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Cite Your Sources: APA Style 7th Edition

Overview of a Citation

Elements

  • Author - who is responsible for the work including authors, editors, film directors, podcast hosts, translators, etc.
  • Date - when the work was published
  • Title - what the work is called
  • Source - where is the work found

These elements should be put in this order.

Punctuation

  • Periods separate each element of the citation.
  • Commas or parentheses separate pieces within an element (see examples below).
    • Use a comma to separate multiple authors.
    • Use a comma to separate the journal name and volume number
    • Use parentheses to separate the journal issue from the volume number.
  • Italicize punctuation within an italicized element but not the punctuation after an italicized element.
    • E.g. italicize the colon in a title.
    • Do not italicize the comma after a journal title.

APA Examples

Type of Entry Reference List In-Text Citation*

Book: 1 Author

Haleta, L. L. (2013). Public speaking: Strategic choices. Morton Publishing.

(Haleta, 2013)

Book: 3-20 Authors

Griffiths, A. J. F., Miller, J. H., Suzuki, D. T., Lewontin, R. C., & Gelbart, W. M. (1996). An introduction to genetic analysis (6th ed.). Freeman and Company.

(Griffiths et al., 1996)

Book: Edited

O'Neil, M. J., Heckelman, P. E., Dobbelaar, P. H., & Roman, K. J. (Eds.). (2013). The Merck index: An encyclopedia of chemicals, drugs, and biologicals (15th ed.). Royal Society of Chemistry.

(O'Neil et al., 2013)

Journal Article: With DOI

Gutenbrunner, L. & Wagner, U. (2016). Perspective-taking techniques in the mediation of intergroup conflict. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 22(4), 298-305. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000184

(Gutenbrunner & Wagner, 2016)

Journal Article: Without DOI

Tuason, V. B. (1973). Recognizing and treating depression. Geriatrics, 28(12), 99-102.

(Tuason, 1973)

Magazine Article

Steinmetz, K. (2015, October 26). Help! My parents are millennials. Time Magazine 186(14), 36-43.

(Steinmetz, 2015)

Newspaper Article

Two cops injured on Hobo Day weekend. (2016, October 25). The Brookings Register, A1, A2.

(Two cops, 2016)

Article with no author

Medications + counseling: The 'new paradigm' in alcoholism treatment. (2005, July 25). Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly 17(28), 1-3.

(Medications + counseling, 2005)

Website

American Nurses Credentialing Center. (2013). How to display your credentials. http://www.nursecredentialing.org/displaycredentials-brochure.pdf

(American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2013)

YouTube

RegisteredNurseRN. (2016, April 8). Hypertension nursing NCLEX review [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQHkGZjfuc8

(RegisteredNurseRN, 2016)

* In text citations are listed as they would be included for a paraphrase. Note that for a quotation, you would need to include the page number. The in-text citation (Haleta, 2013) is for a paraphrase but (Haleta, 2013, p. 10) is for a quotation.

Missing elements

Missing elements of citations and the solutions
Missing element Solution Reference list entry In-text citation
Author Move the title to the front of the entry Title. (Date). Source.

(Title, year)

Title (year)
Date Write "n.d." (for "no date") where the date would normally occur. Author. (n.d.). Title. Source.

(Author, n.d.)

Author (n.d.)
Title Replace the title with a description of the item in square brackets Author. (Date). [Description of work]. Source.

(Author, year)

Author (year)
Author and Date Move the title to the front of the entry and use "n.d." (for "no date") in the date space Title. (n.d.). Source.

(Title, n.d.)

Title (n.d.)
Author and Title Describe the work in square brackets as the first element. [Description of work]. (Date). Source.

([Description], year)

[Description] (year)
Date and Title Use "n.d." (for "no date") in the date place and put a description of the work in square brackets. Author. (n.d.). [Description of work]. Source.

(Author, n.d.)

Author (n.d.)
Author, Date, and Title Describe the work in square brackets as the first element and use "n.d." (for "no date") in the date space. [Description of work]. (n.d.). Source.

([Description], n.d.)

[Description] (n.d.)
Source Cite as a personal communication or find another work to cite. No reference list entry

(C. C. Communicator, personal communication, month day, year)

C.C. Communicator (personal communication, month day, year)

 

Introduction

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More Information

Use these sites to help you learn APA Style.

Citation engines and databases will help you create your citations. CAUTION! While these tools may save time, they usually do not generate error-free citations. You will need to check over the citations carefully.

The citation engines are not currently generating citation using APA 7th edition. We will link to them when they are updated to the current version.

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