Quick Guide to References Using APA Style Manual
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.
(5th ed.) Washington, DC : The Association.
Note: Information below, excerpted from the APA style manual, represents only the most frequent types of material cited. For details, see manual. The library's copy is at Ref BF 76.7 P83 and also on reserve.
Journal, magazine, & newspaper references:
Authors
- Invert all authors' names, giving surnames and initials. Don't spell out first names.
- List all authors, separating names with commas except for final name. Use an ampersand (&) before last author.
- Finish with a period and space twice.
Date:
- Supply year of copyright.
- For newspapers and magazines (as opposed to journals), supply the month for monthlies or the month and day for weeklies and dailies.
- Enclose date in parenthese
- Finish with a period outside the parenthesis. Space twice.
Article title:
- Capitalize only first word unless a proper noun.
- Don't use quotation marks unless given within title of article. Don't underline or italicize.
- Finish with a period. Space twice.
Journal Title:
- Underline or italicize.
- Finish with a comma.
Publication information:
- Supply volume number and underline or italicize it. Do not use "Vol." before volume number.
- Supply issue number (in parentheses) following volume number only if issues are not paged consecutively from issue to issue.
- Precede page numbers with a comma.
- Supply inclusive page numbers (beginning to end of article, including references). Discontinuous paging must be shown. See newspaper example.
- Finish with a period.
See pages 240-247 of APA manual for examples of other situations involving journals.
Book References (entire book):
Authors:
- Same rules as for journals.
- Author may be a corporation.
- If editor(s), write (Ed.) or (Eds.) in parentheses after author's name. Precede with comma.
Date: same rules as journals.
Title:
- Capitalize only the first word.
- Underline or italicize.
- Finish with a period and a double space.
- If 2nd or subsequent edition, place edition statement (e.g., 4th ed.) in parentheses after title.
Publication information:
- Supply city. End with a colon and a double space.
- Supply name of publisher.
- Finish with a period.
See pages 248-255 of APA manual for examples of other situations involving book references.
Book Chapter References:
- Supply author of chapter same as for authors of journal article.
- Following chapter title, write "In" and name of book editor. Follow with (Ed.).
- Following book title, supply volume (if appropriate) and pages in parentheses.
CSULB Thesis References:
- General form same as for journal article.
- Follow title with "Master's Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, date" in parentheses. Space twice.
- Follow with "Master Abstract's International," comma, volume, comma, page. Underline (or italicize) the parts shown underlined.
See pages 260-262 of APA manual for examples of other situations involving theses and dissertations.
Government Document References:
- General form same as for books.
- Author is often an agency. List all responsible subagencies, separating each element with a period and two spaces.
- Publisher is often Government Printing Office or may be another government agency.
See pages 255-259 for examples of other situations involving technical, governmental, & research reports.
Internet references:
- Supply same information as for a printed source (or as much of that information as possible).
- Following title, write "Retrieved" and exact date site was accessed.
- Place Web information at the end of the reference.
For more details and examples, see: http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html
