APA Documentation Style is a method for listing the sources you use ...

APA DOCUMENTATION STYLE
APA Documentation Style is a method for listing the sources you use so that your readers can
identify and find those sources. It is commonly used in the social sciences, for example, business,
history, psychology and sociology. The examples below can be templates for your own citations.
CITING SOURCES IN THE BODY OF YOUR PAPER
Cite entire works within your paper with parenthetical author-date references (Foster, 2003), but if
you are using direct quotations with quotation marks then use author-date-page number references
(Foster, 2003, p. 311). These citations will correspond to sources listed alphabetically by author at
the end of your paper in a References section. Sources without an author are listed by their title.
CITING BOOKS
Author, A. A. (Date of Publication). Title of book. Location: Publisher. [pages 248-255*]
Odom, W. (2004). CCNA INTRO exam certification guide. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press.
CITING ARTICLES FROM PRINT JOURNALS
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of Publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume, page
numbers. [pages 239-247*]
White, S., & Winzelberg, A. (1992). Laughter and stress. Humor, 5, 343-55.
CITING ARTICLES FROM PRINT NEWSPAPERS
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, p. xxx. [page 243*]
Clancy, H. (2005, February 10). Cellphones get a new job description: Portable scanner. New York
Times, p. G8.
CITING ARTICLES FROM ELECTRONIC DATABASES
Author, A. A. (Year of Publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume, page numbers.
Retrieved date-retrieved from name-of-database database. [page 279*]
• IEEE Xplore
Rose, G., & Koien, G. M. (2004). Access security in CDMA2000, including a comparison with
UMTS access security. IEEE Wireless Communications, 11, 19-25. Retrieved February 27,
2007, from IEEE Xplore database.
• ProQuest
Wieland, K. (2004, December). Mobile lessons. Telecommunications International, 38(12), 20-22.
Retrieved February 27, 2007, from ProQuest Direct database.
• ScienceDirect
Eisner, J., Stroup, C., & Zolnierek, J. (2004). Telephone number distribution: A snapshot at the
beginning of 2000. Telecommunications Policy, 28, 771-783. Retrieved February 27, 2007,
from ScienceDirect database.
* Source: 5th Edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001).
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APA DOCUMENTATION STYLE
CITING WEB SITES
Rules:
1. For works with no author, move the title to the author position (before the date of publication).
2. Capitalize only the first word of the title and of the subtitle, if any, and any proper nouns. Do not
place quotation marks around the title. Put the title in italics.
3. Use (n.d.). when a source does not have a date.
4. Provide the document's Internet address at the end of the retrieval statement. Direct readers as
closely as possible to the information being cited. Whenever possible reference specific documents
rather than home or menu pages. Provide address that work.
5. When an Internet document comprises multiple pages, i.e., different sections have different
URLs, provide a URL that links to its home page.
6. Do not insert a hyphen if you need to break a URL across lines. Instead, break the URL after a
slash or before a period. Finish the citation with a period unless it ends with an Internet address.
7. At a minimum, a reference to an Internet source should provide a document title or description, a
date -- either the date of publication or update or the date of retrieval -- and web site address.
Whenever possible identify the authors of a document as well.
• Example A: The Generic Entry [page 231*]
Electronic reference formats recommended by the American Psychological Association. (2000,
October 12). Retrieved February 27, 2007, from http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html
• Example B: Internet Article Based On A Print Source [page 271*]
VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements in the selection of
resources by psychology undergraduates [Electronic version]. Journal of Bibliographic
Research, 5, 117-123.
• Example C: Multipage Document Created By A Private Organization, No Date [page 273*]
Greater New Milford (Ct) Area Healthy Community 2000, Task Force on Teen and Adolescent
Issues. (n.d.). Who has time for a family meal? You do! Retrieved February 27, 2007, from
http://www.familymealtime.org
• Example D: Stand-alone Document, No Author Identified, No Date [page 274*]
GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2007, from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/
gvu/user_surveys/survey-1997-10/
• Example E: Report From A Private Organization, Available On Its Web Site [page 275*]
Canarie, Inc. (1997, September 27). Towards a Canadian health IWAY: Vision, opportunities and
future steps. Retrieved February 27, 2007, from http://www.canarie.ca/press/publications/
pdf/health/healthvision.doc
* Information on citing web sites is taken from pages 268-281 of the Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association.
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