The following guidelines and examples are from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition, published by the American Psychological Association (APA). This manual is commonly used in courses in the social and natural sciences here at TAMU-CC. You should always ask your instructor or professor which citation style you should use.

How should you document sources following the APA guidelines?

The APA guidelines specify two types of citations-one goes in the text of your paper, and the other at the end, on a References page.

Examples of in-text citations

Examples of common source citations

Reference citations in the text of a paper

In a recent study of student performance (Jones, 1998), ...

In this example the writer informs us that the study she will describe was publicshed by Jones in 1998. Note that the entire citation in this example--both the authors' names and the year of publication of the article cited--is in parentheses. Depending on how a sentence is constructed, all or part of the citation may be placed in parentheses. For example, the sentence above could also be phrased this way:

Jones (1998) compared student performance...

In this example only the article's year of publication is inside the parentheses; the author's name is included as part of the main sentence.

For articles with one or two authors, use either of these methods of citing the source. For articles with three or more authors, you should list all the authors in the first citation; in subsequent citations, however, you usually need to cite only the first author, followed by the abbreviation "et al." The following examples illustrate this point:

In a famous case study of amnesia, Milner, Corkin, & Teuber (1968) describe ...

(first citation of this article)

The results of this study agree with those of Milner et al. (1968) ...

(subsequent citation of the article)

At the end of your paper, you should give your reader the full citation for every source you have referred to in the body of your paper. These citations, which should include everything a reader would need to look up your source, go on a "References" page that immediately follows the text of your paper.

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Citations of the most commonly used types of sources

BOOKS AND BOOK CHAPTERS

1. Entire book
   
2. Anonymous book
   
3. Chapter in an edited book
   

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, AND NEWSPAPERS

1. Journal with continuous pagination
   
2. Journal with separate pages
   
3. Article in a magazine
   
4. Article from a newspaper
   

ELECTRONIC MEDIA

1. Daily online newspaper
   
2. Aggregated databases:
   LEXIS-NEXIS
   EBSCO Academic Search Premier
   
3. Online encyclopedia article
   
4. Home pages and sites
   

BOOKS AND BOOK CHAPTERS

Standard APA Syle explanations and citation examples for print resources can also be found in the "Reference List" on page 215, Chapter 4 in the APA manual.

1. An entire book:

Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts

for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological

Association.

Elmborg, J. & Pauley, C. M. (Eds.). (2002). The librarian as teacher. Iowa City,

IA: University of Iowa.

The first example shows how to cite a revised edition; the second, an edited volume. Note that: (1) all lines except the first are indented one-half inch from the left margin; (2) each section of the entry ends with a period followed by a single space; (3) in a list of authors, an ampersand (the symbol &), rather than the word "and" is used before the last author's name; (4) in an article with several authors, all authors' names are inverted; and (5) only the first word of the book or chapter is capitalized.

2. An anonymous book:

Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993). Springfield, MA:

Merriam-Webster.

3. A chapter in an edited volume:

O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys:

Metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib

(Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York:

Springer.

Graham, R. L. (1992). Narrative transvestism: Changing sex and perspective.

In E. White & B. A.Barracus (Eds.), Postcolonial dickens (pp. 117-

198). Lincoln, NE: Dover.

Note that while the names of the author(s) of the chapters are inverted, the names of the editors of the volumes are not inverted.

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ARTICLES IN JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, AND NEWSPAPERS

Citations for journal and magazine articles follow the same general form as citations of books, with the same sections:

• author name(s), last names first;
  
• year of publication, in parentheses;
  
• full title of article: capitalize only the first word of the title, and don't underline it or put quotation marks around it;
  
• publication information, including the title of the periodical or journal (spelled out--not abbreviated, and in italics) and the volume and page numbers.

1. A journal with continuous pagination (i.e., the page numbers in one issue begin where those in the previous issue left off):

Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles.

Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Milner, B., Corkin, S., & Teuber, H.-L. (1968) Further analysis of tourrette's

syndrome: 14-year follow-up study of H.M. Neuropsychologia, 6, 215-

234.

2. A journal that paginates each issue separately:

Hubel, D. H. (1994). My telescope works, really. Scientific

American, 241(3), 150-164.

Note that in this example the volume number (241) is followed (with no space) by the issue number in parentheses (3), then a comma.

3. An article in a magazine:

Osbourne, J. A. (1991, March). Putting your team on the map. Sports

Illustrated, 7,158-163, 166-167.

Note in this example that the article is not published on continuous pages; instead, it appears on pages 158 through 163, and then again on pages 166 and 167.

4. An article in a newspaper:

Iowa City schools teaching sign, integrating deaf and hearing students. (1999,

February 11). Daily Iowan, p. 5.

Because no author is listed for this article, the citation begins with the title and would be alphabetized under the first significant word. If an author had been listed, the year and date in parentheses would be listed after the author's name, as in other periodical citations. In the text, this source would be referred to by a shortened version of the title.

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CITATION FORMS FOR ELECTRONIC MEDIA

When citing a full-text electronic source, a good rule is to follow the format used for print sources, then provide "access points" for your readers. Access points usually include the name of the full-text service, an indication of the type of service (CD-ROM, Online) and the URL for World Wide Web resources. The following examples are for some of the web-based Bell Library's databases. Always consult with your course instructor if you have questions about what information should be included in a citation for an electronic resource. You can also access electronic resource examples from APA's web site.

1. Daily online newspaper:

Walker, J. (1999, March 24). Prairie university plows on. In Daily Nebraskan

Online.Retrieved June 10, 2000 from

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/march2499/frontpage/walkerj.html

2. Aggregated databases:
There are certain full-text resources that, although accessed through the World Wide Web, do not lend themselves to the standard format for citing web documents. Two full-text resources that fall into this category are: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe, EBSCO Academic Search Premier. See also APA Publication Manual page 278.

2.A LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe:
Cite the article according to standard APA style. To the end of the citation, add: Retrieved [month day, year] from LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe database (General Category/Category).

Millar, J. (1999, September 24). The rise and fall of everyman: "Desperado"

proves potent . [2 Star ed.] Houston Chronicle, p.1. Retrieved April

13,2000 from LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe database (General

News/News).

2.B EBSCO Academic Search Premier:
Cite the article according to standard APA style. Then add: Retrieved [month day, year] from EBSCO Academic Search Premier database (AN:[Accession Number])

Mardesich, J. (1999, October 25). Online music stocks: Expect plenty of static

ahead. Fortune,p.382. Retrieved April 13, 2000 from EBSCO

Academic Search Premier database (AN:2341736).

3. Online encyclopedia article:
Many online encyclopedias provide guidance on how to cite their sources. Adapt this information to APA citation style. Britannica Online provides citation information at the end of their articles:

"Olympic Games." Encyclopedia Britannica Online.<http://search.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=115022&sctn=1>[Accessed 19 April 2000].

APA adaptation:

Olympic Games. In Britannica Online. Retrieved September 17, 2001 from

http://search.eb.com/bol/topic? eu=115022&sctn=1

4. World wide web home pages and sites:

• Author/editor, if known. (Last update or copyright date).
• Homepage title [Homepage of...]. Retrieved access date and the URL

Example:

The Foundation for a Better World. (2000). Pollution and banana cream pie. In

Great chefs cook with chlorofluorocarbons and carbon monoxide.

Retrieved July 12, 2003 from

http://www.bamm.com/cream/pollution/bananas.htm

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We invite questions and/or comments and look forward to hearing from you. Contact Edward Kownslar at Edward.Kownslar@tamucc.edu.

• Information Literacy Staff
• Information Literacy Hours

Webpage revised on 08/09/2007