APA Citation Style

Updated to the 6th edition.

From the Purdue University OWL
and the APA Website
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
http://www.apastyle.org/learn/index.aspx

Primary Sources
Experiments
Interviews
Surveys
Primary sources are presented in the body of
the document. Include details like date, time,
names of participants, etc.

Primary Sources
Example: Interview
In an interview this past May with Dr. David
Stone, Chief of Staff at the Mayo Clinic, Dr.
Stone said, We need more funding.
Otherwise, more people will die. He also
said, Dead people cant pay our bills.

Primary Sources
Example: Survey
The team prepared a survey covering
consumer trends in local marketplaces.
Survey forms (please see Appendix A) were
distributed at The Block at Orange on
December 12, 2004. A total of 43 responses
were gathered from 15 men and 28 women,
aged 18-37. For full results, see Appendix B.

Secondary Sources
Books
Magazines or Journals
Websites
Databases
Any source that provides you with information
that you did not invent yourself must be cited
appropriately to avoid plagiarism!

Parenthetical Citations
All material that is quoted or paraphrased from
a source other than your own head MUST be
cited.
Example 1 (paraphrase): Rollins said that the tenets
are not being followed by Dell employees (ORourke,
2003).

Example 2 (quote): As Rollins put it, Dell employees

need to be passionate about what they do (ORourke,

2003).

Parenthetical Citations
Authors last name, year of publication.
Example: This was the situation in our latest case
(Smith, 2003).

Multiple sources from the same author? Use last

name, title, and year of publication.
Example: It was also the situation in our first case
(Smith, Name of the game, 2007).

Parenthetical Citations
For multiple authors, use last names as they
appear in the original, then year of
publication.
Example: This was the situation in our latest
case (Smith, Bolger, Grimes, 2004).

Parenthetical Citations
For items without an author, use the title, then year.
Example: This was the situation in our latest case
(The Soul of Dell, 2002).

For websites without a visible author, use the title of

the website, then the date (or ND if unknown).
Example: This was the situation in our latest case
(The Dell Corporation Philosophy, 2002).

Bibliographic Citations
Alphabetical by author
No author? Use the title
Indent second and following lines five spaces (one
tab over)
Single space within individual entries; double space
between entries
Observe correct spelling and punctuation ALWAYS
Finally: BE CONSISTENT!

Bibliographic Citations
For Books:
Author
Copyright date
Title (capitalize ONLY first
letter, first letter after a
colon, and proper names
Location
Publisher

Author, A. A. (Year of
publication). Title of
work: Capital letter also
for subtitle. Location:
Publisher.
Smith, J. (1998). Standing
tall: An autobiography.
New York: Random
House.

Bibliographic Citations
For Articles in a PRINT
Journal:
Author
Date
Article Title
Journal Title
Volume and Number
Page Numbers

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., &

Author, C. C. (Year). Title
of article. Title of
periodical, volume &
number, pages.
Berndt, T. J. (2002).
Friendship quality and
social development.
Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 11
(2), 7-10.

Bibliographic Citations
For Web Pages
Author if known. If not,
use title of web page
Date (look at the last
updated message)
Title (if not used for the
author)
Retrieved from + URL
Do NOT end with a period

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of

work. Retrieved from
URL
American Express. (2010).
Quarterly financial
report. Retrieved from
http://www.american
express.com/finance.
fall10.html

Bibliographic Citations
For Online Periodicals
(database journal articles)
Author
Date
Title of article
Title of periodical
Volume and number
DOI or URL of journals
home page

No period following DOI or

URL!

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., &

Author, C. C. (Year). Title
of article. Title of
Periodical, volume &
number. Source
Smith, J. (2010). Fun for
students. Pedagogy Today,
24 (85). DOI
1002.75/jfk.685

Bibliographic Citations
For Online Databases
Source
Date
Title of search/results +
[data file]
URL

No period following DOI or

URL!

Author, A. (Year). Title of

search/results. URL

United States Department of

Housing and Urban
Development. (2009).
Fullerton income limits.
http://www.huduser.org/Dat
asets/CA/CA09/ca_fy2009.
pdf
Include a retrieval
date here if the
information may
change!