APA FAQs:
Q: How do I cite an entire Web site (but not a specific document on that site)?
A: When citing an entire Web site, it is sufficient to give the address of the site in just the text. For example, Kidspsych is a wonderful interactive web site for children (http://www.kidspsych.org).
Q: The instructions in the Publication Manual for citing documents available on the Internet require inclusion of a date of publication or retrieval, yet Examples 73, 74, and 76 do not include "retrieved from" dates. Why is this?
A: This is an oversight. Each of these examples should include a retrieval date after the word retrieved and before the word from. Corrected examples appear in APA Style Guide for Electronic Resources as well as in the second and later printings of the manual.
Last item in citation: Retrieved month day, year, from source.
Q: How do I format a bibliography in APA style?
A: APA style calls for a list of References instead of a bibliography. The requirements of a reference list are that all references cited in the text of a paper must be listed alphabetically by first author's last name in the list of References and that all references listed must be cited within the text. A bibliography, on the other hand, typically includes resources in addition to those cited in the text and may include annotated descriptions of the items listed. In general, the list of References is double-spaced and listed alphabetically by first author's last name. For each reference, the first line is typed flush with the left margin, and any additional lines are indented as a group a few spaces to the right of the left margin (this is called a hanging indent)
Q: How do I reference a Web page that lists no author?
A: When there is no author for a Web page, the title moves to the first position of the reference entry.
The text citation would then just cite a few words of the title to point the reader to the right area of your reference list: …are most at risk of contracting the disease ("New Child," 2001).
Q: What is APA style? Can you send it to me? My paper is due, and it must be in APA style, especially references.
A: The reference format for APA style is described in the 5th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which is a large reference book that contains hundreds of guidelines on how to format references, statistics, tables, punctuation, and grammar. Y
Journal article:| Fine, M. A., & Kurdek, L. A. (1993). Reflections on determining authorship | |
 | credit and authorship order on faculty-student collaborations. American Psychologist, 48, 1141-1147. |
Book:
| Nicol, A. A. M., & Pexman, P. M. (1999). Presenting your findings: A | |
| practical guide for creating tables. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. |
Book chapter:
| O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys: | |
| Metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York: Springer. |
Q: Why is APA style needed?
A: An author writing for a publication must follow the rules established by the publisher to avoid inconsistencies among journal articles or book chapters.
For example, without rules of style, three different manuscripts might use sub-test, subtest, and Subtest in one issue of a journal or book. Although the meaning of the word is the same (in this case, subtest is APA style), such variations in style may distract or confuse the reader.
The need for a consistent style becomes more apparent when complex material is presented, such as tables or statistics.
Q: Why is there a specific APA style?
A: APA style focuses on the needs of presenting psychological information. APA style omits general rules explained in widely available style books and examples of usage with little relevance to the behavioral and social sciences.
Among the most helpful general guides to editorial style are Words into Type (Skillin & Gay, 1974) and the Chicago Manual of Style (University of Chicago Press, 1993).
Style manuals agree more often than they disagree. Where they disagree, the Publication Manual, because it is based on the special requirements of psychology, takes precedence for APA publications.
Q: Can you help with my research for my psychology paper? I'm looking for articles on a particular topic.
A: We are not able to send you specific information related to your topic, but APA might have information in one of its databases that will help you to find literature that's already been written on your topic. These databases, which contain summaries of the literature and full-text APA articles, can serve as useful tools in completing your assignments.
APA's bibliographic databases and printed indexes provide summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and other scholarly documents in psychology and related disciplines. The bibliographic literature references are accessible via a number of resources, including the PsycINFO online database, the ClinPSYC CD-ROM databases, and the printed index Psychological Abstracts.
Many university libraries and other research institutions subscribe or provide access to one or more of these resources. If you are unable to gain access through such an institution, however, another option is to establish an account through a commercial online service and do your own searching. Information is available on our PsycINFO Web site about your various access options, including access to online services via the Internet.
Q: How do I cite an entire Web site (but not a specific document on that site)?
A: When citing an entire Web site, it is sufficient to give the address of the site in just the text. For example, Kidspsych is a wonderful interactive web site for children (http://www.kidspsych.org).
Q: The instructions in the Publication Manual for citing documents available on the Internet require inclusion of a date of publication or retrieval, yet Examples 73, 74, and 76 do not include "retrieved from" dates. Why is this?
A: This is an oversight. Each of these examples should include a retrieval date after the word retrieved and before the word from. Corrected examples appear in APA Style Guide for Electronic Resources as well as in the second and later printings of the manual.
Q: Does APA offer a workbook on APA style?
A: Yes. Mastering APA Style is a workbook for learning APA style.
Q: In referencing periodicals, what's the difference between using "p." or "pp." for page numbers?
A: If a periodical includes a volume number, italicize it and then change to regular type and give the page range without "pp." 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.
Q: I publish frequently in APA journals, and I've noticed that subjects is often changed in copyediting, most often to participants. Why?
A: A couple of guidelines in chapter 2's Guidelines to Reduce Bias in Language are at work here. One is to acknowledge human participation. The other is to be specific. Subjects is a fairly nondescriptive, passive term. Identifying human subjects as participants, respondents, children, patients, clients, and so forth increases specificity. (Subjects is perfectly appropriate when the person cannot him- or herself provide informed consent.)
Q: How do I format a bibliography in APA style?
A: APA style calls for a list of References instead of a bibliography. The requirements of a reference list are that all references cited in the text of a paper must be listed alphabetically by first author's last name in the list of References and that all references listed must be cited within the text. A bibliography, on the other hand, typically includes resources in addition to those cited in the text and may include annotated descriptions of the items listed. In general, the list of References is double-spaced and listed alphabetically by first author's last name. For each reference, the first line is typed flush with the left margin, and any additional lines are indented as a group a few spaces to the right of the left margin (this is called a hanging indent, see here for an example).
Q: How do I reference a Web page that lists no author?
A: When there is no author for a Web page, the title moves to the first position of the reference entry:
| New child vaccine gets funding boost. (2001). Retrieved March 21, 2001, | |
| from http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/story_13178.asp |
The text citation would then just cite a few words of the title to point the reader to the right area of your reference list: …are most at risk of contracting the disease ("New Child," 2001).
Q: How do I cite Web site material that has no author, no year, and no page numbers?
A: Because the material does not include page numbers, you can include any of the following in the text to cite the quotation (from p. 120 of the Publication Manual):
- A paragraph number, if provided; alternatively, you could count paragraphs down from the beginning of the document.
- An overarching heading plus a paragraph number within that section.
- Nothing. Just put quotation marks around the words you're using, which the reader can use as a search string.
Because there is no date and no author, your text citation would include the first couple of words from the title and "n.d." for no date (e.g., para. 5, "Style List," n.d.). The entry in the reference list might look something like this:
| Style list for references. (n.d.). Retrieved January 1, 2001, | |
| from http://www.apa.org |
Q: What format should I follow to cite an interview?
A: An interview is not considered recoverable data, so no reference to this is provided in the References. You may, however, cite the interview within the text as a personal communication. For example,
(J. Smith, personal communication, August 15, 2001)
Q: How do I cite a source that I found in another source?
A: To cite secondary sources, refer to both sources in the text, but include in the References list only the source that you actually used. For instance, suppose you read Feist (1998) and would like to paraphrase the following sentence within that book: Bandura (1989) defined self-efficacy as "people's beliefs about their capabilities to exercise control over events that affect their lives" (p. 1175).
In this case, your in-text citation would be "(Bandura, 1989, as cited in Feist, 1998)." Feist (1998) would be fully referenced within the list of References. Bandura (1989) would not be listed. For more information on citing secondary sources, see Example 22 on p. 247 of the Publication Manual.
Q: In typing class I learned that two spaces always follow a period, but your Publication Manual says one space should follow all punctuation. Why is this?
A: Unlike manual typewriters, word-processing software uses fonts that result in proportional spacing, so additional spacing around periods is no longer necessary. Uniform spacing around punctuation also saves a step in preparing word-processing files for electronic editing. As a publisher, APA does not return manuscripts on the basis of the spacing around punctuation.
Online periodical:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (2000).
Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx, xxxxxx.
Retrieved month day, year, from source.
Online document:
Author, A. A. (2000). Title of work.
Retrieved month day, year, from source.
Electronic References
Reference Examples for Electronic Source Materials
Note: This material is extracted from the 5th edition of APA's Publication Manual (© 2001).
Citations in Text of Electronic Material
The following is excerpted from the 5th edition of the Publication Manual (© 2001) . Some elements of the fifth edition's style guidelines for electronic resources differ from previously published guidelines.
To cite a specific part of a source, indicate the page, chapter, figure, table, or equation at the appropriate point in text. Always give page numbers for quotations (see section 3.34). Note that the words page and chapter are abbreviated in such text citations:
(Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 332)
(Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3)
For electronic sources that do not provide page numbers, use the paragraph number, if available, preceded by the paragraph symbol or the abbreviation para. If neither paragraph nor page numbers are visible, cite the heading and the number of the paragraph following it to direct the reader to the location of the material (see section 3.39).
(Myers, 2000, ¶ 5)
(Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para. 1)
Types of electronic references: Internet articles based on a print source, Article in an Internet-only journal, Article in an Internet-only newsletter, Stand-alone document, no author identified, no date, Document available on university program or department Web site, Electronic copy of a journal article, three to five authors, retrieved from database, Periodicals
Internet articles based on a print source
At present, the majority of the articles retrieved from online publications in psychology and the behavioral sciences are exact duplicates of those in their print versions and are unlikely to have additional analyses and data attached. This is likely to change in the future. In the meantime, the same basic primary journal reference can be used, but if you have viewed the article only in its electronic form, you should add in brackets after the article title "Electronic version" as in the following fictitious example:
VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements in the selection of
resources by psychology undergraduates [Electronic version]. Journal of Bibliographic
Research, 5, 117-123.
If you are referencing an online article that you have reason to believe has been changed (e.g., the format differs from the print version or page numbers are not indicated) or that includes additional data or commentaries, you will need to add the date you retrieved the document and the URL.
VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements in the selection of
resources by psychology undergraduates. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123.
Retrieved October 13, 2001, from http://jbr.org/articles.html
72. Article in an Internet-only journal
Fredrickson, B. L. (2000, March 7). Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and well-being. Prevention & Treatment, 3, Article 0001a. Retrieved November 20, 2000, from http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre0030001a.html
74. Article in an Internet-only newsletter
Glueckauf, R. L., Whitton, J., Baxter, J., Kain, J., Vogelgesang, S.,
* Use the complete publication date given on the article.
* Note that there are no page numbers.
* In an Internet periodical, volume and issue numbers often are not relevant. If they are not used, the name of the periodical is all that can be provided in the reference.
* Whenever possible, the URL should link directly to the article.
* Break a URL that goes to another line after a slash or before a period. Do not insert (or allow your word-processing program to insert) a hyphen at the break.
Nonperiodical documents on the Internet
77. Stand-alone document, no author identified, no date
GVU's 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/usersurveys/survey1997-10/
* If the author of a document is not identified, begin the reference with the title of the document.
78. Document available on university program or department Web site
Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F., Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and
education: New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures. Retrieved August 24, 2000, from
* If a document is contained within a large and complex Web site (such as that for a university or a government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department before giving the URL for the document itself. Precede the URL with a colon.
Other Electronic Sources
88. Electronic copy of a journal article, three to five authors, retrieved from database
Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White,
L. A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved October 23, 2000, from PsycARTICLES database.
* When referencing material obtained by searching an aggregated database, follow the format appropriate to the work retrieved and add a retrieval statement that gives the date of retrieval and the proper name of the database.
Q: In referencing periodicals, what's the difference between using "p." or "pp." for page numbers?
A: If a periodical includes a volume number, italicize it and then change to regular type and give the page range without "pp." 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.
From the 5th Edition of the Publication Manual (© 2001)
Note: Some elements of the 5th edition's style guidelines for electronic resources differ from previously published guidelines.
Sources on the Internet.
The Internet is a worldwide network of interconnected computers. Although there are a number of methods for navigating and sharing information across the Internet, by far the most popular and familiar is the graphical interface of the World Wide Web. The vast majority of Internet sources cited in APA journals are those that are accessed via the Web.
The variety of material available on the Web, and the variety of ways in which it is structured and presented, can present challenges for creating usable and useful references. Regardless of format, however, authors using and citing Internet sources should observe the following two guidelines:
- Direct readers as closely as possible to the information being cited; whenever possible, reference specific documents rather than home or menu pages.
- Provide addresses that work.
Documents available via the Internet include articles from periodicals (e.g., newspaper, newsletter, or journal); they may stand on their own (e.g., research paper, government report, online book or brochure); or they may have a quintessentially Web-based format (e.g., Web page, newsgroup).
At a minimum, a reference of an Internet source should provide a document title or description, a date (either the date of publication or update or the date of retrieval), and an address (in Internet terms, a uniform resource locator, or URL). Whenever possible, identify the authors of a document as well.
The URL is the most critical element: If it doesn't work, readers won't be able to find the cited material, and the credibility of your paper or argument will suffer. The most common reason URLs fail is that they are transcribed or typed incorrectly; the second most common reason is that the document they point to has been moved or deleted.
The components of a URL are as follows:
The protocol indicates what method a Web browser (or other type of Internet software) should use to exchange data with the file server on which the desired document resides. The protocols recognized by most browsers are hypertext transfer protocol (http), hypertext transfer protocol secure (https), and file transfer protocol (ftp); other Internet protocols include telnet and gopher. In a URL, all of the protocols listed in this paragraph should be followed by a colon and two forward slashes (e.g., http://).
The host name identifies the server on which the files reside. On the Web, it is often the address for an organization's home page (e.g., http://www.apa.org is the address for APA's home page). Although most host names start with "www," not all do (for example, http://journals.apa.org is the home page for APA's electronic journals, and http://members.apa.org is the entry page to the members-only portion of the APA site). The host name is not case sensitive; for consistency and ease of reading, always type it in lowercase letters.
The rest of the address indicates the directory path leading to the desired document. This part of the URL is case sensitive; faithfully reproduce uppercase and lowercase letters and all punctuation. It is important to provide the directory path, and not just the host name, because home pages and menu pages typically consist mainly of links, only one of which may be to the document or information you want the readers to find. If there are hundreds of links (or even just 10 to 20), readers may give up in frustration before they have located the material you are citing.
If you are using a word-processing program, the easiest way to transcribe a URL correctly is to copy it directly from the address window in your browser and paste it into your paper (make sure the automatic hyphenation feature of your word processor is turned off). Do not insert a hyphen if you need to break a URL across lines; instead, break the URL after a slash or before a period.
Test the URLs in your references regularly when you first draft a paper, when you submit it for peer review, when you're preparing the final version for publication, and when you're reviewing the proofs. If the document you are citing has moved, update the URL so that it points to the correct location. If the document is no longer available, you may want to substitute another source (e.g., if you originally cited a draft and a formally published version now exists) or drop it from the paper altogether.
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