Citation Guide : APA

Some basic rules for APA References lists are:

• All citations should be double spaced
  
• Indent after the first line of each entry
  
• Entries are not numbered
  
• If an element is not present, omit it
  
• Alphabetize by the first word of the entry
  
• If no author is listed, begin with title
  
• Enter author's last name followed by first and middle initials
  
• List up to six (6) authors; seven (7) or more authors, use only the first six and then et al.
  
• Italics must be used for book and periodical titles
  
• Capitalize ONLY the first word of a title, the first word of a subtitle, and proper nouns in titles of books and articles, no matter how they appear in a database or catalog
  
• List the city of publication, and only include the state or country as needed for clarity. Use two-letter abbreviations for states when needed. Example: Lexington, KY (because there are cities names Lexington in many states)
  
• Use the abbreviations p. or pp. only for multi-page newspaper articles, encyclopedia entries, and chapters or articles in edited books
  
• Do not use the abbreviation p. or pp. (or any other abbreviation) for magazine and journal articles
  
• Use p. for one page articles, pp. for multiple page articles
  
• Dates are in Year, Month Day format (e.g. 1999, December 20)
• Date is in parenthesis after the author's name (or title if no author is listed)
• Use (n.d.) if no date is given
  
• When including the name of the database where you located the full-text, do not just write EBSCOhost. EBSCOhost is NOT a database. Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, etc., are databases
  
• For items found in full text online, access information in APA requires one of the following (in order of preference):
  1. Use DOI if available (no period at end of citation)
  2. If no DOI, and from database, use database name (with period) (example: Academic Search Premier database.) (period at end of citation)
  3. If no DOI and from open web site - not from a database, use access date and complete URL (no period at end of citation)
  

If the information derived from more than one page in the work, page numbers in APA citations are written out in their entirety.

Examples: 3-4; 5-15; 23-29; 431-439; 497-503, 1129-1143.

There are 14 basic formats:

1. Author named within the paper

If you list the name of the author, the parenthetical citation need only contain the page number, because the year of publication follows the author’s name.

Example: Thomas Friedman (1999) wrote, "No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" (p. 195).

2. Author NOT named within the paper

If the author is not named, include his/her last name in the parenthetical citation with the year of publication and page number.

Example: "No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" (Friedman, 1999, p. 195).

3. No author listed or unknown author

If the article has no author listed, refer to the first portion of the title as in this example for an article called "A Critique of 'Lexus and Olive' View of Globalization.” What’s not there cannot be created.

Example: "Friedman, in his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, has mentioned that globalization is inevitable and irreversible, the forward march of technology makes it so. Governments can no longer control the free flow of information. The cell phone and satellite television have reached even the remotest Indonesian village" ("A Critique," 2001, p. A4).

4. Work has two authors

If a work has two authors, link their names with an ampersand ( & ) or use the names in a signal phrase.

Examples: "The network form is on the rise in a big way, and because of this, societies are entering a new epoch" (Arquilla & Ronfelt, 1996, p. 43).

Arquilla and Ronfelt (1996) report that “the network form is on the rise in a big way, and because of this, societies are entering a new epoch” (p. 43).

5. Work has three to five authors

If a work has three to five authors, format their names, publication date, and the page reference as follows or use the names in a signal phrase followed by the publication date. Identify all the authors in the first in-text reference. Thereafter use only the first author’s last name and the phrase et al.

Examples:

First citation: "Globalization is an inevitable process. The world is becoming more homogenous, and distinctions between national markets are not only fading but, for some products, will disappear altogether" (Czinkota, Ronkainen, & Tarrant, 1995, p. 3).

First citation with signal phrase: According to Czinkota, Ronkainen, and Tarrant (1995), "Globalization is an inevitable process. The world is becoming more homogenous, and distinctions between national markets are not only fading but, for some products, will disappear altogether" (p. 3).

Subsequent citation: "Globalization is an inevitable process. The world is becoming more homogenous, and distinctions between national markets are not only fading but, for some products, will disappear altogether" (Czinkota et al. 1995, p. 3).

Subsequent citation with signal phrase: According to Czinkota et al. (1995)"Globalization is an inevitable process. The world is becoming more homogenous, and distinctions between national markets are not only fading but, for some products, will disappear altogether" (p. 3).

6. Work has six or more authors

Use only the first author and “et al.” (an abbreviation for et alii, which in Latin means “and others”). Notice there is no punctuation between the author and et al.

Examples: "Individual preventative stress management provides an effective complement for dealing with organizational stress" (Quick et al., 1997, p. 159).

Quick et al. (1997) contend that "individual preventative stress management provides an effective complement for dealing with organizational stress" (p. 159).

7. Author has more than one work from the same year in References

Differentiate between works by the same author published in the same year with the lowercase letters a, b, c, etc., corresponding to the order of the items in the References list.

Example: In his groundbreaking book, Friedman (1995b) challenged all our assumptions about not only the past, but the future as well.

8. References list has more than one author with the same last name

If your bibliography includes two authors with the same last name, Milton Friedman and Thomas Friedman, for example, include the author's first initial in the parenthetical citation or the signal phrase.

Examples: "No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" (T. Friedman, 1997, p. 195).

T. Friedman (1997) asserts that “no two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" (p. 195).

9. Work has no page numbers (web site, etc.)

If no page numbers are available for a document, APA requires the

use of section headings or numbered paragraphs if available. If page numbers, section headings, or numbered paragraphs are not available, omit that portion of the citation. What’s not there cannot be created. Remember to look for a PDF of the article which will contain page numbers. Also, when paraphrasing unpaginated material, if you include the author’s name in the signal phrase there will be no ending citation which can be confusing for your reader. Be sure to clarify where the material ends. In these examples, Brand is the author of the web site.

Examples: "Friedman realized early that to write intelligently about world economics he needed to make himself an expert in six tightly integrated domains that are usually reported separately: financial markets, politics, culture, national security, technology, and the environment" (Brand, 2002, Introduction section).

"Friedman realized early that to write intelligently about world economics he needed to make himself an expert in six tightly integrated domains that are usually reported separately: financial markets, politics, culture, national security, technology, and the environment" (Brand, 2002, para. 7).

10. Information is in two or more works

List both works in the parenthetical citation exactly as they would be listed individually, but separate them with a semicolon. List the sources in the same order they will appear in the Works Cited list (alphabetical by first entry).

Example: Pundits agree that globalization will impact the future of all businesses as national borders are breached, trade barriers are broken down, and both eventually disappear (Friedman, 1997, p. 42; Ronkainen, Czinkota, & Tarrant, 1995, p. 1).

11. Indirect source (a source quoted in another source)

If you use an indirect quotation (information found in a source that was quoting another source, also known as a secondary source) use the following method of in-text citation with the phrase "as cited in" to denote the fact that you are using a secondary source. This statement, from Glenn Prickett, is quoted on page 30 of Friedman’s book. Only Friedman is listed in the References list, not Prickett.

Example: An environmental group's president, Glenn Prickett, made the following observation about arriving by plane in a remote Amazon village: "Touching down on the grass landing strip we were met by the entire village in traditional dress -- and undress -- and painted faces, with a smattering of American baseball caps bearing random logos" (as cited in Friedman, 1997, p. 30).

12. Source of information is a personal communication (interview, email, etc.)

Interviews, email, telephone calls, etc., are not included in a References list, and all relevant information (name of individual, personal communication, and the date) is contained within the in-text citation.

Example: “Thomas Friedman’s new book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, describes the convergence of technology and events by listing ten items that have reshaped the world” (D. Biniaz, personal communication, November 15, 2005).

13. Unknown date

The emphasis on publication dates in APA citations is not accidental. Disciplines that use this style tend to put great emphasis on the currency of research. It is recommended that student researchers not use sources that do not have dates of publication. However, if you are forced to do so, use the abbreviation n.d. (no date). Often these sources are web sites and do not have page numbers either.

Example: “That no alternative is apparent to Friedman and his ‘intellectual sources’ should not be taken to mean that there are none worthy of discussion” (Rupert, n.d.).

Rupert (n.d.) wrote “that no alternative is apparent to Friedman and his ‘intellectual sources’ should not be taken to mean that there are none worthy of discussion.”

14. Organizational author

If the author of the work is an organization, government agency, or corporation, list the name of the author in either the signal tag or the parenthetical ciation. Since the name of the author cannot be shortened like a title can be, if the name is lengthy (United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example), place the name in the signal phrase instead of the parenthetical citation.

Examples: According to United States Army (2003), "globalization, the Lexus, is the central organizing principle of the post–Cold War world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding on to what has traditionally mattered to them—the olive tree" (p. 4).

"Globalization, the Lexus, is the central organizing principle of the post–Cold War world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding on to what has traditionally mattered to them—the olive tree" (United States Army, 2003, p. 4).