APA Citations   Tags: apa citation  

Double check each citation against the examples in this guide!

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is the set of rules that the APA maintains for writing research papers and citing your sources.

It is one of the most common citation styles in the sciences & social sciences and is used at the JIBC.

For more detailed information, consult the APA 6th edition manual or other APA books at the library. Also feel free to talk with a librarian for more help.

Be sure to check this APA TUTORIAL for help in formatting your essay - it shows you how to structure and format your essay, recommends ways to reduce bias, identifies how to avoid plagiarism, shows how to cite references in-text, and provides selected reference examples.

REMEMBER:  it is very important to cite your sources IN-TEXT as well as in your Reference List.  Use this Subject Guide to help you format your IN-TEXT citations and Reference List.

1. Begin your list of references on a new page at the end of the paper. Put the word References centered about one inch from the top of the page.
2. Double-space throughout.
3. Type the first line of an entry flush left, and indent any additional lines one-half inch (5 spaces).
4. For an annotated bibliography, add a brief abstract in block format after the citation. Start the abstract on a new line and indent it an additional 2 spaces.
5. Alphabetize the reference list by the last names of the authors (or editors).
6. Invert all authors’ names and use initials instead of first names. With two or more authors, use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name. Separate the names with commas. Include a space between authors’ initials if more than one name (i.e. Brown, J. A.)
7. For two or more works by the same author, arrange the entries by year, the earliest first.
8. Arrange two or more works by the same author in the same year alphabetically by title.
   1. Add the letters “a,” “b,” etc. after the year, i.e. (2002a).
   2. Do this also for articles in journals.
   3. For articles in magazines and newspapers, use the full date in the reference list: (2001a, July 7).
9. If a work has no author or editor, move the title to the author position and alphabetize by the first word of the title other than A, An, or The.
10. Italicize the titles and subtitles of books, but do not italicize article or chapter titles.
11. Capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle (and all proper nouns). Capitalize names of periodicals as you would capitalize them normally.
12. Many publishers now assign a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to journal articles, which provide a persistent link to its location on the internet. Provide the DOI if it is available. Reference to the database is no longer necessary with a DOI.
13. Abbreviations for “page” and “pages” (“p.” and “pp.”) are used before page numbers of newspaper articles and articles in edited books but not before page numbers of articles appearing in magazines and scholarly journals.

What is a DOI?

A DOI is a digital object identifier – a unique alphanumeric code that gives a persistent link to the web location for an electronic item. DOIs are commonly seen on current electronic journal articles, but are also often included in the print version of the article.

Example: doi:10.1080/14622200410001676305

Remember:

• Use a DOI (if assigned to the article) in citing articles whether accessed in the print or electronic form.
• A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is preferable to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) when citing an online resource.

How do I find the DOI for an article?

1. Check the first page of the article for a DOI.

2. DOIs are often included in database records. If you're searching a library database like Academic Search Premier, and if a DOI is assigned to an article, you will find it in the database record for that article.

3. DOIs may also be found in the bibliography of an article. If you find a DOI in a bibliography and want to find the actual article (or further citation information), you need to use a DOI resolver (see:http://dx.doi.org ).