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Citation Styles Overview

American Psychological Association (APA) Style is often used in the behavioral and social sciences fields. 

psychology - sociology - education - communication - business

References

Book (Print)

Author, A. A. (Copyright Year). Title of book. Publisher.

Examples:  Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books.

Burley, J., & Harris, J. (2002). A companion to genethics. Blackwell.


Book with DOI or URL (Electronic)

Author, A. A. (Copyright Year). Title of book. Publisher. DOI or URL 

Example:  Rabinowitz, F. E. (2019). Deepening group psychotherapy with men: Stories and insights for the journey. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000132-000

 

Journal Article without DOI (Print)

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Name of the Periodical, volume(issue), #-#

Example:  Ahmann, E., Tuttle, L. J., Saviet, M., & Wright, S. D. (2018). A descriptive review of ADHD coaching research: Implications for college students. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 31(1), 17-39

 

Journal Article with DOI (Electronic) 

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Name of the Periodical, volume(issue), #-#. https://doi.org/xxxx

Example:  McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1-51. https://doi.org/10.103/rev0000126

 

Webpage on a Website

Author, A.A. (Year, Month Date). Use the page title. Source. http://xxxxx

Example:  Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost.

           https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e

 

In-text Citation - APA

Parenthetical Citation

A parenthetical citation is both the author and the date, separated by a comma. It can appear within or at the end of a sentence. When a parenthetical citation is at the end of a sentence, put the period after the closing parenthesis.

Example:  Falsely balanced news coverage can distort the public's perception of expert consensus on an issue (Koehler, 2016).

 

Narrative Citation

A narrative citation is when the author appears in running text and the date appears in parentheses immediately after the author name for a narrative citation. 

Example:  Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage. 

 

In rare cases, the author and date might both appear in the narrative - in this case, do not use parentheses. 

Example:  In 2016, Koehler noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.

 

Citing Multiple Works

When citing multiple works, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons. 

Example:  (Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017)