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APA Style Guide: References

APA style according to the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

References Page

References page

The References page follows the last page of your text, beginning with a new page. It documents sources cited and provides information to access each source.

  • The word "References" should be bolded and centered at the top of the page.  Keep the running head of your paper and follow the page number order.
  • Arrange items in alphabetical order by first word of the entry.
  • List all authors in the order given up to and including 20 authors. For more than 20 authors, list the first 19 followed by a comma ellipsis (...) then the final author.
  • Capitalize the first word of article/book titles, subtitles and any proper nouns.
  • Italicize longer works, such as book and periodical titles, use upper and lower case as given.
  • Use hanging indent and double space the entire page - no extra lines between items.
  • Copy URLs where appropriate (to remove underlining in Word, right click on URL and select Remove Hyperlink).
  • If no publication date is available, write "n.d." in the parenthesis.
  • If URL or DOI is included, do not end reference with a period.

Books and other non-periodicals

Author, A. A. (1999). Title of work: Subtitle. Publisher.

Mitchell, T. R., & Larson, J. R., Jr. (1987). People in organizations: An introduction to organizational behavior (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Ebooks

Janek, E. (2010). A short history of Wisconsin. Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/edgewood/Doc?id=10723941

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success [Kindle DX version]. Little, Brown and Company. Retrieved from Amazon.com

Chapter or part of a book

(with chapters by different authors) [7.02 p. 202]

O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys: A metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). Springer.

Entry in an online encyclopedia

no author [7.02.30 p. 205]

Relativity. (2009). In Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Retrieved from http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article-9109465

Articles

Volume number is in italics; issue number is not. [6.30 p. 186].
List all authors in order given, up to 7 [6.12 p. 175]

Journal article with DOI - print or online

Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D. C., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R., DelSole, R., Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H., Gottschalck, J., Metzger, E. J., Barton, N. P., Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R., . . .  Kim, H. (2019). The subseasonal experiment (SubX): A multimodel subseasonal prediction experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100(10), 2043-2061. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0270.1

Journal article with no DOI - online

If the the journal article is published on a website, include the URL. If the article was published in a database, no URL or database information is required. The retrieval date is necessary for unarchived materials that are prone change over time.

Standard APA Style: include URL of the journal's home page

Recommendations regarding the use of vaccines that contain thimerosal. (1999, November 5). MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 48(43), 996-998. Retrieved January 28, 2022, from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/

Journal article with no DOI - print

Light, M.A. & Light, I.H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigration in the United States and its implications for local law enforcement. Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal, 8(1), 73-82.

In print magazine with issue numbers

Yapko, M. (2009, September/October). Secondhand blues: Depression is contagious. Psychology Today, 42(5), 86-93.

Print newspaper - no author

Big tobacco strikes back. (2009, September 7). The New York Times, p. A14.

Newspaper - author and discontinuous pages

McNeil, D. G., Jr. (2009, September 11). One shot seen as protective for swine flu. The New York Times, pp. A1, A13.

Eric Documents

(informally published) [see section 7.09.62 p.212 of A.P.A.]

Muhammad, B. D. (2009). Does site-based management increase student achievement? Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED505985)

Reviews

  • Identify the type of medium being reviewed in brackets - book, motion picture, TV program, etc.
  • For Book add title, by author names; For film, DVD, or other media include title, producer, year of release.
  • For untitled reviews, use information in brackets as the title and keep brackets.

Rochman, H. (2001, November 1) [Review of the book Tiger's fall ]. Booklist 98 (5), 35.

Schatz, B. R. (2000, November 17). Learning by text or context? [Review of the book The social life of information, by J. S. Brown & P. Duguid]. Science, 290, 1304. doi:10.1126/science.290.5495.1304

Websites

For reports retrieved online, identify the publisher as part of the retrieval statement unless [it] has been identified as the author: Retrieved from Agency Name website: http://www.xxxxxxx [see 7.03 p. 205]. Be sure to add the retrieval date if it's likely that the website will change over time.

Mayo Clinic staff. (2010, August 21). Symptoms. Influenza (flu). Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/influenza/DS00081/DSECTION=symptoms

Smith, S., & Jones, J. (2009). Assessing heart failure in long term care facilities. Retrieved from University of Iowa Department of Nursing, Gerontology Nursing Interventions Research Center website: http://www.nursing.uiowa.edu/sites/users/Gardery/EBP/Protocols.htm

Follow format for archival material for historical images or documents on the internet.

Milwaukee Public School rules. (1846) [Poster image]. Wisconsin Historical Images (Image ID 2205), Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved from http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/

Government & Institutional Reports

(may have corporate author) [see 7.03 p.205]

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. (2009). The assessment accommodation matrix for Wisconsin. Retrieved from http://dpi.wi.gov/oea/pdf/accom09.pdf

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. (n.d.). How to write a services plan. Retrieved from http://www.nichcy.org/babies/IFSP/Pages/default.aspx

Dissertations & Theses

Follow Basic form and add retrieval information as necessary. [7.05 p.207]

Author, A. A. (Year) Title of dissertation or master's theses (Doctoral dissertation or Master's thesis). Name of Institution, Location.

From a commercial database

McNeil. D. S. (2006) Meaning through narrative: A personal narrative discussing growing up with an alcoholic mother (Master's thesis). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 1434728)

From an institutional database

Adams, R.J. (1973) Building a foundation for evaluation of instruction in higher education and continuing education (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/

Unpublished dissertation

(for example from the library or borrowed through ILL)

Fitzgerald, M. K. (2008). Defining the transition-to-school needs of Latino English language learner families (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Edgewood College, Madison WI.

Other items

Legal Documents

Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Lessard v. Schmidt, 349 F. Supp. 1078 (E.D. Wis. 1972).

Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621 (1967).

Charter Schools, Wis. Stat. § 118.40 (2011).

Lecture Presentation

Johnson, A. (2012, April). Women's suffrage movement. Class lecture presented in HIST 352: Women in the 20th century, at Edgewood College, Madison, WI.

Muellbauer, J. (2007, September). Housing, credit, and consumer expenditure. In S. C. Ludvigson (Chair), Housing and consumer behavior. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, WY.

Video

[See Audiovisual Media for other formats 7.07 p.209]

Smith, M. (Producer/Director). (2008). Heat: A global investigation [DVD]. Alexandria, Va.: PBS Home Video.

Mobile Apps

[See also the rules for Software 7.08 p. 210]

Skyscape. (2013). Skyscape Medical Resources (Version 1.17.42) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from http://itunes.apple.com

For a reference entry within an app:

Diabetes. (2013). In Epocrates Essentials for Apple iOS (Version 5.1) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from http://www.epocrates.com/mobile/iphone/essentials

Transcript

Joyce, C. (2009, September 3). Can Dirt Really Save Us From Global Warming? [Radio program transcript]. In R. Montagne (Host), Morning Edition. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=112496096