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April 05, 2016
How to Cite a Blog Post in APA Style
by Timothy McAdoo
Dear APA Style Experts,

Im a computer science major, and my favorite blog is called Gdels Lost Letter and P=NP, written by two esteemed computer science experts.
Can I cite a post from that blog? Im also writing a paper for my Introduction to Psychology class, and I want to cite the APA Books Blog. Can I?
Thanks!
AdaFan2015
Yes. You can create an APA Style reference to any retrievable source, though you should of course consider whether the source is reliable, primary, and timely.
Citing an Entire Blog
First, if you want to mention the blog as a whole, just include a mention of it in parentheses in your text, just as you would for mentioning an entire website.
Example Sentences
I really enjoy reading the new APA Books Blog (http://blog.apabooks.org).
I have learned a lot by reading the Psych Learning Curve blog
(http://psychlearningcurve.org).

Note: In the first case, the word Blog is capitalized because Blog is part of the name (APA Books Blog). In the second example, blog is not part of the name (Psych
Learning Curve).
Citing a Blog Post
However, if you are quoting or paraphrasing part of a blog post, you should create a reference to that
specific post.

The elements of the reference are as follows:

"who": This is usually one or two people but can also be a company name or other type of group author. In
the first example below, the post was credited to just Freakonomics (a screen name for the author or
authors of the blog by the same name). If a byline is not evident, look at the beginning or end of the post
for wording like posted by.

"when": Blog posts generally provide the year, month, and date. Include these within the parentheses in your reference. If the blog doesnt give that level of
detail, just include the year or year and month, if thats all you can find. (Note that your in-text citation will include only the year; see the examples below).

"what": This it the title of the blog post followed by a notation of "[Blog post]."

"where": Use Retrieved from and the URL of the blog post.
Example References
Freakonomics. (2010, October 29). E-ZPass is a life-saver (literally) [Blog post].
Retrieved from http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/e-zpass-
is-a-life-saver-literally/
Heasman, B., & Corti, K. (2015, August 18). How to build an echoborg: PhD researcher
Kevin Corti featured on the BBC [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk
/psychologylse/2015/08/18/how-to-build-an-echoborg-phd-researcher-kevin-
corti-featured-on-the-bbc/
Mathis, T. (2015, August 12). What is human systems integration? [Blog post].
Retrieved from http://blog.apabooks.org/2015/08/12/what-is-human-systems-

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integration/
rjlipton. (2015). A fast graph isomorphism algorithm [Blog post]. Retrieved from
https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/a-fast-graph-isomorphism-algorithm/

The name of the blog itself is not part of the reference, although it's often evident from the URL.
In-Text Citations

As with other APA Style references, the in-text citations will match the author name(s) and the year.
Example In-Text Citations

... according to research on the health effects of the E-ZPass (Freakonomics, 2010).
Heasman and Corti (2015) wrote about an echoborg.
Mathis (2015) stated that...
Dr. Lipton noted two problems (rjlipton, 2015).

I hope you found these examples helpful! In my next post, Ill discuss how to cite reader comments on a blog.
Posted by Timothy McAdoo at 01:32:58 PM in Blogs, How-to, In-text citations, References, Social media ShareThis

Comments

Deannajgomez dijo...
How do you cite a student handbook?
September 08, 2016 at 10:46 AM

Timothy McAdoo dijo en respuesta a Deannajgomez...

This post should help: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/09/how-to-cite-course-packs.html
September 08, 2016 at 12:06 PM

D dijo...
Some blog posts only show the month and day of the post but there is no year. How do I cite them?
September 27, 2016 at 01:56 AM

Timothy McAdoo dijo en respuesta a D...

Hi, D. If you can't determine the year, use "n.d." for "no date." Do you have an example?
September 28, 2016 at 04:47 PM

D dijo en respuesta a Timothy McAdoo...

Thanks a lot, Timothy. Heres one example: http://thedsgnblog.com/post/150962060091/qotw
September 29, 2016 at 07:10 AM

Anne Boissonnault dijo...

How would I site a series of blog posts (The Politics of Data), compiled by a person whose name is specified (Mark Carrigan), on the website of an institution (The
London School of Economics and Political Science), that all have different authors and urls? Would it be appropriate to cite only the page which compiles all of
the posts, or must I cite each blog post separately?
September 29, 2016 at 04:43 PM

Timothy McAdoo dijo en respuesta a Anne Boissonnault...

Hi, Anne.
Sorry for the late reply. If you are relying on the information in each post, I would create a reference for each one. That is, if you plan to paraphrase or quote from

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any one of the posts, you should include a reference to that post.
October 25, 2016 at 01:16 PM

JenuineNews dijo...
Thanks for the helpful information. The APA book indicates to use [Web log post] instead of [Blog post]. (I'm pretty sure anyway, but I don't have the book in
front of me right now.) Has that changed, are both acceptable, or something else? Thanks.
November 27, 2016 at 02:00 PM

Timothy McAdoo dijo en respuesta a JenuineNews...

You are right: The Publication Manual originally said "[Web log post]." We changed to "[Blog post]" with the publication of the APA Style Guide to Electronic
Referenes in 2012. Either would be acceptable, but we recommend "blog" over "web log."
November 28, 2016 at 11:31 AM

EKE82 dijo...
Hi Timothy! I only have the APA manual (6th ed) so I don't know if this has changed in the electronic references version, but the manual has the blog authors
first initials followed by the last name (PZ Myers). Your examples are all last name, initials. Which is correct? Thank you!
November 30, 2016 at 09:49 AM

Timothy McAdoo dijo en respuesta a EKE82...

You are right! The APA Style Guide to Electronic References includes an example with last name and initials. When the author of the blog post has provided his
or her real name, we recommend including the surname and initials in the reference, just as you would for other authored works.
November 30, 2016 at 11:16 AM

William Terrance dijo...

I am having some issues with Blogs vs. News Sites. Many news sites (CNN, Newspapers, Huffington Post) have blogs where reporters post stories. It seems
reasonable to cite these as blog posts, would it make sense to add the organization's name in italics before the "Retrieved from:" portion?
January 18, 2017 at 03:56 PM

Timothy McAdoo dijo en respuesta a William Terrance...

Hi. Good question. It is not necessary to do that. For most cases, the URL will give that information as well. And, you may always add additional information with
an in-text citation, where you think it necessary. For example, "...," as Terrance (2017) noted on the XYZ blog.
January 24, 2017 at 02:02 PM

Julie_H dijo...
I am working on an article in which I cite two different blog posts by the same author, published within a week of each other. Each blog post has a month, day,
and year. For the in text citations, should it be (Allan, 2016a) and (Allan, 2016b), or should it be (Allan, 2016, July 13) and (Allan, 2016, July 21)? My instincts say
the latter, but I cannot find anything in the APA documentation that says for sure. Thanks!
February 10, 2017 at 08:25 AM

Timothy McAdoo dijo en respuesta a Julie_H...

The in-text citations only include years, so it should be (Allan, 2016a) and (Allan, 2016b). If together, that would be (Allan, 2016a, 2016b).
February 13, 2017 at 10:40 AM
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