APA Citation Style

See rules 6.22 to 6.32 of the APA Publication Manual for more information on the preparation of the reference list.

• Check with your professor before modifying APA style for your assignment.
• This format is also used for an APA annotated bibliography.

Formatting the Reference List

• The list of sources at the end of the paper (bibliography) is called the reference list.
• The reference list must include all references cited in the text of your paper.
• Start a References list on a new page.
• Entries should have a hanging indent of 1/2 inch or 5 spaces for the second and subsequent lines of each entry (as used in this guide).
• Double-space your list of references unless you have been told to single-space to save space.
• Disable URL hyperlinks (they should not appear underlined in a different colour.)
• The chosen format should be consistent throughout the references.

Formatting References

• When the author is a group (governmental department, agency, association or institution) use the full name rather than abbreviation.
• When a work has no author the title moves into the author position.
• When citing books, articles or chapters (not periodicals), capitalize only the first word of the title, the first word after a colon or period and any proper nouns. (Rule 6.29, p. 185)
• It is rare that an issue number is included. It is used only if the journal is paginated separately by issue.
• If more than one city of publication is listed in the book you are citing, use the first one listed.
• For webpages, look for the date when the content was created. Do not use the website’s copyright date.
• If there is no date of publication, use the abbreviation “(n.d.)”.
• When citing webpages, be sure that it really is a webpage and not a journal article, or report that you found on the Internet.
• A DOI (digital object identifier) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the Internet. Not all journals have a DOI so please consult the APA Guide section on how to treat those citations.
• Use italics for standalone items (e.g., book, e-book, report [technical, government, etc.], dissertation, thesis, film, video, television series, podcast, YouTube video, artwork, map, music album, paintings, photos, unpublished manuscript). Do not use italics for something that is part of a greater whole (e.g., journal article, book chapter, e-book chapter, newspaper article, magazine article, blog post, television episode, webisode, webpage, tweet, Facebook update, encyclopedia entry, Wikipedia entry, dictionary entry, song).

Ordering References

• Entries are in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author (Rule 6.25, p. 181)
  • Alphabetize letter by letter "Nothing precedes something" 'Brown, J. R.' comes before 'Browning, A. F.'
  • For the authors’ names, use surnames and initials: 'Smith, J.', not 'Smith, Jennifer'.
  • For several works by the same author cite them in your reference list by year of publication with the earliest first - Smith, A. (1999) . Smith, A. (2002)