mental Health (1991) showed ...

In subsequent citations to that work you can abbreviate the name if the abbreviation is well
known.
example: The NIMH (1991) clearly ....

Anonymous author(s) (p. 211)

If a work’s author is designated as “Anonymous,” cite the work treating Anonymous as a last
name.
example: (Anonymous, 1997)

No author(s) (p. 210)

Use the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title) in place of an author. Use
double quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter, and italicize the title of a
magazine, newspaper, journal, book, brochure, or report.
example: funds will be insufficient (“Prospecting in Space,” 1992)
example: According to the book College Bound Seniors (1979) nearly ....

Citing two or more works within the same parentheses (p. 212)
Order the citations in the same order in which they appear in the reference list. Arrange two or
more works by the same author(s) by year of publication, listing the last names only once and
separating dates with a comma. List two or more works by different authors in alphabetical
order by the first author’s last name, using a semicolon to separate the citations.
example: Past research (Edeline & Weinberger, 1991, 1993; Weinberger & Edeline,
1990) has shown ...
example: Several studies (Balda, 1989; Kamil, 1988a, 1988c; Pepperberg & Funk, 1990)
demonstrated ...

III. Reference list: General instructions

Reference list page (p. 299)
• Start the reference list on a new page.
• Type the word References in uppercase and lowercase letters, centered, at the top of the
page.

• Double-space all reference entries.

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• Set the first line of each entry flush with the left margin and indent (5 or 7 spaces or ½ in.)
subsequent lines of an entry.

• In a reference to a work with no author, move the title to the author position, before the date
of publication.
• Arrange entries in alphabetical order. One-author entries precede multiple-author entries that
begin with the same last name. References with the same author(s) in the same order are
arranged by year of publication with the earliest first.
• Alphabetize works with group authors by the first significant word in the group’s name.
• Alphabetize works with no author by the first significant word in the title (for example, leave
off an initial article such as a, an, or the).

IV. Reference list: Examples for fixed-media sources (e.g.,

print, microfilm, DVD, CD-ROM)
Examples of references to journal articles
Include issue numbers if, and only if, each issue begins with page 1.
Journal article, one author (p. 240)
Berkerian, D. A. (1993). In search of the typical eye witness. American Psychologist, 48, 574–

576.

Journal article, two to six authors (p. 240)

Klimoski, R. D., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & Palmer, S. (1993). The ADA

and the hiring process in organizations. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and

Research, 45(2), 10–36.

Journal article, more than six authors (p. 240)

Wolchik, S. A., West, S. G., Sandler, I. N., Tein, J., Coatsworth, D., Lengua, L., et al. (2000). An

experimental evaluation of theory-based mother and mother–child programs for children

of divorce. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 843–856.

Example of references to magazine or newsletter articles (p. 241)

• Give the date shown on the publication—month for monthlies or month and day for
weeklies.
• Give the volume number, but not the issue number.

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Kandel, E. R., & Squire, L. R. (2000, November 10). Neuroscience: Breaking down scientific

barriers to the study of brain and mind. Science, 290, 1113–1120.

Examples of references to newspaper articles (p. 243)

• Give the date shown on the publication.
• Use p. or pp. before page numbers.
• If an article appears on discontinuous pages, give all page numbers, and separate
discontinuous pages with a comma.
Killen, A. (2000, August 6). Happiness is in again. Chicago Sun-Times, p. 9.

Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington

Post, pp. A1–A7, A9.

Examples of references to books:

• Authors of books are listed using the same rules governing the listing of authors for articles
(see above).
• When the author and publisher are identical, use the word “Author” as the name of the
publisher.
• If the book you used has multiple editions, cite the edition you used in parentheses after the
title of the book.
Book, two authors, third edition (p. 248)
Mitchell, T. R., & Larson, J. R., Jr. (1987). People in organizations: An introduction to

organizational behavior (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Book, edited (p. 249)

Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L. N. (Eds.). (1991). Children of color: Psychological interventions with

minority youth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Article or chapter in an edited book, two editors (p. 252)

Bjork, R. A. (1989). Retrieval inhibition as an adaptive mechanism in human memory. In H. L.

Roediger III & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), Varieties of memory & consciousness (pp. 309–

330). Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Book, group author, author as publisher (p. 248)
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1991). Estimated resident population by age and sex in

statistical local areas, New South Wales, June 1990 (no. 3209.1). Canberra, Australian

Capitol Territory: Author.

Encyclopedia or dictionary (p. 250)

Sadie, S. (Ed.). (1980). The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians (6th ed., Vols. 1–20).

London: Macmillan.

Entry in an Encyclopedia (p. 254)

Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501–

508). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Examples of references to reports

• If the issuing organization assigned a number to the report, give that number in parentheses
immediately after the title.
• Indicate the publisher’s name exactly as it appears on the publication.
• For reports from a document deposit service (e.g., NTIS or ERIC), enclose the document
number in parentheses at the end of the entry.
Report available from the Government Printing Office (GPO), government institute as group
author (p. 256)
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.

Report available from the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) (p. 257)
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.

ED346082).

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Examples of references to audiovisual media
Television broadcast (p. 267)
Crystal, L. (Executive Producer). (1993, October 11). The MacNeil/Lehrer news hour

[Television broadcast]. New York and Washington, DC: Public Broadcasting Service.

Video (p. 266)

Harrison, J. (Producer), & Schmiechen, R. (Director). (1992). Changing our minds: The story of

Evelyn Hooker [Motion picture]. (Available from Changing Our Minds, Inc., 170 West

End Avenue, Suite 25R, New York, NY 10023).

Music recording (p. 268)

Schocked, M. (1992). Over the waterfall. On Arkansas traveler [CD]. New York: PolyGram

Music.

Audio recording (p. 268)

Costa, P. T., Jr. (Speaker). (1988). Personality, continuity, and changes of adult life [Cassette

Recording No. 207-433-88A-B]. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

V. Citing electronic resources: General instructions and

examples
*NOTE: All page numbers in bold in this section of the handout refer to the APA Style Guide to
Electronic References, 2007*
*NOTE: This information was current as of December 31, 2007. For the most current guidelines
see http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html.*
Reference citations in the text (http://www.apastyle.org/electext.html)
In general, cite electronic resources in the text of a manuscript as though they were fixed-media
resources (see pp. 3-4 of this handout). For electronic sources that do not provide page
numbers, use the paragraph number, if provided, preceded by the ¶ symbol or the abbreviation
“para.” If neither a page number, nor a paragraph number is provided, cite the heading of the
section containing the material to which you are referring and the number of the paragraph
containing (or following) the material. If neither page numbers, nor paragraph numbers, nor
headings are provided, you can omit the location part of the citation.
example: (Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 332)
example: According to Myers (2000, ¶ 5) the most appropriate...
example: (Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para. 1)

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Reference list citations
General Rules
• Arrange all your reference list entries, whether to fixed-media sources or to electronic
sources, in one reference list using the rules for the reference list page (see section III of this
handout, pp. 4-5).
• In general, include the same elements, in the same order, as you would for a reference to a
fixed-media source (see section IV of this handout, pp. 5-8), and add as much electronic
retrieval information as needed for others to locate the sources you cited.
• The publisher’s geographical location and name are generally not necessary in references to
materials retrieved electronically. However, if the source is not a periodical (e.g., journal,
magazine, newspaper) and the publisher’s identity is not clear from the author name, URL,
database name, or other reference information, include it as part of the retrieval statement.
example: … Retrieved from American Psychological Association Office of Minority
Affairs Web site: http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/racebib/racebib.html
Retrieval Statements
• At the end of each reference list entry for an electronic source provide sufficient
information for others to retrieve the source.
• For undated or otherwise changeable content retrieved from the open Web, as well as in-
preparation, in-press, or preprint journal articles, begin the retrieval statement with the
retrieval date. For content that is not likely to be changed or updated (e.g., dissertation,
thesis, book, final or archival version of an article), no retrieval date is necessary.
• If a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is available, include it in the retrieval statement
instead of a URL or a database name. Otherwise provide either a Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) or the name of a database.

If you do include the database name in a reference, do not include the database
URL.

If you provide a URL, use the home or menu page URL for: (1) reference works;
(2) works whose full text is accessible by subscription only; and (3) material
presented in frames.

When typing a URL: (1) do not add a period after the URL; (2) if you need to
break the URL across lines, do not insert a hyphen; instead use a hard return
before a punctuation mark (except the http:// portion).
• If you provide a URL that leads to information on how to obtain the cited material, rather
than to the material itself, use “Available from” in the retrieval statement instead of
“Retrieved from.”
Examples

Journal articles
For journal articles, always include the journal issue number (if available) along with the volume
number, regardless of whether the journal is paginated separately by issue or continuously by
volume (p. 2).

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Article with DOI assigned (p. 7)
Rehmeier, R. L., Kaufman, G. A., & Kaufman, D. W. (2006). An automatic activity-monitoring

system for small mammals under natural conditions. Journal of Mammalogy, 87(3), 628-

634. doi:10.1644/05-MAMM-A-220R2.1

Article with no DOI assigned (p. 7)

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://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap/article/view/71/100
Electronic books
Entire book (p. 10)
Dujac, P. (1997). Ananda. Available from http://www.onlineoriginals.com/showitem.asp
?itemID=268
Book chapter (p. 10)
Mitchell, H. W. (1913). Alcoholism and the alcoholic psychoses. In W. A. White & S. E. Jelliffe
(Eds.), The modern treatment of nervous and mental diseases (Vol. 1, pp. 287-330).
Retrieved from PsycBOOKS database.
Other sources

Annual report (p. 18)

Pearson PLC. (2005). Reading allowed: Annual review and summary financial statements 2004.

Retrieved from http://www.pearson.com/investor/ar2004/pdfs/summary_report_2004.pdf

Dissertation retrieved from database (p. 10)

Franssen, R. A. (2007). Chondrogenesis, apoptosis, and gene expression in urodele limbs.
Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: Full Text. (AAT 3252231)
Lecture notes (p. 14)
Brieger, B. (2005). Lecture 6: Selecting appropriate training methods [PowerPoint slides].
Retrieved from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health OpenCourseWare
Web site: http://ocw.jhsph.edu/courses/TrainingMethodsContinuingEducation
/lectureNotes.cfm

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Newspaper article (p. 22)
Perlez, J. (2007, December 31). New questions arise in killing of ex-premier. The New York
Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
Online encyclopedia (p. 15)
Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy.
Retrieved December 31, 2007, from http://plato.stanford.edu
Podcast, audio (p. 22)
Van Nuys, D. (Producer). (2006, October 13). Understanding autism [Show 54]. Shrink Rap
Radio. Podcast retrieved from http://www.shrinkrapradio.com
Presentation slides (p. 20)
Columbia University, Teachers College, Institute for Learning Technologies. (2000). Smart
cities: New York: Electronic education for the new millennium [PowerPoint slides].
Retrieved from http:/www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/index.html
Technical or research report (p. 20)
Kutner, M., Greenberg, E., Jin, Y., & Paulsen, C. (2006). The health literacy of America’s
adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (Report No. NCES
2006-483). Retrieved from the National Center for Education Statistics: http://nces.ed
.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf
Weblog post (p. 24)
Kearns, S. K. (2007, December 31). K-State Libraries: A lot can happen in a year. Message
posted to http://ksulib.typepad.com/talking/
Websites (see http://www.apastyle.org /faqs.html#3)
To cite an entire web site (but not a specific document on that site) it is sufficient to give the
address of the site in just the text: no reference list entry is needed.
Wiki (p. 16)
Leet. (n.d.). Retrieved December 31, 2007, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

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