What Is APA Style?
The American Psychological Association (APA) citation style is widely used in the social sciences, education, engineering, and business. It provides a uniform system for documenting sources, allowing readers to locate the original works while giving credit to the authors. The most recent edition is the 7th edition, published in 2019.
InText Citations
Intext citations appear directly after the quoted or paraphrased material. The basic format is (Author, year). If you include a direct quote, add the page number:
- Paraphrase:
(Smith, 2020) - Direct quote:
(Smith, 2020, p. 15)
When a source has two authors, cite both names every time: (Brown & Lee, 2018). For three or more authors, use the first authors surname followed by et al.: (Garcia et al., 2021).
If you mention the author in the narrative, only the year (and page, if needed) is placed in parentheses:
According to Johnson (2019), the data show a significant increase.
Reference List
The reference list is a singlespaced, alphabetically ordered list of all sources cited in the paper. Each entry uses a hanging indent (first line flush left, subsequent lines indented).
General format:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of the work: Subtitle if any. Source/Publisher. DOI or URL
Key elements:
- Authors: List up to 20 authors; for more than 20, list the first 19, an ellipsis, then the final author.
- Year: Put in parentheses followed by a period.
- Title: Sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns capitalized). Italicize the title of books and reports; capitalize the journal name.
- Source: For journal articles, include the journal title, volume (italicized), issue number (in parentheses), and page range.
- DOI/URL: Provide a DOI when available; otherwise include the direct URL.
Common Source Types
Book
Brown, L. M. (2017). Research methods in psychology. Sage Publications.
Edited Book Chapter
Rivera, P. J. (2020). Social cognition in adolescence. In S. R. Miller & T. L. Green (Eds.), Handbook of developmental psychology (pp. 112134). Wiley.
Journal Article (with DOI)
Khan, R., & Patel, S. (2021). Mindfulness and academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 113(2), 245260. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000456
Online News Article
Thompson, J. (2022, March 10). Climate change impacts on coastal cities. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/10/climate-change-coastal-cities
Webpage with No Author
American Psychological Association. (2020). APA style blog: How to cite a website. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-website
Tips & Common Errors
- Use the correct punctuation. Periods separate most elements; commas separate author names; ampersand (&) joins the last two authors.
- Pay attention to capitalization. Only the first word of a title and proper nouns are capitalized; journal titles use title case.
- Include a DOI whenever possible. It provides a permanent link.
- Never use Retrieved from unless a retrieval date is needed. Retrieval dates are only required for content that changes over time (e.g., wikis).
- Check the 20author rule. For works with more than 20 authors, list the first 19, then an ellipsis, then the last author.
- Use a hanging indent. Most word processors have a builtin style for APA references.
