Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction (1:54)
Reused under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license from NCSU Libraries
The citations below are a few specific examples using the APA style manual; however, it's best to consult the full and most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which can be found at Parks Library Reference Desk, BF76.7 P83 2009.
Journal article in print:
Author, A. (Date). Article title. Journal title, vol#, pp#s.
Monaghan, P.L. (2002, October 11). A House of their Own. Chronicle of Higher Education, 44(7), A56.
Journal article, accessed online:
Author, A. (Date). Article title. Journal Title, vol#, pp#s.
Rousseau, S. (2015). The role of organic and fair trade labels when choosing chocolate. Food Quality and Preference, 44, 92-100. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2015.04.002
If no doi, include "Retrieved from: http://www...." with the url of the homepage or database in place of the doi.
Print book:
Author, A. (Date). Book title in italics. Place of Publication: Publisher.
Carter, M.W., & Price, C.C. (2000). Operations research: A practical introduction. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Biography in print:
Author, A. (Date). Book Title in Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher.
Gross, E. & Rottman, F. (1999). Halston: an American original. New York: HarperCollins.
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.
According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).
Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what implications does this have for teachers?
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.
She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.
Place direct quotations that are 40 words, or longer, in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
Jones's (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style,
especially when it was their first time citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)
If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference, but APA guidelines encourage you to also provide the page number (although it is not required.)
According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.
APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998, p. 199).
Source: Purdue's Online Writing Lab.