THE WRITING CENTER—Peck 1419, Ext. 2045
APA Documentation Style from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
For Print and Online APA References
4.01-05 APA Style
In APA, the reference list includes only those sources
that can be recovered; as such, all personal communications
are cited only in the text. See beginning of Chapter 4 for
general information. [titles will be abbreviated with ellipsis]
4.07 General Forms for print sources:
For an article in a periodical (journals, magazines,
scholarly newsletters, etc.):
Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C.-R.,
Berry, A., & Harlow, T. (1993). There’s
more … low: The importance of stability of
self-esteem. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 65, 1190-1204.
For a nonperiodical (books, reports, brochures, certain
monographs, manuals, and audiovisual media) article:
Robinson, D. N. (Ed.). (1992). Social discourse
… judgment. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
For a part of a nonperiodical (book chapter):
O’Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men’s and …
transformation. In Gender issues … life cycle
(pp. 107-123). New York: Springer.
4.16 Examples of Specific APA References
The references that follow represent a variety of documents or sources writers commonly cite. For a more exhaustive list, see pages 232-281 containing 95 examples of reference forms.
For the following PRINT sources (No.s 1-63), see pp. 240-265.
6. a magazine article:
Kandel, E. R. & Squire, L. R. (2000, November 10).
Neuroscience: Breaking down scientific barriers….
Science, 290, 1113-1120.
7. a newsletter article:
Brown, L. S. (1993, Spring). Antidomination
training as a central component of ….
The Clinical Psychologist, 46, 83-87.
9. a daily newspaper article, no author:
New drug appears … heart failure. (1993, July 15).
The Washington Post, p. A12.
10. a daily newspaper article, discontinuous pages:
Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity
affects economic, social status. The
Washington Post, pp. A1, A4. [give all pp]
13. a monograph with issue no. and serial no.:
Harris, P. L. (1993). Young children’s…. Monographs
of the Society for Research in Child
Development, 58(1, Serial No. 231).
16. an abstract as an original source:
Woolf, N. J., Young, S. L., Fanselow, M. S., &
Butcher, L. L. (1991). MAP-2 …conditioning
[Abstract]. Society for Neuroscience
Abstracts, 17, 480.
If the abstract is from a secondary source, add a retrieval statement at the end beginning with Abstract obtained from followed by title of source, publication year, volume number and an identifying number if given.
22. a citation of a work in a secondary source:
If you are citing a work you did not read, indicate this in the in-text citation, i.e.,
Seidenberg and McClelland’s study (as cited in
Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993)
argues that….
Then list this secondary source in the references:
Coltheart, M., Curtis, B., Atkins, P., & Haller,
M. (1993). Models of reading aloud:
Dual-route...approaches. Psychological
Review, 100, 589-608.
23. a book, third/revised edition, Jr. in name:
Mitchell, T. R., & Larson, J. R., Jr. (1987).
People in organizations: An introduction
to organizational behavior (3rd ed.).
New York: McGraw-Hill. [if revised, use
Rev. ed.]
24. a book, group author (government agency) publisher:
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 Capital Territory: Author.
For an edited book:
Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L. N. (Eds.) Children of color: [continue with general form]
For an encyclopedia or dictionary or no author:
Sadie, S. (Ed.). (1980). The new Grove
dictionary of music and musicians (6th
ed.,Vols. 1-20). London: Macmillian. (If
no author, begin with title)
For a brochure or corporate author:
Research and Training Center on Independent
Living. (1993) Guidelines… disabilities
(4th ed.) [Brochure]. Lawrence, KS:
Author. [author is publisher]
34. Article or chapter in an edited book and two editors:
Bjork, R. A. (1989). Retrieval … memory. In
H.L. Roediger III & F.I.M. Craik (Eds.),
Varieties of memory & consciousness
(pp.309-330). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
38. an entry in an encyclopedia:
Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new
Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508).
Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.
41. a Government Printing Office (GPO) or government
institute as author:
National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical
… illness (DHHS Publication No.ADM 90-1679).
Washington, DC: U.S.Government Printing Office.
44. a report not from GPO or document deposit service:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
(1992). Pressure … prevention (AHCPR Publication
No. 92-0047). Rockville, MD: Author.
48. a report from a private organization:
Employee Benefit Research Institute. (1992, February).
Sources of …the uninsured (Issue Brief No. 123).
Washington, DC: Author.
4.07 General Forms for online sources or electronic sources:
Databases, online journals, Web sites/pages, e-mail- and Web-
based discussion groups/newsletters, and newsgroups need at the minimum a title or description, a publication or retrieval date, and
a URL address. Break the address after a slash or before a period. Bracket descriptions, i.e. [Abstract] or [Computer software], after
titles to describe nonroutine information. For the following
ONLINE sources (No.s 71-95), see pp. 268-281.
General form for an online document:
Electronic reference formats recommended by the
American Psychological Association. (2000,
October 12). Retrieved October 23, 200, from
http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html
[note the period is not used after an address]
General form for an online periodical :
Eid, M., & Langeheine, R. (1999). The measurement…
affect. Psychological Methods, 4,100-116. Re-
trieved November 19, 2000, from the PsychARTICLES
database.(when source is a database, no address is needed)
71. an Internet article based on a print source:
VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role
of reference … undergraduates [Electronic version].
Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123.
If Internet version differs from printed one, give the retrieval date and URL after the pages.
72. an article in Internet-only journal:
Fredrickson, B. L. (2000). Cultivating positive…
well-being. Prevention & Treatment, 3,
article 0001a. Retrieved November 20, 2000,
from http.//journals.apa.org/prevention etc.
75. a multipage document created by private org. , no date:
Greater Milford Area Healthy Community 2000, Task
Force on Teen and Adolescent Issues. (n.d.).
Who has time…! Retrieved October 5, 2000,
from http.//www.familymealtime.org etc.
[give URL of entry page]
76. chapter or section in an Internet document:
Benton Foundation. (1998, July 7). Barriers to
Closing the gap. In Losing ground bit by bit
(chap. 2). Retrieved from http:www.
Benton.org/Library/Low-Income/two.html
77. stand alone document, no author or date:
GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August
28, 2000, from http://www.cc.gatech.edu etc.
78. document available on university program or Web site:
Chou, L. McClintock, R., Moretti, F., & Nix, D. H.
(1993). Technology and education … futures.
Retrieved May 24, 2000, from Columbia University,
institute for Learning Technologies Web site:
http:// [with large, complex Web sites, name the host and
relevant department before URL]
80. U.S. government report from Web site and no date:
United States Sentencing Commission. (n.d.).
1997 sourcebook …statistics. Retrieved
May 8, 1999, from http://www.ussc.gov/ etc.
81. report from private organization Web site:
Canarie, Inc. (1997, September 27). Towards a …
future steps. Retrieved November 8, 2000,
from http://www.canarie.ca/press/ etc.
89. daily newspaper article, electronic version:
Hilts, P. J. (1999, February 16). In forecasting…
out. New York Times. Retrieved November 21,
2000, from http://www.nytimes.com
91. electronic version of U.S. gov’t report from GPO Access Database Web search:
U.S. General Accounting Office. (1997, February).
Telemedicine … investments (Publication No.
GAO/NSAID/HEHS-97-67). Retrieved September
15, 2000, from General Accounting Office
Reports Online via GPO Access: http.// etc.