The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries

APA Style Guide 5th Edition

Getting started:
1) APA requires a hanging indent for its citations.
2) PLEASE BE SURE TO DOUBLE SPACE CITATIONS. (For space saving reasons, the citations below are single spaced.)
3) Entitle your reference sheet "References."
4) Alphabetize the works.

If your source does not appear on this sheet, consult the APA guide available on Reserve or at the Information Services desk. Also see the USM Libraries' tutorial on APA formatting. For in text citations see: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/research/apaintext.html.

Books

Typical book entry -- single author

Arnheim, R. (1971). Art and visual perception. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Publishing information - Spell out the publishing names of associations and university presses, but omit superfluous terms such as "Publishers," "Co.," or "Inc." If two or more locations are given, give the location listed first or the publisher's home office. When the pubisher is a university and the name of the state (or province) is included in the university name, do not repeat the name of the state/province in the publisher location. When the author and publisher are identical, use the word "Author" as the name of the publisher.

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Multiple authors
When a work has up to (and including) six authors, cite all authors. When a work has more than six authors cite the first six followed by "et al."

Festinger, L., Riecken, H., & Schachter, S. (1956). When prophecy fails. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Roeder, K., Howdeshell, J., Fulton, L., Lochhead, M., Craig, K., Peterson, R., et.al. (1967). Nerve cells and insect behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Corporate authorship

Institute of Financial Education. (1982). Managing personal funds. Chicago: Midwestern.

No author identified

Experimental psychology. (1938). New York: Holt.

Citing items in an anthology/chapter in edited book

Rubenstein, J.P. (1967). The effect of television violence on small children. In B.F. Kane (Ed.), Television and juvenile psychological development (pp. 112-134). New York: American Psychological Society.

Reprinted or republished chapter

Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 19, pp. 3-66). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923)

Following the entry, enclose "Original work published" in parentheses, noting the original date.

Chapter in a volume in a series

Maccoby, E.E., & Martin, J. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent-child interaction. In P.H. Mussen (Series Ed.) & E.M. Hetherington (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (4th ed., pp. 1-101). New York: Wiley.

Citing multivolume works

Wilson, J. G., & Fraser, F. C. (Eds.). (1977-1978). Handbook of teratology (Vols. 1-4). New York: Plenum Press.

In listing a multivolume work, the publication dates should be inclusive for all volumes. The volumes should be identified, in parentheses, immediately following the book title. Do not use a period between the title and the parenthetical information; close the entire title, including the volume information, with a period.

Edited collections

Higgins, J. (Ed.). (1988). Psychology. New York: Norton.

Grice, H. P., & Gregory, R. L. (Eds.). (1968). Early language development. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Citing specific editions of a book

Brockett, O. (1987). History of the theatre (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Immediately after the book's title, note the edition information in parentheses (for example, "5th ed." or "rev. ed."). Do not use a period between the title and the parenthetical information.

Translated works

Freud, S. (1970) An outline of psychoanalysis (J. Strachey, Trans.). New York: Norton. (Original work published 1940)

The original publication date is the last portion of the entry and should be in parentheses with the note "Original work published" followed by the date.

Proceedings

Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1991). A motivational approach to self: Integrataion in personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 38. Perspectives on motivation (pp. 237-288). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Cynx, J., Williams, H., & Nottebohm, F. (1992). Hemispheric diffences in avian song discrimation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 89, 1372-1375.

Journals

Citing articles in journals with continuous pagination

Passons, W. (1967). Predictive validities of the ACT, SAT, and high school grades for first semester GPA and freshman courses. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 27, 1143-1144.

Citing articles in journals with non-continuous pagination

Sawyer, J. (1966). Measurement and prediction, clinical and statistical. Psychological Bulletin, 66(3), 178-200.

Because pagination begins anew with each issue of this journal, it is necessary to include the issue number in parentheses after the volume number. Note that there is a comma between the issue number and the page numbers, but no comma between the italized volume number and the issue number. If the periodical does not use volume numbers, include "pp." before the page numbers so the reader will understand that the numbers refer to pagination. Use "p." if the source is a page or less long.

Citing articles in monthly periodicals

Chandler-Crisp, S. (1988, May) "Aerobic writing": A writing practice model. Writing Lab Newsletter, pp. 9-11.

Citing articles in weekly periodicals

Kauffmann, S. (1993, October 18). On films: Class consciousness. The New Republic, p.30.

Newspaper articles

Monson, M. (1993, September 16). Urbana firm obstacle to office project. The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, pp. A1,A8.

No author identified

Clinton puts 'human face' on health-care plan. (1993, September 16). The New York Times, p. B1.

Reprinted or republished articles

Clark, G., & Zimmerman, E. (1988). Professional roles and activities as models for art education. In S. Dobbs (Ed.), Research readings for discipline-based art education. Reston, VA: NAEA. (Reprinted from Studies in Art Education, 19 (1986), 34-39.)

Following the entry, enclose "Reprinted from" in parentheses, noting the original publication information. Close with a period.

ERIC Documents (Report available from the Educational Resources Information Center)

Mead, J.V. (1992). Looking at old photographs: Investigating the teacher tales that novice teachers bring with them (Report No. NCRTL-RR-92-4). East Lansing, MI: National Center for Research on Teacher Learning. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED346082)

Dissertations

Dissertation obtained from Proquest's Dissertations & Theses

Saunders, M. D. (1990). Eastern's pilot rebellion: Patterns of conflict rhetoric preceding the 1989 pilot walkout at Eastern Airlines. Ph.D. dissertation, The Florida State University, United States -- Florida. Retrieved February 20, 2008, from ProQuest Digital Dissertations database. (Publication No. AAT 9103113).

Dissertation obtained from the university:

Ross, D. F. (1990). Unconscious transference and mistaken identity: When a witness misidentifies a familiar but innocent person from a lineup (Doctoral dissertaton, Cornell University, 1990). Dissertation Abstracts International, 51, 417.

Give the university and year of the dissertation as well as the volume and page numbers from the Dissertation Abstract International.

Other Media

Citing interviews

Archer, N. (1993). [Interview with Helen Burns, author of Sense and Perception]. Journal of Sensory Studies, 21, 211-216.

In this example, the interview lacks a title, so a description of the interview is given in brackets. If the interview has a title, include the title (without quotation marks) after the year, and then give a further description in brackets if necessary.

Unpublished interviews do not need a reference page entry because they are what the Publication Manual of the APA calls "personal communications" and so "do not provide recoverable data." Here, the entry consists of the first initial and last name of the interviewee, the type of communication, and the date of the interview.

(N. Archer, personal interview, October 11, 1993)

Citing films or videotapes
[Motion picture] replaces Film and Videotape as a bracketed descriptor.

Weir, P.B. (Producer), & Harrison, B.F. (Director). (1992). Levels of consciousness [Motion picture]. Boston, MA: Filmways.

Here, the main people responsible for the videotape are given, with their roles identified in parentheses after their names. After the title, the medium is identified (here, a motion picture). The distributor's name and location comprises the last part of the entry.

Citing recordings

Writer, A. (Date of copyright). Title of song [Recorded by artist if different from writer]. On Title of album [Medium of recording: CD, record, cassette, etc.]. Location: Label. (Recording date if different than copyright)

McFerrin, Bobby (Vocalist). (1990). Medicine music [Cassette Recording]. Hollywood, CA: EMI-USA.

Electronic Information

The type of medium can be, but is not limited to the following: aggregated databases, online journals, Web sites or Web pages, newsgoups, Web- or e-mail based discussion groups or Web or e-mail based newsletters. Pagination in electronic references is unavailable in many cases, thus left out of the citation. The APA Manual has a short section demonstrating the format for electronic references on pp. 268-281. For other examples, visit http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

Citing computer software

Arend, Dominic N. (1993). Choices (Version 4.0) [Computer software]. Champaign, IL: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Research Laboratory. (CERL Report No.CH7-22510)

If an individual(s) has proprietary rights to the software, their name(s) are listed at the head of the entry, last names first, followed by a period. Otherwise, treat such references as unauthored. Do not italize the title. Specify in brackets that the source is computer software, program or language. List the location and the organization's name that produced the program. Add any other necessary information for identifying the program (in this example, the report number) in parentheses at the entry's conclusion. To reference a manual, follow the same as above but add "manual" as the source in the bracketed information. Do not add a period at the end of a citation if it ends in a web address.

Full-Text Database (i.e., book, magazine, newspaper article or report)
The second date which follows is the date the user retrieved the material. No period follows an Internet Web address.

Schneiderman, R. A. (1997). Librarians can make sense of the Net. San Antonio Business Journal, 11, 58+. Retrieved January 27, 1999, from EBSCO Masterfile database.

Article in an Internet-only journal

Kawasaki, J. L., & Raven, M.R. (1995). Computer-administered surveys in extension. Journal of Extension, 33, 252-255. Retrieved June 2, 1999, from http://joe.org/joe/index.html

Article in an Internet-only newsletter

Waufton, K.K. (1999, April). Dealing with anthrax. Telehealth News, 3(2). Retreived December 16, 2000, from http://www.telehearlth.net/subscribe/newslettr_5b.html#1

Internet technical or research reports

University of California, San Francisco, Institute for Health and Aging. (1996, November). Chronic care in America: A 21st century challenge. Retrieved September 9, 2000, from the Robert Wood Foundation Web site: http://www.rwjf.org/library/chrcare

Document created by private organization, no page numbers, no date

Greater Hattiesburg Civic Awareness Group, Task Force on Sheltered Programs. (n.d.). Fund-raising efforts. Retreived November 10, 2001, from http://www.hattiesburgcag.org

Sometimes authors are not identified, and there is no date showing for the document. Date website was accessed should be used and efforts should be made to identify the sponsoring author/organization of the website. If none is found, do not list an author.

Document from university program or department

McNeese, M.N. (2001). Using technology in educational settings. Retrieved October 13, 2001, from University of Southern Mississippi, Educational Leadership and Research Web site: http://www-dept.usm.edu/~eda/

E-Mail, newsgroups, online forums, discussion groups and electronic mailing lists

Personal communications, which are not archived, should not included in reference lists and cited within the text only: Smith, Fred ("personal communication," January 21, 1999)

If archived

Hammond, Tl (2000, November 20). YAHC: Handle Parameters, DOI Genres, etc. Message posted to Ref-Links electronic mailing list, archived at http://www.doi.org/mail-archive/ref-link/msg00088.html

Disclaimer: USM Libraries offer this handout as a guide only. We cannot offer suggestions or interpretations about citations. Please refer to the actual Style Manual or your teacher for clarifications.

Last modified: August 2006