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Psychological Science Research Guide: APA Citation

In-Text Citations

In-text documentation is done through an author-date system, allowing the reader to locate your citation in your Reference list.
 
If the name of the author appears in the text, cite only the year of publication in parentheses (example 1).  Otherwise, place both the author's name and date of publication in parentheses, separated by a comma (example 2).  If both the author and year appear in the text, do not include a parenthetical citation.
 
Example 1: Jenkins (2003) described the beginning stages...
Example 2: In the beginning stages... (Jenkins, 2003)
 
For 2 authors: cite both names every time
For more than 2 authors: cite all authors the first time, then only the 1st author plus et. al. subsequently

APA Style

APA (American Psychological Association) Style originated in 1929, when a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers convened and sought to establish a simple set of procedures, or style rules, that would codify the many components of scientific writing to increase the ease of reading comprehension. Today APA is mostly used in the social and applied sciences, psychology, and education disciplines.

Books

Print Book

Structure:    Last, F. M. (Year Published) Book. City, State: Publisher.

Example:    James, H. (1937). The ambassadors. New York, NY: Scribner.

Online Book

Format:       Last, F. M. (Year Published). Book. Retrieved from URL

Example:    Morem, S. (2005). 101 tips for graduates. Retrieved from                                                                                   http://www.infobasepublishing.com

Journal Articles

Print Journal

Structure:     Last, F. M., & Last, F. M. (Year Published). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp.                              Pages.

Example:    Jacoby, W. G. (1994). Public attitudes toward government spending. American Journal of                              Political Science, 38(2), 336-361.

Journal from Online Database

Format:       Last, F. M. (Year Published). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. Page(s).                                      Retrieved from URL

Example:   Jacoby, W. G. (1994). Public attitudes toward government spending. American Journal of                               Political Science, 38(2), 336-361. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.

Websites

Structure:     Last, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Retrieved from URL

Example:     Satalkar, B. (2010, July 15). Water aerobics. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com

Additional Resources