APA Citation Guidelines

When writing academically, it is very important to properly cite and reference the materials used in your writing. Proper citation allows your readers to further explore your particular subject matter. Citing also protects you against plagiarism by clearly indicating and differentiating which information comes from other sources and which is your own work and writing. Following a uniform style, such as the APA style guide, helps display your facts, key points, and scientific findings simply and clearly for your readers. Finally, by following a uniform style, the publication process is more efficient for author and publisher alike, allowing for the swift and accurate typesetting of your work.

The APA, or American Psychological Association, style was created in 1929 with the goal of setting down a set of rules and standards for scientific writing that would simplify the style while increasing reader comprehension. IGI Global has chosen the APA style for its simplicity, its ease of use, and its focus on scientific subjects. Below is a guide that we at IGI Global hope will aid our authors in the use of the APA style.

In-Text Citations

In-text citations are used to show where you retrieved the information that you are using to make specific arguments in your writing. In the APA Publication Manual (7th edition), in-text citations are covered on pages 253-278.

Below are some general rules to follow when using in-text citations.

APA Citation Basics

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998).

Note: In-text citations may NOT be indicated by bracketed numbers. If your in-text citations do not follow the author-date method, please correct them prior to submission.

If you are referring to an idea from another work but not directly quoting the material, or making reference to an entire book, article, or other work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication and not the page number in your in-text citation. All sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

Types of Citations

Integrated Citations

A work that is directly referenced within the text by the author’s, or multiple authors’, name is called an integrated citation. When this happens, cite the source by placing the year of publication in parentheses following the author’s name, as in the following example:

The work of Jones (1998) has been used by many professors to show . . .

When there is an integrated citation for a work with multiple authors, separate the authors with the word “and.” For example:

Jones and Collymore (1994) showed in their previous work that . . .

In an integrated citation that includes “et al.” (see In-Text Citations: Author/Authors), you would write the citation as such:

Park et al. (2003) discuss the prospect of having more than eight signatures. . . .

When writing an integrated citation for multiple citations, treat each citation as its own integrated citation. You would then separate the citations by a comma and an “and” between the last two citations.

The authors of Dalglish (1977), Jones (1998), Jones and Collymore (1994), and Park et al. (2003) discuss in their research . . .

Parenthetical Citations

If the work is not directly referenced in the text but still needs to be cited, the citation will be moved to the end of the sentence, and the author’s name will be included along with the publication year, as in the following example:

(Churchill, 1943).

A more detailed discussion of parenthetical citations can be found in the In-Text Citations: Author/Authors section.

Paraphrasing Materials

When using information from one of your sources, but not directly quoting text from that work, this is paraphrasing. When paraphrasing a sources work, you must cite their work by listing their name and the year of publication where the information is used, like so:

Although the APA style can seem difficult, it often is very easy to use once it has been practiced (Jones, 1998).

While a page number is not required for paraphrased material, it is often preferred since this can help your readers find the exact source of the information. The page, or range of pages, where the information is found is identified by a “p.” for a single page or “pp.” for multiple pages. For example:

Although the APA style can seem difficult, it often is very easy to use once it has been practiced (Jones, 1998, pp. 24-32).

When you are citing an electronic, online material, or a source that doesn’t have a page number, use the paragraph number where the information is found. The paragraph number is indicated by “para.”An online source cited like this would look like this:

The APA style has shown a 25% increase in knowledge retention (Jones, 1998, para. 3).

Never use the page numbers of Web pages you print out, because different computers can print out Web pages with different pagination.

Quotations

If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference (preceded by "p."). Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses, as in an integrated citation.

According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).

If the author is not named in a signal phrase, place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation, as in a parenthetical citation.

She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.

The following section presents a more in-depth discussion of parenthetical and integrated in-text citations.

In-Text Citations: Author/Authors

APA style has a series of important rules on using author names as part of the author-date system. In this section, we will go over the rules dealing primarily with author names and publication dates.

Citing an Author or Authors

A basic citation will always use the author-date system shown above in the APA Citation Basics section. The pages the information is found on can also be included.

(Dalglish, 1977, pp. 47-49)

A Work by Two Authors

Name both authors in the parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within an integrated citation, and use an ampersand (&) in a parenthetical citation:

(Dalglish & Rush, 1983)

A Work by More Than Two Authors

List the first author followed by et al.

(Barnes et al., 1988)

Unknown Author

If there is no author listed for the source, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase, or use the first word or two in a parenthetical citation. Titles of books and reports are italicized or underlined; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are placed in quotation marks.

A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using APA," 2001).

In “Using APA” (2001), students learned to format research papers.

Note: In the rare case "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.

Organization as an Author

If the author is an organization or a government agency, write the organization’s full name in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source.

The purpose of the style was to give clarity and simplicity to the writing (American Psychological Association, 2000).

According to the American Psychological Association (2000), . . .

If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations.

First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000)

Second citation: (MADD, 2000)

Two or More Works Cited at the Same Time

When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list, separated by a semi-colon.

(Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)

If multiple works by the same author or authors are cited simultaneously, use commas between the publication years, again, listing the sources in the same order that they appear in the reference list.

(Berndt, 2002, 2004)

Authors with the Same Last Name

To prevent confusion, use first initials when last names are the same. The first initial should appear before the last name of the authors.

(G. Johnson, 2001; P. Johnson, 1998)

Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year

If you have two sources by the same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the entries in the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text citation.

Research has shown (Allen, 2013a) that . . .

It was later discovered that these signs were indicative of a great underlying cause (Allen, 2013b).

Personal Communication

For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person communication, cite the communicator’s name, the fact that it was personal communication, and the date of the communication. Do not include personal communication in the reference list.

Many students have difficulty with the APA style initially (E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).

A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2002).

Citing Indirect Sources

If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source (the source that was cited) in your signal phrase. List the secondary source (the source that cited the original source) in your reference list and cite the secondary source in parentheses.

Johnson argued that . . . (as cited in Smith, 2003, p. 102).

Unknown Date

If no date is given, use the abbreviation "n.d." (meaning "no date") in the place of a publication year.

Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with tutoring (Sterling, n.d.).

Reference List

Unlike in-text citations, reference citations include additional details beyond author and date. Each reference citation is made up of four parts: Author, Date, Title, and Publication Data. This information will be listed at the end of your article under the subtitle “References.” In the APA Publication Manual (7th edition), references, with examples, are covered on pages 313-352.

The following is a step-by-step guide to building a reference citation using each of these four parts.

Reference List: Author/Authors

The following rules for handling works by a single author or multiple authors apply to all APA-style references in your reference list, regardless of the type of work (book, article, electronic resource, etc.).

Single Author

List the author’s last name first, followed by the author’s initials. For example: Fowler, R. B.

Fowler, R. B. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 7-10.

Two Authors

List authors by their last names and initials. Use an ampersand (&) instead of "and," and include a comma between them. For example: Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E.

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048.

Three to Twenty Authors

List authors by their last names and initials. Use commas to separate author names, while the last author’s name is preceded again by an ampersand. For example: Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., Harlow, T., & Bach, J. S.

Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., Harlow, T., Bach, J. S., Next, U., Thomas, I., March, K., Bishard, K., Leister, I., Ulrich, H., Brehm, M., Frey, K., Isi, M., Mel, S., Ano, D., Karatzas, K., Mart, Q., & Stevens, C. (1993). There's more to self-esteem than whether it is high or low: The importance of stability of self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1190-1204.

More Than Twenty Authors

List the last names and initials of the first nineteen authors, separated by commas. An ellipsis (. . .) will then be used, followed by the final author’s last name and initials. Never use et al. in a reference citation. For example: Miller, F. H., Choi, M. J., Angeli, L. L., Harland, A. A., Stamos, J. A., Thomas, S. T., . . . Rubin, L. H.

Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., Harlow, T., Bach, J. S., Next, U., Thomas, I., March, K., Bishard, K., Leister, I., Ulrich, H., Bre…

I am still in the process of immersing myself in the 7th edition. One area of change I see is around gender pronouns. As a faculty member, I have for many years told students to familiarize themselves with their authors, that way they care using correct gender pronouns. Now the use of they as a pronoun has become more acceptable through the APA 7th.