Citations: APA

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Purdue Online Writing Lab provides a variety of writing tips and citation help. To access the APA style page click the link OWL APA Help

Video tutorials are available on APA style are available at APA Video Tutorials.

In Text Citations:

APA uses the author-date format for in text citations. If paraphrasing or quoting a section of another's work, it requires an in text citation.  

The following are guidelines to follow when writing in-text citations:

• Ensure that the spelling of author names and the publication dates in reference list entries match those in the corresponding in-text citations.
• Cite only works that you have read and ideas that you have incorporated into your writing. The works you cite may provide key background information, support or dispute your thesis, or offer critical definitions and data.
• Readers may find a long string of citations difficult to understand, especially if they are using assistive technology such as a screen reader; therefore, include only those citations needed to support your immediate point.
• Cite primary sources when possible, and cite secondary sources sparingly.
• Cite sources to document all facts and figures that you mention that are not common knowledge.
• To cite a specific part of a source, provide an author–date citation for the work plus information about the specific part.
• Even when sources cannot be retrieved (e.g., because they are personal communications), still credit them in the text (however, avoid using online sources that are no longer recoverable)

(American Psychological Association 2022)

References

American Psychological Association. (2022). Basic principles of citations. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles

References: Usually contains four elements

•      the author element, including the format of individual author names and of group author names
•      the date element, including the format of the date and how to include retrieval dates
•      the title element, including the format of the title and how to include bracketed descriptions
•      the source element, including the format of the source and how to include database information

(American Psychological Association 2022)

References

American Psychological Association. (2022). Basic principles of reference list. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/basic-principles

In Text Citations Format:

APA Style uses the author-date citation system when paraphrasing and quoting. 

For examples of different APA In Text Citation styles go to In Text Citations.

Click this link for Video Tutorials on using the APA formatting. 

References Format: 

Author

The author refers broadly to the person(s) or group(s) responsible for a work. An author may be

• an individual,
• multiple people,
• a group (institution, government agency, organization, etc.), or
• a combination of people and groups.

Date⁠

The date refers to the date of publication of the work. The date will take one of the following forms:

• year only;
• year, month, and day (i.e., an exact date);
• year and month;
• year and season; or
• range of dates (e.g., range of years, range of exact dates).

When you cannot determine the date of publication, treat the work as having no date.

Title⁠

The title refers to the title of the work being cited. Titles fall into two broad categories:

• works that stand alone (e.g., whole books, reports, gray literature, dissertations and theses, informally published works, data sets, videos, films, TV series, albums, podcasts, social media, and works on websites) and
• works that are part of a greater whole (e.g., periodical articles, edited book chapters, TV and podcast episodes, and songs).

When a work stands alone (e.g., a report), the title of that work appears in the title element of the reference. When a work is part of a greater whole (e.g., a journal article or edited book chapter), the title of the article or chapter appears in the title element of the reference and the title of the greater whole (the journal or edited book) appears in the source element.

When the title of the work cannot be determined, treat the work as having no title.

Source

The source indicates where readers can retrieve the cited work. As with titles, sources fall into two broad categories: works that are part of a greater whole and works that stand alone.

• The source for a work that is part of a greater whole (e.g., journal article, edited book chapter) is that greater whole (i.e., the journal or edited book), plus any applicable DOI or URL.
• The source for a work that stands alone (e.g., whole book, report, dissertation, thesis, film, TV series, podcast, data set, informally published work, social media, webpage) is the publisher of the work, database or archive, social media site, or website, plus any applicable DOI or URL.
• A location is not required in the source element for most works (e.g., do not include the publisher location for book references).
• Works associated with a specific location (e.g., artwork in a museum, conference presentations) include location information in the source and, depending on the work, may also include a DOI or URL.

If a work is not recoverable, treat it as having no source.

(American Psychological Association 2022)

References

American Psychological Association. (2022). Reference examples. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

For examples of different APA refence options go to Common Reference Examples.