2.

Brief APA Style

Guide for AUM

Students (7th edition)

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Introduction This document will help you learn how to use the American Psychological Association (APA) citation and

format style.

APA Document Format: General APA guidelines for papers submitted by students:

Style: Double-spaced on standard-sized paper, Times New Roman font12, black ink.

Margins: One-inch margins on all sides.

Page header (also known as the “running head”) should be added at the top of every page. For a student paper,

this only includes the page number.

Page numbering: Begin numbering on the title page, and number consecutively to the final page (including the

reference list).

Major paper sections: Your essay should include four major sections: Title Page, Abstract, Main Body,

and References.

Title page:

Note: APA 7 provides slightly different directions for formatting the title pages of professional papers (e.g.,

those intended for scholarly publication) and student papers (e.g., those turned in for credit in a high school or

college course).

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name, and the institutional affiliation. A student

paper should also include the course number and name, instructor name, and assignment due date.

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. The title should be centered

and written in boldface. Your title may take up one or two lines. A student paper should not include an author

note. Note again that page headers for a student paper will only contain the page number flush right.

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Abstract

Begin a new page. Your abstract page should already include the page header (described above). On the first

line of the abstract page, center and bold the word “Abstract” (no italics, underlining, or quotation marks).

Beginning with the next line, write a concise summary of the key points of your research. (Do not indent.) Your

abstract should be a single paragraph, double-spaced. Your abstract should typically be no more than 250 words.

List keywords from your paper below your abstract. To do this, indent as you would if you were starting a new

paragraph, type Keywords: (italicized), and then list your keywords. Listing your keywords will help researchers

find your work in databases.

In-Text Citations: The Basics

Some general guidelines for in-text citations:

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's

last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones,

1998). A complete reference for each source should appear in the reference list at the end of the essay.

Short Quotations

If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and

page number for the reference. There are two ways to write the quote:

1. You can introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by

the date of publication in parentheses. Write the page number (p.) after the quote.

According to Jones (1998), “Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their

first time” (p. 199).

2. If you do not include the author’s name in the text of the sentence, place the author's last name, the

year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation.

“Students often had difficulty using APA style” (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.

In both cases put the end punctuation after the parentheses.

Long Quotations

Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block of typewritten lines and omit

quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same

place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin and indent the first

line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-

spacing throughout, but do not add an extra blank line before or after it. The parenthetical citation should

come after the closing punctuation mark.

Jones’s (1998) study found the following:

Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many

students failed to purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)

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Citing Two Authors

Name both authors in the signal phrase or in the parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the

word “and” between the authors’ names in the signal phrase and use the ampersand (&) in the

parentheses.

Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...

(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

Citing Three or more Authors

List only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, even the first, unless doing so

would create ambiguity between different sources.

(Kernis et al., 1993)

Kernis et al. (1993) suggest...

In et al., et should not be followed by a period. Only "al" should be followed by a period.

Since et al. is plural, it should always be a substitute for more than one name. In the case that et al. would

stand in for just one author, write the author’s name instead.

Electronic Sources

Cite an electronic document (from a web page) in the same way as any other document by using the

author- date style.

Kenneth (2000) explained...

If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the

parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date").

Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with tutoring ("Tutoring and

APA," n.d.).

When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to include information that will help

readers find the passage being cited. Use the heading or section name, an abbreviated heading or section

name, a paragraph number (para. 1), or a combination of these.

According to Smith (1997), ... (Mind Over Matter section, para. 6).

Note: Never use the page numbers of webpages you print out; different computers print webpages with

different pagination. Do not use Kindle location numbers; instead, use the page number (available in

many Kindle books) or the method above.

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References: The Basics

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a

reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the essay. Each source you cite within the main text

must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Your references should begin on a new page, separate from the main text of the essay, and be listed by

author’s family name in alphabetical order; the word “References” should appear centered at the top of

the page (do NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks for this title). All reference entries should be

double-spaced just like the rest of your essay. APA publishes references in a hanging indent format,

meaning the first line of each reference starts far left and the following lines are indented.

Write the author’s family name, initial of first name, date of publication, title of

paper/book/article/etc (in italics), page number (if necessary), city of publisher, name of publisher.

Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up to and including 20

authors. Separate each author’s initials from the next author in the list with a comma. Use an ampersand

(&) before the last author’s name. If there are 21 or more authors, use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after

the 19th author, and then add the final author’s name.

Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.

For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in

chronological order, from earliest to most recent.

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AUTHOR/AUTHORS

The following rules for handling works by a single author or multiple authors apply to all APA-style

references in your reference list, regardless of the type of work (book, article, electronic resource, etc.)

Single Author

Last name first, followed by author initials.

Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 7-

10.

Two Authors

List by their last names and initials. Use the ampersand (&) instead of “and.”

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis.

Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048.

Three to Twenty Authors

List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, while the last author name is preceded again

by ampersand.

Nguyen, T., Carnevale, J. J., Scholer, A. A., Miele, D. B., & Fujita, K. (2019). Metamotivational

knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in goal-relevant task

performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(5), 879-

899. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000166

TITLES

This capitalization rule only applies to reference entries not to the title page or main text.

Capitalization Rule

With book and article titles, capitalize only the first letter of the:

1. title

2. subtitle (what is after the colon)

3. proper nouns.

Magazines, newspapers and journals follow the regular rule for capitalizing titles.

Italics:

Use italics for titles of books, newspapers, magazines, journals, web pages, web documents and web

reports, not underlining.

Do not italicize titles of articles.

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Reference Examples

BOOKS

Books: Basic Format

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher. DOI (if

available)

Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (E. Editor, Ed.). Publisher. DOI (if

available)

Malory, T. (2017). Le morte darthur (P. J. C. Field, Ed.). D. S. Brewer. (Original work published 1469-70)

Online Book

Shotton, M.A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency. Retrieved from

http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/htmal/index.asp

ENTRY IN A DICTIONARY, THESAURUS, OR ENCYCLOPEDIA WITH A GROUP AUTHOR

The 7th edition of the APA manual does not provide specific guidance on how to cite physical reference

works such as dictionaries, thesauruses, or encyclopedias. Therefore, this citation, as well as the one for

an individual author of an entry in a reference work, is modeled on that of a chapter in an edited book or

anthology, both which are similar in format to reference works.

Institution or organization name. (Year). Title of entry. In Title of reference work (edition, page

numbers). Publisher name.

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. (1997). Goat. In Merriam Webster’s collegiate

dictionary (10th ed., pp. 499-500). Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

ENTRY IN A DICTIONARY, THESAURUS, OR ENCYCLOPEDIA WITH AN INDIVIDUAL

AUTHOR

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of entry. In F. M. Lastname (ed.), Title of reference work (edition,

page numbers). Publisher.

Tatum, S. R. (2009). Spirituality and religion in hip hop literature and culture. In T. L.

Stanley (ed.), Encyclopedia of hip hop literature (pp. 250-252). Greenwood.

ENTRY IN AN ONLINE DICTIONARY, THESAURUS, OR ENCYCLOPEDIA WITH A GROUP

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AUTHOR

Note: An online dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia may be continuously updated and therefore not

include a publication date (like in the example below). If that’s the case, use “n.d.” for the date and include

the retrieval date in the citation.

Institution or organization name. (Year). Title of entry. In Title of reference work. URL

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Braggadocio. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 13,

2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/braggadocio

ENTRY IN AN ONLINE DICTIONARY, THESAURUS, OR ENCYCLOPEDIA WITH AN

INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of entry. In F. M. Lastname (ed.), Title of reference work (edition).

Publisher. URL or DOI

Martin, M. (2018). Animals. In L. A. Schintler & C. L. McNeely (Eds), Encyclopedia of big data.

SpringerLink. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_7-1

Note: If the dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia does not include an edition, simply skip that step.

PERIODICALS

Periodicals include items published on a regular basis such as journals, magazines, newspapers, and

newsletters.

Journal Articles: Basic Format

Because the article has a title, not a proper name, you will capitalize only the first word, the first word of the

subtitle (after a colon or a dash), and any proper names or initializations / acronyms that appear in the title.

Title of a journal must be italicized and presented in full. Any nonstandard punctuation and capitalization

that is used in journal title must be maintained. Capitalize all major words in the title of a journal (proper

name). The volume and issue numbers follow. The volume number will be in italics because it is larger, i.e.,

contains issues which will be in parentheses. If there are page numbers, the first and last page numbers will

be introduced, and linked with a hyphen.

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume

number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Digital object identifiers (a DOI) are to be included, if available, even when using the print source. If a DOI

has been assigned to the article that you are using, you should include this after the page numbers for the

article, as shown above. The example below assumes no DOI is available.

Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13.

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Online Journal Article

Online articles follow the same guidelines for printed articles. You will include all information the online

host makes available, together with an issue number in parentheses. DOIs and URLs are both presented as

hyperlinks for electronic sources.

Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented

digital research with service-learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International

Engagement, 6(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979

If no DOI has been assigned and you are accessing the periodical online, use the URL of the website from

which you are retrieving the periodical. Retrieval dates are required for unarchived sources that are likely,

or intended, to change over time. However, the words “Retrieved from” (preceding the URL or DOI) are

now only used when a retrieval date is also provided in the citation.

Perreault, L. (2019). Obesity in adults: Role of physical activity and exercise. UpToDate. Retrieved

January 12, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/obesity-in-adults-role-of-physical-

activity-and-exercise

Many academic journals provide stable URLs that function similarly to DOIs. These are preferable to

ordinary URLs copied and pasted from the browser's address bar.

Denny, H., Nordlof, J., & Salem, L. (2018). "Tell me exactly what it was that I was doing that was

so bad": Understanding the needs and expectations of working-class students in writing

centers. Writing Center Journal, 37(1), 67–98. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26537363

Magazine Article

Author, A. A. (year, month or month and day). Title of the article. Title of the Magazine, volume

number (issue number if available), pages.

Peterzell, J. (1990, April). Better late than never. Time, 135(17), 20–21.

If authorship is attributed to a news agency or organization, frame them as the author. When magazines

include the month / month and day, be sure to include them as well. Do not abbreviate the month.

Online Magazine Article

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year, Month). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of

Magazine, Volume number(Issue number if given), first page number-last page number if given. URL

Clay, R. (2008, June). Science vs. ideology: Psychologists fight back about the misuse of research.

Monitor on Psychology, 39(6). http://www.apa.org/monitor/

Freedman, D. H. (2012, June). The perfected self. The Atlantic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/06/the-perfected-self/8970/4/?single_page=true

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Note: If no volume, issue and/or page numbers are provided, skip them in the citation.

Newspaper Article

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year, Month Day). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of

Newspaper, Page(s).

Tillett, A. (2018, May 9). Australians encouraged to age at home. The Australian Financial Review, 5

Online Newspaper Article

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Publication. URL

Richards, C. (2019, December 9). Best music of 2019: Lana Del Rey sings lullabies about

the end of America. Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/best-music-of-2019-lana-

del-rey-sings-lullabies-about-the-end-of-america/2019/12/06/6e82c5ec-15d8-

11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html

WEB PAGE

In this section, you will learn how to reference web pages and electronic sources and when to include

digital object identifiers (DOIs) and uniform resource locators (URLs) in APA Style.

The DOI or URL is the final component of a reference list entry. Because so much scholarship is available

and/or retrieved online, most reference list entries end with either a DOI or a URL. • A DOI is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies content and provides a persistent link to its

location on the internet. DOIs can be found in database records and the reference lists of published

works. • A URL specifies the location of digital information on the internet and can be found in the address

bar of your internet browser. URLs in references should link directly to the cited work when

possible.

Some electronic citations necessitate the use of brackets. APA style dictates that brackets should directly

surround their content without spaces (e.g., [bracketed content] should look like this). When possible, include

the year, month, and date in references. If the month and date are not available, use the year of publication.

Additionally, you do not use “Retrieved from” before URLs or DOIs; special exceptions, however, are made

for resources that are unarchived. Including the retrieval date for these sources indicates to readers that the

version of the work they retrieve may be different than what was originally used.

If the Web page names an individual author, cite their name first:

Last name, A. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist. Medium.

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https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01

If the resource was written by a group or organization, use the name of the group/organization as the author.

Additionally, if the author and site name are the same, omit the site name from the citation.

Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (2019, November 21).

Justice served: Case closed for over 40 dogfighting victims.

https://www.aspca.org/news/justice-served-case-closed-over-40-dogfighting-victims

If the page's author is not listed, start with the title instead. Additionally, include a retrieval date when the

page's content is likely to change over time (like, for instance, if you're citing a wiki that is publicly edited).

Title of page. (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

Tuscan white bean pasta. (2018, February 25). Budgetbytes. Retrieved March 18, 2020,

from https://www.budgetbytes.com/tuscan-white-bean-pasta/

If the date of publication is not listed, use the abbreviation (n.d.):

Author or Group name. (n.d.). Title of page. Site name (if applicable). URL

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). Mental health conditions.

https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions

ADDITIONAL SOURCES:

Articles from news websites. The format for this type of source depends on whether your source comes

from a site with an associated newspaper.

If the source does come from a site with an associated newspaper, leave the title of the article unformatted,

but italicize the title of the newspaper.

Last name, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Publication. URL

Richards, C. (2019, December 9). Best music of 2019: Lana Del Rey sings lullabies about

the end of America. Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/best-music-of-2019-lana-del-rey-

sings-lullabies-about-the-end-of-america/2019/12/06/6e82c5ec-15d8-11ea-a659-

7d69641c6ff7_story.html

On the other hand, if the source doesn't come from a site with an associated newspaper, italicize the title of

the article, but leave the name of the site unformatted.

Wikipedia Article. Wikipedia articles are treated as special instances of entries in reference works. Thus,

there are a few differences between reference entries for pages on Wikipedia and those for generic

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webpages.

Title of article. (Year, Month Date). In Wikipedia. URL of archived version of page

Quantum mechanics. (2019, November 19). In Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quantum_mechanics&oldid=948476810

Wikipedia articles often update frequently. For this reason, the date refers to the date that the cited version

of the page was published. Note also that the manual recommends linking to the archived version of the

page, rather than the current version of the page on the site, since the latter can change over time. Access

the archived version by clicking "View History," then clicking the date/timestamp of the version you'd like

to cite.

Blog post.

Last name, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of post. Publisher. URL

Axelrod, A. (2019, August 11). A century later: The Treaty of Versailles and its rejection

of racial equality. Code Switch, NPR.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/08/11/742293305/a-century-later-the-treaty-of-

versailles-and-its-rejection-of-racial-equality

The information contained in this guide was taken from Purdue OWL website. For more examples of how

to reference other types of sources, check the OWL website.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html