When using APA format, follow the author-date method of citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication (and in some cases the page number)  for the source should appear in the text. A complete reference should appear in the reference list.

Examples

• Smith (1970) compared reaction times...
• In a recent study of reaction times (Smith, 1970), ...
• In 1970, Smith compared reaction times...

To indicate short quotations (fewer than 40 words) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author, year, and the specific page citation in the text, and include a complete reference in the reference list.

Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quotation, but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of the text.

Example 1

She stated, "The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner" (Miele, 1993, p. 276), but she did not clarify which behaviors were studied.

Example 2

According to Miele (1993), "the placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner" (p. 276).

Example 3

Miele (1993) found that "the placebo effect disappeared" in this case (p. 276), but what will the next step in researching this issue be?

Place quotations longer than 40 words in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line,  which is indented five spaces from the left margin.

Type the entire quotation using the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after closing punctuation mark.

Example

Miele's 1993 study found the following:

The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner. Furthermore, the behaviors were never exhibited again, even when real drugs were administered. Earlier studies conducted by the same group of researchers at the hospital were clearly premature in attributing the results to a placebo effect. (p. 276)

The reference list should appear at the end of the essay. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source cited in the essay.

Each source cited in the essay must appear in the reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must represent a  citation in the text.

Basic Rules for Reference List

1. Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give last name and initials for all authors of a particular work. The reference list should be alphabetized by authors' last names. If there is more than one work by a particular author, order them by publication date, oldest to newest (thus a 1991 article would appear before a 1996 article).
2. When an author appears as a sole author and as the first author of a group, list the one-author entries first.
3. If no author is given for a particular source, alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
4. Use "&" instead of "and" when listing multiple authors of a single work
5. The first line of each entry in the reference list is not indented and appears flush with the left margin. Subsequent lines for that entry are indented five spaces, for example:

   Kimosk, R., & Palmer, S.A. (1990). The ADA and the hiring process. Psychology Journal, 40(3), 12-30.

6. All references should be double-spaced.
7. Capitalize only the first word of a title or subtitle of a work. Italicize titles of books and journals.
8. Note that the italics in these entries often continues beneath commas and periods.
9. Each entry is separated from the next by a double space (thus the entire reference list is double spaced, with no extra returns added).

Article in a Periodical

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

(Year of Publication, add month and day of publication for daily, weekly, or monthly publications [i.e. (2000, 12 December).]). Title of article. Title of periodical, Volume Number, pages.

Non-Periodical (book, report, etc.)

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

Edited book

Author, A. A. (Eds.) (Year of publication). Title of book, italicized. Location: Publisher

Smith, J.T. & Levell, L.N. (Eds.). (1991). Psychological studies of early adolescents. San Francisco: Macmillan.

Article or chapter in an edited book

Author, A.A. (Year of publication). Article or chapter title. In A. A. First & G. L. Second (Ed. or Eds. if more than one editor), Title of book. (pp. 240-245). Location: Publisher.

Slade, M.A. (2002). The Frontier. In H. N. James (Ed.), Studies of the American West (pp. 204-250). New York: Macmillan.

Internet document

Organization title. (Year and date of Publication if known or n.d. if not known). Title of specific page in italics. Retrieved month, date, year, from http:// -- list complete URL, no period following the URL

Southwest Florida Community Organizations. (n.d.) Health Organizations. Retrieved October 9, 2002, from http://www.helpyourcommunity.org

E-mail

Because e-mail is a personal communication, not easily retrieved by the general public, no entry appears in your reference list. When citing an e-mail message in the body of the paper, acknowledge it in the parenthetical citation: The novelist has repeated this idea recently (Salman Rushdie, e-mail to author, May 1, 1995).