APA Style Introduction

Note: This page reflects the 6th edition of the APA manual, which is now out of date.
It will remain online until 2021, but will not be updated. The equivalent APA 7
page can be found here.
These OWL resources will help you learn how to use the American Psychological
Association (APA) citation and format style. This section contains resources on in-
text citation and the References page, as well as APA sample papers, slide
presentations, and the APA classroom poster.
APA Overview and Workshop
This workshop provides an overview of APA (American Psychological Association)
style and where to find help with different APA resources. It provides an annotated
list of links to all of our APA materials and an APA overview. It is an excellent place to
start to learn about APA format.
APA Formatting and Style Guide
APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite
sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6 th edition,
second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA
research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For
more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, (6th ed., 2nd printing).

This resource, revised according to the 7th edition APA Publication Manual, provides
fundamental guidelines for constructing the reference pages of research papers. For
more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, (7th ed.).

Formatting a Reference List

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 body of the
paper. Each source you cite in the paper 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 text of the essay;
label this page "References" in bold, centered at the top of the page (do NOT
underline or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just
like the rest of your essay.
Basic Rules for Most Sources
 All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be
indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.

 All authors' names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided
first).

 Authors' first and middle names should be written as initials.

 o For example, the reference entry for a source written by Jane Marie
Smith would begin with "Smith, J. M."

o If a middle name isn't available, just initialize the author's first name:
"Smith, J."

 Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work
up to and including 20 authors (this is a new rule, as APA 6 only required the
first six 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.

 When referring to the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports,

webpages, or other sources, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of
the title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and
proper nouns.

o Note again that the titles of academic journals are subject to special
rules. See section below.

 Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of

newspapers, and so on).

 Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works
such as chapters in books or essays in edited collections.

Basic Rules for Articles

in Academic Journals
 Present journal titles in full.

 Italicize journal titles.

 Maintain any nonstandard punctuation and capitalization that is used by the

journal in its title.

o For example, you should use PhiloSOPHIA instead

of Philosophia, or Past & Present instead of Past and Present.
  Capitalize all major words in the titles of journals. Note that this differs from
the rule for titling other common sources (like books, reports, webpages, and
so on) described above.

o This distinction is based on the type of source being cited. Academic

journal titles have all major words capitalized, while other sources' titles
do not.

 Capitalize the first word of the titles and subtitles of journal articles, as
well as the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and any proper
nouns.

 Do not italicize or underline the article title.

 Do not enclose the article title in quotes.

o So, for example, if you need to cite an article titled "Deep Blue: The
Mysteries of the Marianas Trench" that was published in the
journal Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication, you would
write the article title as follows:

 Deep blue: The mysteries of the Marianas Trench.

o ...but you would write the journal title as follows:

 Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication

Please note: While the APA manual provides examples of how to cite common types
of sources, it does not cover all conceivable sources. If you must cite a source that
APA does not address, the APA suggests finding an example that is similar to your
source and using that format. For more information, see page 282 of the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed.

Reference List: 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.
Brown, E. (2013). Comedy and the feminine middlebrow novel. Pickering & Chatto.
Two Authors
List by their last names and initials. Separate author names with a comma.Use the
ampersand instead of "and."
Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next big five inventory (BFI-2): developing and
assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and
predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117-
143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000096
 Three to Twenty Authors
List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, while the last author
name is preceded again by ampersand. This is a departure from APA 6, which only
required listing the first seven authors, followed by "et al."
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
More Than Twenty Authors
List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the first 19
authors’ names, use an ellipsis in place of the author names. Then provide the final
author name. There should be no more than twenty names.
Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D. C., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R.,
DelSole, R., Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H., Gottschalck, J., Metzger, E.
J., Barton, N. P., Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R., . . . & Kim, H. (2019).
The subseasonal experiment (SubX): a multimodel subseasonal prediction
experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100(10), 2043-
2061. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0270.1
Group Author
Group authors can include corporations, government agencies, organizations, etc;
and a group may publish in coordination with individuals. Here, you simply treat the
publishing organization the same way you'd treat the author's name and format the
rest of the citation as normal. Be sure to give the full name of the group author in
your reference list, although abbreviations may be used in your text.
Entries in reference works ( e.g. dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias)
without credited authors are also considered works with group authors.
Merriam-Webster. (2008). Braggadocio. In Merriam-Webster’s Advanced Learner’s
English Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
When a work has multiple layers of group authorship (e.g. The Office of the
Historian, which is a part of the Department of State, publishes something), list the
most specific agency as the author and the parent agency as the publisher.
Bureau of International Organization Affairs. (2018). U.S. contributions to international
organizations, 2017 [Annual report]. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved
from https://www.state.gov/u-s-contributions-to-international-
organizations/
Unknown Author
When the work does not have an author move the title of the work to the beginning
of the references and follow with the date of publication. Only use “Anonymous ” if
the author is the work is signed “Anonymous.” This is a new addition to APA 7.
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (11th ed.). (2003). Springfield, MA: Merriam-
Webster.
NOTE: When your essay includes parenthetical citations of sources with no author
named, use a shortened version of the source's title instead of an author's name.
Use quotation marks and italics as appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations
of the source above would appear as follows: (Merriam-Webster's, 2003).
Two or More Works by the Same Author
Use the author's name for all entries and list the entries by the year (earliest comes
first). List references with no dates before references with dates.
Urcuioli, P. J. (n.d.).
Urcuioli, P. J. (2011).
Urcuioli, P. J. (2015).
When an author appears both as a sole author and, in another citation, as the first
author of a group, list the one-author entries first.
Agnew, C. R. (Ed.) (2014). Social influences on romantic relationships: Beyond the
dyad. Cambridge University Press.
Agnew, C. R. & South, S. C. (Eds.) (2014). Interpersonal relationships and health:
Social and clinical psychological mechanisms.Oxford University Press.
References that have the same first author and different second and/or third authors
are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the second author, or the last name
of the third if the first and second authors are the same.
Arriaga, X. B., Capezza, N. M., Reed, J. T., Wesselman, E. D., & Williams, K. D. (2014).
With partners like you, who needs strangers?: Ostracism involving a romantic
partner. Personal Relationships, 21,557-569.
Arriaga, X. B., Kumashiro, M., Finkel, E. J., VanderDrift, L. E., & Luchies, L. B. (2014).
Filling the void: Bolstering attachment security in committed relationships. Social
Psychological and Personality Science, 5, 398-405.
Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year
If you are using more than one reference by the same author—or the same group of
authors listed in the same order—published in the same year, first check to see if
they have more specific dates (this recommendation is new to APA 7). Works with
only a year should be listed before those with a more specific date. List specific
dates chronologically. If two works have the same publication date, organize them in
the reference list alphabetically by the title of the article or chapter. If references with
the same date are identified as parts of a series (e.g. Part 1 and Part 2), list them in
order of their place in the series. Then assign letter suffixes to the year. Refer to
these sources in your essay as they appear in your reference list, e.g.: "Berndt
(2004a) makes similar claims..."
Berndt, T. J. (2004a). Children’s friendships: Shifts over a half-century in perspectives
on their development and their effects. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 50(3), 206-223.
Berndt, T. J. (2004b). Friendship and three A’s (aggression, adjustment, and
attachment). Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 88 (1), 1-4.
Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, and Afterwords
Cite the publishing information about a book as usual, but cite Introduction, Preface,
Foreword, or Afterword (whatever title is applicable) as the chapter of the book.
Lang, J.M. (2018). Introduction. In Dujardin, G., Lang, J.M., & Staunton, J.A.
(Ed.), Teaching the literature survey course (pp.1-8). West Virginia University Press.

Reference List: Articles in

Periodicals
Basic Form
APA style dictates that authors are named with their last name followed by their
initials; publication year goes between parentheses, followed by a period. The title of
the article is in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the
title are capitalized. The periodical title is run in title case, and is followed by the
volume number which, with the title, is also italicized. If a DOI has been assigned to
the article that you are using, you should include this after the page numbers for the
 article. 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.
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
Article in Print Journal
Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5-13.
Note: APA 7 advises writers to include a DOI (if available), even when using the print
source. The example above assumes no DOI is available.
Article in Electronic Journal
As noted above, when citing an article in an electronic journal, include a DOI if one is
associated with the article.
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
DOIs may not always be available. In these cases, use a URL. 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
Article in a Magazine
Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April). Making the grade in today's schools. Time, 135, 28-31.
Article in a Newspaper
Schultz, S. (2005, December). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The
Country Today, 1A, 2A.
Review
Baumeister, R. F. (1993). Exposing the self-knowledge myth [Review of the book The
self-knower: A hero under control, by R. A. Wicklund & M. Eckert]. Contemporary
Psychology, 38, 466-467.

Reference List: Books

Basic Format for Books
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle.
Publisher Name.
Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press.
Edited Book, No Author
Editor, E. E. (Ed.) (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle.
Publisher.
Leitch, M. G. & Rushton, C. J. (Eds.) (2019) A new companion to Malory. D. S. Brewer.
Edited Book with an Author or Authors
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle(E.
Editor, Ed.). Publisher.
Malory, T. (2017). Le morte darthur (P. J. C. Field, Ed.). D. S. Brewer. (Original work
published 1469-70)
A Translation
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle(T.
Translator, Trans.) Publisher. (Original work published YEAR)
Plato (1989). Symposium (A. Nehamas & P. Woodruff, Trans.) Hackett Publishing
Company. (Original work published ca. 385-378 BCE)<
Note: When you cite a republished work, like the one above, in your text, it should
appear with both dates: Plato (385-378/1989)
Edition Other Than the First
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle(#
edition). Publisher.
Belcher, W. (2019). Writing your journal article in twelve weeks: A guide to academic
publishing success (2ndedition). University of Chicago Press.
Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor & F.
F. Editor (Eds.), Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (pp. pages of chapter).
Publisher.
Note: When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book
title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not
appear before the page numbers in periodical references, except for newspapers.
List any edition number in the same set of parentheses as the page numbers,
separated by a comma: (2nd ed., pp. 66-72).
Armstrong, Dorsey. (2019). Malory and character. In M. G. Leitch & C. J. Rushton
(Eds.), A new companion to Malory(pp. 144-163). D. S. Brewer.
Multivolume Work
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle(Vol.
#). Publisher.<
David, A. & Simpson, J. (Eds.). (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature: The
Middle Ages(8th ed.,Vol. A). W. W. Norton and Company.

Reference List: Other Non-Print

Sources
Interviews
Interviews fall into three categories: published interviews, personal interviews, and
research participant interviews. However, only published interviews require a formal
citation in your reference list.
A published interview is found in places like a radio show, newspaper, or magazine.
To cite a published interview, adhere to the format for that particular reference type
(i.e., if the interview is on a podcast, cite the podcast). For more information on citing
sources where an interview might appear, visit the Articles in Periodicals page or
the Electronic Sources page.
 A personal interview is considered personal communication and does not require a
formal citation in your reference list. See below for more information.
A research participant interview is an interview conducted as part of your research
project. You might address this in the body of your paper, saying something like, “As
part of my study, I interviewed fifty participants about their involvement with
intramural sports.” However, you do not need to formally cite this in your reference
list.
Presentation at Conference or Symposium
Whether you’re citing a keynote address, a paper presentation as part of a
symposium, or a poster presentation, follow the guidelines below. While some
presentations are published after they’re given, others do not have a written
component. If the presentation is published, follow the guidelines for citation as laid
out in the Other Print Sources page. Be sure to include a URL if the publication is
available online.
Presentation Without an Online Source
Contributor, A. A., Contributor, B. B., Contributor, C. C., & Contributor, D. D. (Year,
Month Day). Title of contribution. Title of symposium/conference.
Symposium/talk/address conducted at the meeting of Organization Name, Location.
Matson, E. (2018, Nov. 5). Drones and autonomous vehicles: The latest new technology
to come with potential threat [Conference session]. Dawn or Doom Conference
Symposium/talk/address conducted at the meeting of Organization Name, Location.
Presentation With Online Source
Contributor, A. A., Contributor, B. B., Contributor, C. C., & Contributor, D. D. (Year,
Month Day). Title of contribution. In E. E. Chairperson (Chari), Title of
symposium/conference. Symposium/talk/address conducted at the meeting of
Organization Name, Location.
Bailey, C. (2019, April 5). How to get your brain to focus. TEDxManchester. TEDx
conference, Manchester, U.K.
Unpublished Works
You may find yourself needing to cite a dissertation or a manuscript that has not yet
been formally published. To correctly classify the work, describe the work and put
that description in square brackets. Be sure the date you list is the year the work was
completed, whether it’s the final version or not.
Unpublished Manuscript
Barkley, S., Chen, M., & McDonald, P. (2018). The effects of sodium on children’s
health[Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Biology, University of Cincinnati.
Manuscript in Preparation
Glass, A. (2019). How avocados changed America[Manuscript in preparation].
Department of Sociology, Michigan State University.
Manuscript Submitted for Preparation
Jones, R. (2019). Walt Whitman and the American Dream[Manuscript submitted for
publication]. Department of English, University of Mississippi.
Personal Communication
Any communication that cannot be directly retrieved by a reader is considered
“personal communication.” Emails, phone conversations, text messages, and social
media messages are all examples of personal communication. You do not include
 personal communication in your reference list; instead, parenthetically cite the
communicator's name, the phrase "personal communication," and the date of the
communication in your main text only.
(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2019).
If you reference personal communication in a footnote, as is common practice in
certain fields and publications, you can document it in the same way.
1. P. Smith (personal communication, November 3, 2019) also claimed that many of her
students had difficulties with APA style.
Although you do not need to cite personal communication, do try to locate a source
when possible. For example, if your friend told you about a research study he heard
on a podcast, and you want to include that information in your essay, it is best to cite
the original podcast, rather than the communication with your friend.