APA Documentation Style

Susan Silverman
Winthrop University
June, 2007

This document is based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 5th edition.  Two copies of the Manual are kept at the Dacus Library Reference Desk.)

Parenthetical References

Basic Rules:

1. The APA style uses parenthetical references (or citing in the text) instead of footnotes or endnotes.

2. These references are brief, but should provide enough information to find the full citation in the reference list at the end of the paper.

3. All parenthetical references must be documented in the reference list at the end of the paper.

4. To cite a specific part of a source, indicate the chapter (chap.3) or specific page (p. or pp.)

5. For additional examples, refer to pages 207-214 in the manual.

Examples:

• Mentioning the author's name in the text:

Jones and Smith (1983) sampled a population of college students.

Wilson stated, "The reaction times of subjects is irrelevant" (1980, pp. 43-44).

• Not mentioning the author's name in the text:

He stated, "The reaction times of subjects is irrelevant" (Wilson, 1980, pp. 43-44).

A series of experiments has subsequently helped establish this explanation (Nardish, 1963; Weber & Sultan, 1964).

List of References

Basis Rules:

1. References cited in the text must appear in the reference list and each entry in the reference list must be cited in the text of the manuscript.

2. References are listed in alphabetical order by author's last name or the first word of the title if there is not an author.

3. Double space all citations, use a hanging indentation.

4. Author.  Last name is always first, then initials, do not use full name.  When there are two or more authors use commas to separate authors and to separate last names and initials; an ampersand before the last author.

5. Title of book.  Capitalize the first word of the title, subtitle and proper nouns only. Italicize the title of the book.

6. Title of an article.  Capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle only.  Do not underline or use quotation marks.

7. Title of journal, magazine, or newspaper.  Use both upper and lower case, capitalizing all major words.  Include the number of the volume, but not the term "vol."  Italicize the title of the journal and the volume number.

8. Give inclusive page numbers.  Precede page numbers with "p." or "pp." for newspaper articles only.

9. For additional examples refer to pages 215-281 in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Examples:

• Books

Rowlin	g, J.K. (2000). Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. New
	York:  Arthur A. Levine Books.

• Journal Article

Gibbs,	N. (2005, August 8). Being 13. Time, 166 (6), 40-4.
Mesne	r, N.R. (1979). Comparing tests among middle school
	dropouts. Testing Today, 2, 724-736.

For additional information, consult the following Web sites:

• APA Style.org http://www.apastyle.org

• Research and Documentation Online http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc

• APA Style (Simmons College) http://my.simmons.edu/library/bibliography/apa_style.shtml