APA Style Guide: References Page

• Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay.
• Label this page "References" centered at the top of the page.
• Do NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks for the title.
• All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.

Basic Form for Article Citation: 

APA style dictates that:

• authors are named last name followed by initials;
   
• publication year goes between parentheses, followed by a period.
   
• The title of the article is in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized.
   
• The periodical title is run in title case, and is followed by the volume number which, with the title, is also italicized.
   
• If a DOI has been assigned to the article that you are using, you should include this after the page numbers for the article. If no DOI has been assigned and you are accessing the periodical online, use the URL of the website from which you are retrieving the periodical. 

Basic Rules:

• All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
• Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work for up to and including seven authors. If the work has more than seven authors, list the first six authors and then use ellipses after the sixth author's name. After the ellipses, list the last author's name of the work.
• Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.
• For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
• Present the journal title in full.
• Maintain the punctuation and capitalization that is used by the journal in its title.
  • For example: ReCALL not RECALL 
    or Knowledge Management Research & Practice 
    not Knowledge Management Research and Practice. 
• Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
• When referring to books, chapters, articles, or Web pages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. 
• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.
• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.
• Please note: While the APA manual provides many examples of how to cite common types of sources, it does not provide rules on how to cite all types of sources. Therefore, if you have a source that APA does not include, APA suggests that you find the example that is most similar to your source and use that format. For more information, see page 193 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6^th ed., 2^nd printing).

See the Purdue OWL for more information on Basic Rules of APA Citation

Format a Hanging Indent in Microsoft Word

In Paragraph Toolbar,

select PopOut Tool

(Tiny arrow in corner of toolbar - should generate a Paragraph Tools popout window.)

In PopOut Window, select : Indentation / Special / Hanging / By: 0.5" (important)!

Paste your Reference into MS Word.

It should be automatically formatted with a hanging indent.

Organization as Author

Unknown Author

NOTE: When your essay includes parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a shortened version of the source's title instead of an author's name. Use quotation marks and italics as appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations of the source above would appear as follows: (Merriam-Webster's, 1993).

Two or More Works by the Same Author

Use the author's name for all entries and list the entries by the year (earliest comes first).

When an author appears both as a sole author and, in another citation, as the first author of a group, list the one-author entries first.

References that have the same first author and different second and/or third authors are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the second author, or the last name of the third if the first and second authors are the same.

Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year

If you are using more than one reference by the same author (or the same group of authors listed in the same order) published in the same year, organize them in the reference list alphabetically by the title of the article or chapter. Then assign letter suffixes to the year. Refer to these sources in your essay as they appear in your reference list, e.g.: "Berdnt (1981a) makes similar claims..."

Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, and Afterwords

Cite the publishing information about a book as usual, but cite Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword (whatever title is applicable) as the chapter of the book.

The following rules for handling works by a single author or multiple authors apply to all APA-style references in your reference list, regardless of the type of work (book, article, electronic resource, etc.)

Single Author

Last name first, followed by author initials.

Two Authors

List by their last names and initials. Use the ampersand instead of "and."

Three to Seven Authors

List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, while the last author name is preceded again by ampersand.

More Than Seven Authors

List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the sixth author's name, use an ellipses in place of the author names. Then provide the final author name. There should be no more than seven names. 

Summary:

APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6^th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6^th ed., 2^nd printing).

Contributors:Joshua M. Paiz, Elizabeth Angeli, Jodi Wagner, Elena Lawrick, Kristen Moore, Michael Anderson, Lars Soderlund, Allen Brizee, Russell Keck
Last Edited: 2012-10-31 09:49:18