APA Style of Documentation
 
              When writing, you must document all information and ideas gained from outside sources. You do this to (a) give credit to the source and avoid plagiarism, (b) give your information support from experts in the field, and (c) allow the reader to locate more detail by referring to the actual source. When quoting from (or using a direct relation to) a source within the text of your paper, indicate that source! Your parenthetical documentation refers the reader to your “works cited” page. Entries are double spaced with a hanging indent.

Citations within the text
"Smith (1999) compared travel methods" (OR)
"In a discussion of travel methods (Smith, 1999)"

Books
FORMAT: Author, pub. date, italicized title, pub. location, and publisher.

(with author)
            Smith, John. (2006). Index to literature. New York: Random.
(unknown--or no--author)
            The characteristics of computers. (2006). New York: HarperCollins.
(multiple authors) (Use "&" before the last author)
            Smith, A.B., Jones, E. R. & Roberts, E.F. (2005). The history of Pueblo.
                  Boulder: Pruett.

(editor)
Jones, Mike (Ed.). (2003). Pueblo's colorful past. Pueblo: Riverside.

Government Documents
National Institute of Mental Health. (1998). Mental health evaluations (DHHS Publication No.
     123). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

Periodicals (Print) (Note italicized title & volume number; don't 
use quotation marks.)
Jones, Karen and Miller, Jane. (2005, July 4). The ADA and hiring practices. 
     Disability Journal, 45, 10-16.
Smith, Ken and Roberts, Mary. (2006). An analysis of arts and music literature
    
in the media. Journal of American Psychology, 124, 193-198.

Periodicals
(Online)
Smith, B.A. (2003). Role of libraries in the 21st century. [Electronic version]. 
Journal of British 
     Education, 5,
117-120. Retrieved Aug. 1, 2005, from
http://www.articles.com/index.html

(Online via subscription database, where you can't retrieve it by going directly to a web site)
Jones, A.B., Smith, C.D. & Jackson, R.A. (2002). Community colleged and itinerant students.

     Journal of Colorado Education 46,
 113-142. Retrieved Jan. 
3, 2005 from EBSCO HostWeb.

Newspapers
(Author-date or Title-date)
New drugs on the market. (2004, July 15). The Pueblo Chieftain, p. A3.
Smith, S. (2003, July 19). Korea's cell phone leadership. The Washington Post
pp. A1, A5.

Encyclopedia or Dictionary
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (11th ed.). (2003). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
Smith, J. (Ed.). (2003). The new Hammond world gazetteer (14th ed., Vols. 1-3).
     New
York: Hammond.

Television
Miller, M. (Producer). (2003). Whole earth. [Television series] New York: WNBC.
Smith, J. (Executive producer). (2002, Nov. 11). The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour [Television 
     broadcast]. New York and Washington, D.C.: Public Broadcasting Service.

Music
Charles, R. (2003). America. On Ray Charles' Greatest Hits [CD]. New York: Vibe, 2003.

Email
Cited only in text and NOT in references, because it does not represent recoverable data.

Court Cases
Smith v. Jones, 349 F. Supp. 2 1090 (E.D. Colorado 1976).

Legislation
Mental Health Systems Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9402 (1994).

NOTES
* capitalize the first word of title and subtitle only; all others are lower-case
* year of publication is immediately after the author(s)
* invert the names of all authors; if seven or more, abbreviate the 7th one and then "et al"
* since URLs change, look for a Digital Object Identifier (DOI); use it instead of a URL

Sources

American Psychological Association. Publication manual of the American
     Psychological
Association (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, D.C.: Author.
     REF BF76.7 .P976 2001.
http://www.psychwww.com/resource
APA Tips and Guides at
    
http://www.apastyle.org/styletips.html (general tips on overall format)
    
http://www.apastyle.org/elecmedia.html (latest on citing electronic sources)
Help with bibliographies can be found at
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/bbiliographer/default.asp?uid=0&rau=0

Tip Sheet #42 (February 2009)

 


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