APA Documentation: Print References
The following conforms the the Publication Manual of
the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition. The brief guide is only
meant as an introduction to the APA style. Please consult the full manual
for more detailed information. Boatwright Library has copies available at
the Reference Desk and on reserve.
APA style of documentation is used in psychology, anthropology and other disciplines,
particularly in the social sciences. It uses a parenthetical format (as opposed
to footnoting) and has a reference list at the end. APA style is clear and concise,
so that those reading scientific articles may easily locate the information
they need.
- You must include the author and the year of the source you are quoting.
The author's name may be fitted into the text of the sentence or placed in
parentheses at the end. For example:
"Furthermore, H.J. Eysenck (1967) found that..."
"Noise has been reported to increase aggressiveness in some situations"
(Mueller, 1983).
- Two (or more) authors can either be fitted into the text of the sentence:
"In a study conducted outside the laboratory, Campbell and Hawley (1982)
found that..."
- Or they can be placed at the end, in which case you use an ampersand (&)
between them:
"...introverts and extroverts did not differ in tolerance" (Rossi
& Solomon, 1965, 1966).
- If you cite a work with three-to-five authors, you must mention all their
names the first time you cite them, but you may use the Latin abbreviation
"et al." each subsequent time you mention them. For six or more
authors, the first name and "et al." suffice in the text.
- When using a direct quotation, type the author, year and page number:
Smith found that the error was due to "quotation here" (Smith,
1990, p.421).
- A secondary citation occurs when you mention work cited by the authors whose
article you are reading. In the reference list, list only the source containing
the cited material.In the text it would appear like this:
Daoussis and McKelvie (cited in Standing, Lynn and Moxness, 1990) found that...
Some helpful hints for using the APA style:
Wherever possible, we have used the latest edition of the APA Publication Manual:
- the left, right, top and bottom margins are all set to 2.54 cm, or 1 inch.
The entire paper is double-spaced
- all authors that you mention in the text must appear in your reference
list, and all authors in your reference list must have been mentioned in your
text.
- rephrase sentences to avoid sexist language.
- in most cases, the numbers zero through nine are spelled out, while the
numbers 10 and above are written as numbers (see the APA manual for more specifics).
- read over recent journal articles to get a sense of APA style.
The Reference List:
This is double-spaced, with the word "References" centered at the
top but not underlined. It is ordered alphabetically by the authors' last names.
All first names are abbreviated by initials. For sample references, please consult
UR library's APA
citation page.
Writer's
Web Topics