APA Style Guide

APA (American Psychological Association) Style is a system of documentation that is used for both scholarly manuscripts and research papers. The style sheet (as it is often called) will provide you with specific instructions on all matters of documenting information retrieved from books, magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, and electronic resources. This information will appear in your worked cited page at the end of your paper. You must follow specific instructions when citing information from a book, a periodical (meaning a magazine, newspaper, or academic journal), a Web site, or an online database. Below are some examples.

EXAMPLES OF CITATIONS FROM BOOKS AND PERIODICALS

Books

by one author, translation: Freud, S. (1952). On dreams (J. Strachey, Trans.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. (Original work published in 1901)

In-text citation: (Freud, 1901/1952)

by more than one author: Frieberg, H. J., & Rogers, C. (1994). Freedom to learn (3rd ed.). New York: Merrill. I

n-text citation: (Rogers & Frieberg, 1994)

Article from magazine

Kanchier, C. (2000, March/April). Dare to change. Psychology Today, 33, 64-67.

In-text citation: (Kanchier, 2000)

Article from an academic journal

Duncan, R.D., Kennedy, W.A.,& Smith, D.A. (2000). Comparison of conduct-disordered behavior in crack-dealing versus non-dealing juvenile offenders.Psychological Reports,86, 1089-1096.

First in-text citation: (Duncan, Kennedy, & Smith, 2000)

Subsequent in-text citations: (Duncan et al., 2000)

DOCUMENTING INFORMATION FOUND ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

For a specific page or document in a Web site you need to note the date of creation of the document and page address from which it was retrieved:

Bishop, M., Cameron, C.L., Collins, C.A., Danoff-Burg, S., Kirk, S.B., Stanton, A.L., Sharon, C.L. & Sworowski, L.A. (2000). Emotionally-expressive coping predicts psychological and physical adjustment to Breast Cancer. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 875-882. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/journals/ccp685875.html

In-text citation: (Bishop et al., 2000)

DOCUMENTING INFORMATION FOUND IN THE LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES

An example of an online, subscription database is ProQuest, which contains citations, abstracts, and in many cases full-text articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals. Although the information originally appeared in a paper publication, you need to note that you retrieved it from the database:

Journal article with DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

Weaver, M. (2013). Student journey work: A review of library contributions to student transition and success. New Journal of Academic Librarianship, 19(2), 101-124. doi:10.1080/13614533.2013.800754

In-text citation: (Weaver, 2013).

Note: Articles retrieved from databases may not have a DOI. When a DOI is not available, include the URL of the journal homepage. Do not include database information or the date of retrieval.

FINDING MORE INFORMATION ABOUT APA STYLE

TLC/College of the Canyons resources

APA Citation Style. Provides reference page examples and an overview of the basics of APA formatting.

Print resources

Since there will be many instances where the above examples do not apply, you are encouraged to ask for assistance from a Librarian or request to see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. There are multiple copies at the library, including one at Canyon Country. The call number is BF 76.7.P83 2010.

Internet resources

APA style. From the official Web site of the American Psychological Association, this Web page contains some examples electronic resource citations.

U-W Madison Writing Center Writers Handbook. Drawing their information from the fifth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, the U-W Madison Writing Center has created a clear, well-balanced view of APA style including examples of in-text and works-cited citations from both print and electronic sources.

OWL at Purdue University: APA Formatting and Style Guide. Extremely useful guide created by the Purdue University Writing Lab. Contains links to sample papers and additional learning guides.