Reference List: (Section 6.22, p.180) the reference list at the end of an article provides the information necessary to identify and retrieve each source.
- Include only the sources you used in the research and preparation of the article.
- Journals and scholarly works requiring APA generally require reference lists, not bibliographies.
- Reference lists should start on a separate page, be double spaced, alphabetized and all entries have a hanging indent.
- The word 'References' should appear in uppercase and lowercase letters, centered at the top of a new page.
Double-space all reference entries and be sure to use hanging indent format (the first line of each reference is flush left while subsequent lines are indented).
Reference Components
Authors: Invert all author's names and give the surname and initials for up to and including seven authors per reference. When the authors number more than eight, give the first six author's names then insert three ellipses (. . .) and add the last author's name. Use commas to separate authors, to separarte surnames and initials and to separate initials and suffixes. With two to seven authors, use an ampersand (&) before the last author. In a reference to a work with no author, move the title to the author position before the date of publication. A period follows the title.
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.
Author1, A. A., Author2, B. B., Author3, C. C., Author4, D., Author5, E. E., & Author6, F. F., . . . LastAuthor, M. M.
Editors: In a reference to an edited book, place the editor's names in the author position, and enclose the abbreviation Ed. or Eds. in parentheses after the last editor's name. Follow the abbreviation with a period inside the parenthesis. Example (Eds.)
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Eds.)
In a reference to a chapter in an edited book, invert the chapter author's name as usual, but do not invert the editor's name.
Author, A. A. (2008). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp.xx-xx). Location: Publisher.
Publication date:
Give in parentheses the year the work was published. For magazines, newsletters and newspapers give the year and the exact date of the publication, separated by a comma and enclosed in parenthesis. Write in press in parenthesis for articles that have been accepted for publication but not yet published. If no date is available write n.d. in parenthesis. Finish the publication date with a period after the closing parenthesis.
Author, A. A. (2008). Title of book.
Author, A. A. (2008, May). Title of newsletter.
Author, A. A. (n.d.). Title of book with no date.
Author, A. A. (in press). Title of unpublished accepted article.
Titles:
Of article or chapter titles capitalize only the first word of the title and the subtitle along with any proper nouns. Finish the line with a period.
DO NOT ITALICIZE THE TITLE or place quotation marks around it.
Mental illness as a symptom of disease: A genetic prospective.
For periodical titles (journals, newspapers magazines) give the periodical title in full, in upper and lowercase letters. ITALICIZE the name of the periodical.
Mental Health Weekly.
Non periodical title: Books and reports. Capitalize only the first word of the title, subtitle and any proper nouns. ITALICIZE the title. Enclose additional information given on the publication for its identification in parenthesis immediately after the title. Do not italicize the additional information. Place a period after all the information (not between the title and additional information).
Department of entry-level test to select FBI agents (Publication No. FR-PRD-94-06).
Non routine information in titles: if non routine information is important for identification provide it in brackets immediately after the title and any parenthetical information. Capitalize the first letter of the notation. Brackets indicate a description of form, not the title. End with a period. See page 186 for a comprehensive list.
[Letter to the editor]
[Special issue]
Example: Department of entry-level test to select FBI agents (Publication No. FR-PRD-94-06)[Data file].
Publication Information:
Periodical: Give the volume number after the periodical title; italicize it. Include the journal issue number if the journal is paginated separately by issue. Give the issue number in parentheses immediately after the volume number; do not italicize it. Give inclusive page number on which the cited material appears. (Use pp. before the page number in reference to newspapers.) Finish with a period.
Mental Health Weekly, 84(4), 509-510.
Non periodical: Books and reports: Give the location where the publisher is located, insert a colon, then give the name of the publisher in as brief a form as is intelligible. Finish with a period.
Newbury Park, CA: McGraw-Hill.
Electronic Sources and Locator Information:
In the Internet age it is not always clear how to distinguish the advanced online version of an article from the final published version or a corrected update. It is also possible to access online supplemental material with extended discussions and explanations than contained in the published version.
In general you should include the same elements, in the same order, as you would for a reference to a fixed-media source and add as much electronic retrieval information as needed for others to locate the sources you cited. The two main pieces of electronic information used for retrieval are Uniform Resource Locators (URL) and Digital Object Identifiers (DOI).
URL is an address used to map digital information on the Internet. URL's contain information about the protocol, host server name, path to the document and the name of the specific document. All content on the Internet is prone to be moved, restructured or deleted resulting in broken URL links in the reference page. Do not hyphenate a URL if you need to break it over two lines in the reference list, simply break the URL before most punctuation. DO NOT add a period after a URL to prevent the impression that the period is included in the link.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/workplace.html
DOI is a system that provides a means of persistent identification for managing information on digital networks. Each article is assigned a unique identifier that function as a retrieval number from a clearinghouse repository no matter where the original article or content resides. All DOI numbers begin with a 10 and contain a prefix and suffix separated by a slash. The DOI is typically located on the top of the first page of the electronic journal article, near the copyright notice. Provide the DOI, if one has been assigned to the content, exactly as published in the article. Use the format doi:xxxx/xxxx.xx.xx
DOI: 10.3037/0278-7393.34.3.349
Citation using URL and DOI: When the DOI is used, no further retrieval information is needed to identify or locate the content.
If no DOI has been assigned to the content, provide the home page URL of the journal, book or report publisher.
Citing Retrieval Information:
- Add retrieval information after all other standard citation elements.Do not end with a period.
- For a URL only include the journal's homepage, not the direct link to the article.
- No not include database information (Ovid, EBSCO, ProQuest...) as journal coverage in databases change over time.
Do not include retrieval dates unless the source material is likely to change over time (blogs and Wikis).
Examples:
Author, A.A. (2011). Title of article. The American Journal, 2(4), 122-125. doi:10.1047/23423-002.9341
Author, A.A. (2011). Title of article. The American Journal, 2(4), 122-125. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/
https://youtu.be/snxxyXo4Hig
Click 'NEXT' on the top or bottom of the page to continue.
