Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This section will provide information on citing your sources using APA format and provide practice for
these skills.
This information reflects the APA Publication Manual 7th Edition.
One Author
Citing a work with one author is the simplest of all intext citation formats:
Some alternative methods for tracking scholarship's
influence have been suggested (Aguillo, 2009).
The citation above consists of the author's last name, a comma, and the year, all contained within a
set of parentheses.
You might also include the author's name in the sentence, in which case you would not need to
include the author's name in a parenthetical citation. The sentence below exemplifies this method
of citing author and year.
Aguillo (2009) suggested some alternative methods for
tracking scholarship's influence.
Copyright © 2020 MindEdge Inc. All rights reserved. Duplication prohibited.
If the date is particularly important to your purpose for writing (for example, if you wanted to
emphasize how ideas about a topic have changed over time), you might include both the author and
the date in the sentence. Then you would not need to cite anything in parentheses for this
paraphrase. Remember, though, that if you are quoting, you always need to include a page number
in parentheses.
In 2009, Aguillo suggested some alternative methods for
tracking scholarship's influence.
Organization as Author
Sometimes, you may need to cite a website with an organizational author. In this case, cite the
organization, and if you are referring to specific page, cite the title of the page. If you can find a
year of publication, you'll need to cite that as well.
"Besides prescribing these legal limits, EPA rules set
watertesting schedules and methods that water systems must
follow" (United States Environmental Protection Agency,
2011, "Current Drinking Water Regulations").
The quotation above is taken from a specific page, so the title of that page is cited. The paraphrase
below refers to the website in general, so it does not include the page header information.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency's
website is updated regularly with information on current
regulations and regulations under development (United States
Environmental Protection Agency, 2011).
Notice that the year cited above is the year the site was updated. Usually, this information can be
found at the bottom or top of the page. In this case, the website said "Last updated September 06,
2011," so that information was used in the citation.
Two Authors
Intext citations of works with two authors. When two authors have written a source, mention
both names in either running text or parenthetical citations:
A recent study dissected the architecture of Google (Brin
& Page, 1998).
Brin and Page (1998) wrote that Google manages
hypertext more efficiently than other search engines.
Subsequent citations of twoauthor sources do not differ from the format for first citations.
Intext citations of works by authors with the same last name. When sources are written by
authors with the same last name—even if the years of publication differ—include one or two
initials to distinguish them:
(Smith, A., 2005)
(Smith, F. W., 2010)
A. Smith (2005) and F. W. Smith (2010) independently
studied....
Three or More Authors
Intext citations of works with three or more authors. When crafting an intext citation for a
work that has more than three authors, only the first author is mentioned in the intext citation
followed by "et al." This is true both within parentheses and in running text:
Mediators turn out to have serious effect on independent
and independent variables (MacKinnon et al., 2002).
Research by MacKinnon et al. (2002) found that the
other approach is much less effective than previously thought.
In both of these examples, only the first author is named. The presence of "et al." tells your reader
that MacKinnon is the first of at least three authors.
No Author Named
Sources with the author not named. Remember that the principle underlying intext citations is
that they facilitate the easy location of full references. Therefore, when a source does not have an
author, the intext citation should reflect the composition of the referencelist entry, which will
then begin with the title:
The University of Arizona fact book 2001–2002. (2001).
University of Arizona.
The intext citation for this source would refer to the title. Since the title is a book, it will appear in
italics in the intext citation:
More students study social and behavioral sciences than
business and public administration (University of Arizona Fact
Book, 2001).
Note three important aspects of the citation above:
1. The title involves a proper noun (the University of Arizona), so the proper noun phrase must
be capitalized.
2. The full title is a bit long, so when you have a longer title, you can shorten it in the
parenthetical citation.
3. In an intext citaton or in running text, but NOT in a refernce citation, all major words in the
title are capitalized (headline capitalization style).
In the case that "Anonymous" is used in place of an author's name, use the word "Anonymous" in
place of the author's last name, followed the the year. For example, if a source was published in
2020 by an anonymous author, the intext citation would be (Anonymous, 2020).
No Author and No Date
When a source has no date assigned to it, use "n.d." in place of the date inside the intext citation.
Here is the reference citation for a source with no author and no date. Remember that when there is
no author, you need to use the title of the work.
United Arab Emirates architecture. (n.d.).
http://www.uaeinteract.com/
For the correlating intext citation, include the name of the text in quotation marks, as is the rule
for running text for article titles, and "n.d." in parentheses after the article title, just as you would
do in the running text for a named author and date.
In "United Arab Emirates Architecture" (n.d.), the author
argues that....
Authors from Multiple Sources
More than one work within one set of parentheses. It is possible to cite more than one work at a
time. Follow the rules above as they pertain to the specific sources that you are citing, and then
present the list of sources, alphabetically and separated by semicolons:
Many studies have confirmed this (Brin & Page, 1998;
Garfield, 2005; Kousha & Thelwall, 2006; Merton, 1973;
Uyar, 2009a).
Always list the sources alphabetically, according to their arrangement in the reference list.
Quotations
If the name of the author is not mentioned in the sentence, the author's last name, the year of
publication, and the page number on which the quotation can be found will be placed after the
closing quotation mark and before the closing punctuation of the sentence.
One study found that "developing social networks on
campus counteracted isolation and invisibility" (Reyes, 2011,
p. 257).
Note that a comma separates the name from the year and the year from the page number or page
range. This is the general pattern that you will use for almost all intext citations.
If the author is mentioned in the sentence, the year of publication follows the author name, and the
page number comes after the closing quotation mark.
According to Reyes (2011), "developing social networks
on campus counteracted isolation and invisibility" (p. 257).
If multiple pages were cited, use "pp." and list the page range.
According to Beheiry et al. (2006), "Corporations that
are more aware of the three pillars of sustainability and more
vocal about them tend to incorporate that consciousness into
their large and megaproject planning." (pp. 390–391).
If a source has neither page numbers nor visible paragraph numbers, just include the author and the
year of publication. This is a common pattern for web sources.
For instance, the article begins with this advice to health care
providers: "A provider has a responsibility to listen to and to
try to understand a patient's or parent's concerns, fears, and
beliefs about vaccination and to take them into consideration
when offering vaccines" (CDC, 2007).
Block quotations
Block quotations should be used to include direct quotations of 40 or more words within your
research paper. Because they can make your writing seem choppy or disjoined, block quotations
should be used sparingly or not at all.
Beheiry et al. (2006) report that, as a result of the low
response rate, the study's findings were not as conclusive as
they had hoped:
Due to the low number of data points in this research,
it would be meaningless to analyze exact relationships
between the factors. Thus, the analysis is only aimed at
providing a framework for examining relationships so
that future research can more specifically improve on
the current research findings. Thus, despite the small
sample size, all the common statistical analysis steps
were followed. (p. 389)
Despite all of these caveats, the authors do suggest that a
relationship does appear to exist—that companies that scored
higher on the CSCI, indicating stronger commitment to a
balanced understanding of sustainability at the executive level,
tended to perform more closely to expectations for project
schedule and cost (Beheiry et al., 2006).
Paraphrases
You do not need to give page or paragraph information when you simply paraphrase material. If
you paraphrased Reyes instead of quoting her, you would leave out the page number:
Students may feel unconnected and inconsequential on
campus; social networks alleviate such feelings (Reyes, 2011).
An ampersand is used in parenthetical citations, while the word and is used in running text. You'll
recall that ampersands are also used in referencelist entries because those are also not running text.
Research on decision making has recently taken a turn
toward new models (Gonzalez & Dutt, 2010).
Gonzalez and Dutt's (2010) research on decision making
is part of a turn toward new models.
As with quoted material, when the author's name (or authors' names, as in the example above) are
included in the sentence leading up to the intext citation, only the year needs to be provided.
The year can be incorporated into the running text, too, if desired:
In 2010, Gonzalez and Dutt's research constituted a turn
toward new models.
In that case, no parenthetical citation is needed at all for paraphrased material because the key
material—author and year—is contained within the sentence itself. A reader curious about the
publication details relating to that source would need no further information to find the
corresponding referencelist entry, which in turn provides the keys for locating Gonzalez and Dutt's
actual publication.
Indirect quotations. A paraphrase is sometimes called an indirect quotation. You can recognize
indirect quotations because they usually have the word that in the introductory phrase, as in the
example below.
The authors' review of research suggests that in every
industry, companies need to focus on their image in order to
stay competitive (Beheiry et al., 2006).
Indirect quotations are not placed in quotation marks because they are not the original words of the
source author. Because quotation marks aren't necessary, you should not put a comma between that
and the phrase that explains what the author wrote.
However, because you are paraphrasing ideas that aren't your own, you do need to cite the source's
author and publication date.
Summaries
To summarize, you use the same skills as when you paraphrase except you summarize the main
idea of the original work instead of the main idea of a few sentences. Summaries can vary in
length, and the length of the summary will determine the level of detail that your summary should
provide.
You don't need quotation marks in your summary because you will not be quoting directly from
the author. However, you do need to create an intext citation after every distinct idea in your
summary so that your reader can tell when you are summarizing an author's ideas and when you
are presenting your own or those of a different author.
Common knowledge
There is one exception to the "cite everything" principle: information that is common knowledge
does not need to be cited. But very little of what you write in your research paper will be common
knowledge. If you were to write your research paper with mostly common knowledge, you'd have
little reason to write your paper. Common knowledge is knowledge that is uncontestable—or fact.
A few examples of common knowledge are listed below:
Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States.
Christopher Columbus first landed in the Americas in 1492.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made the segregation of schools illegal.
E. e. cummings was a poet.
Human gestation averages nine months.
As you can see, your research paper would not be very interesting if it only included facts of
common knowledge, but you can rely on uncontroversial facts such as these when using your
sources to support your arguments. You don't need to cite common knowledge, but some
knowledge that seems uncontroversial is not as clearcut as it seems. For instance, in the recent
decades, Pluto has gained and lost its status as a planet, and the arguments that surround this debate
are compelling. Cite your sources if you are at all uncertain about the extent to which your
assertion is accepted by a general audience as an uncontested fact.
Cite often
Citing often. Every sentence in a paper need not have a citation. It is only necessary to cite often
enough to make clear beyond doubt where information is coming from. If the first sentence of a
paragraph cites Gonzalez and Dutt, you wouldn't need to cite the very next sentence; citations
should be placed regularly throughout paragraphs, however. In addition, you would need a citation
near the end of the paragraph and at the beginning of the next paragraph.
Gonzalez and Dutt's (2010) research on decision making
is part of a turn toward new models. In that research, they
found that old models are insufficient for real progress in the
field. It was also made clear that . . .
Even if the Gonzalez and Dutt are mentioned by name later in that paragraph, the year does not
need to be included because the source is already clear.
If, however, another source is cited between two references to Gonzalez and Dunn, both Gonzalez
and Dunn mentions need to include the year, whether in parenthetical citations or blended into the
text.
Gonzalez and Dutt's (2010) research on decision making
is part of a turn toward new models. Clark (2009), however,
takes a different tack. Gonzalez and Dutt (2010) argue that . . .
In that example, the Clark study intervenes between the two mentions of Gonzalez and Dunn's
work, so the reader needs to be reminded which Gonzalez and Dunn study is meant.
Four parts
APA format requires four parts to a citation: 1) an introductory phrase, 2) the paraphrase or
quotation used as evidence, 3) an intext citation, and 4) a reference page citation.
In the examples below, the introduction is yellow, the paraphrase or quotation used as evidence is
pink, and the intext citation is blue. The reference citation follows.
According to Allen (2007), thimerosal is a preservative
that helped keep vaccines aseptic and contains mercury—
49.5% by weight.
References
Allen, A. (2007). Vaccine: The controversial story of
medicine's greatest lifesaver. W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc.
Galanti (2004) asserts, "In some cultures, part of the 'job'
of the family is to make sure that the nurses are spending
enough time caring for their loved one" (p. 87).
References
Galante, G. A. (2004). Caring for patients from different
cultures. University of Pennsylvania Press.
The list of introductory words below will help you integrate your quotations and paraphrases into
your sentences.
Introductory words
Provide context
Providing context. Creating intext citations isn't just a matter of formatting your parenthetical
citations correctly—though that's certainly a concern. When inserting an intext citation, you need
to give your reader enough context so that he or she understands whether you are quoting or
paraphrasing words or ideas. Readers also need to understand why you are citing another author:
Are you giving voice to a counterargument? Or are you providing evidence for a major point?
Signal to your reader why you are citing by using introductory phrases such as the one highlighted
in the excerpt below:
Though some believe that sustainability is the domain of
industries such as farming, education, or the automotive
industry, the authors' review of research addresses the current
thoughts about sustainability in many industries and suggests
that in every industry, companies need to focus on their image
in order to stay competitive (Beheiry et al., 2006).
The highlighted sentence explains why the citation is important—the writer of this paper wanted
his readers to know that sustainability isn't just for particular industries, and he has support for this
claim. He follows up that introductory sentence with supporting information from the source. The
paraphrased information is introduced with a statement that suggests that another author wrote the
idea originally. He then provides the authors' names and the year of the article's publication.
Avoiding Dropped Quotations. To avoid plagiarism, you'll want to make sure that you are using
the four parts of a citation described in the "Four parts" tab. But you'll need a fifth part, placed in
bold below, to avoid dropped quotations and to keep your writing fluid.
When writers don't provide an introductory or concluding statement to indicate why a source is
brought into the conversation, we call this a dropped quotation because the quotation is
seemingly dropped into the paragraph from nowhere. When citing the work of others, you need to
give your reader enough context so that he or she understands whether you are quoting or
paraphrasing words or ideas. Readers also need to understand why you are citing another author:
Are you giving voice to a counterargument? Or are you providing evidence for a major point?
Be sure that every time you include a quotation in your paper, you have all of the following parts:
1. An introductory phrase that includes an introductory word, the name of the author, the
publication date, and perhaps the title of the resource. On subsequent quotations from the same
source, however, you can place the author's name, the publication date, and the page number at
the end of the citation. Remember that you will need to place a comma between the
introductory phrase and the quotation.
2. The quotation, surrounded by quotation marks. If the quotation ends in an exclamation point or
a question mark, put that punctuation right before the closing quotation mark.
3. An intext citation with the author's name and publication date (if either of these were not
included in your introductory phrase) and the page number. Place a period after the closing
parenthesis of the intext citation.
4. At least one sentence that sums up why that quotation was so important to your thesis
statement or the major point you are supporting in that place in the paper. This usually
means that you should not end a paragraph with a quotation because you would not be
providing enough context for why the quotation is important.
5. A reference page citation.
Every time you cite a source, you should include the author's name, the date of publication, and the
page number (if you are quoting). That won't change.
However, the location in which you provide this information will change depending on whether or
not you write the author's name as part of the sentence. A later paraphrase or quotation by the same
author in the same paragraph would not necessarily need to reiterate the author's name to introduce
the quoted or paraphrased content, but it would need to include the name of the author, the
publication date, and—if you are quoting—the page number in the parenthetical citation.
You will notice in the excerpt below that the author uses an introductory statement to explain why
the quotation is important to his major point. After reading the first sentence, we know the
quotation is going to tell us more about why the authors are interested in researching multinational
corporations rather than governments or smaller businesses.
Beheiry et al. (2006) explain their interest in finding a
business case for sustainability in specifically multinational
corporations: "Unlike many governments, multinationals have
interests and influence that go beyond national borders. Many
multinational corporations already have environmental
management systems (EMSs), pollution reduction, and energy
saving practices in place" (p. 385). Though the authors admit
that corporations have not solved sustainability issues yet, they
suggest that corporations will eventually find the need to
compete on a balanced sustainability more compelling than the
need for the shortterm savings represented by the status quo—
wasteful use of resources (Beheiry et al., 2006).
The conclusion sentence further explains why the quotation and paraphrased content are important
to the research paper as a whole.
Sentence grammar
Grammatically correct sentences. Remember that when you use a quotation, you must still write
complete sentences. Every sentence of your writing must be grammatically correct. When you use
quotations, you need to incorporate them into your own sentences. Even if you use only part of a
sentence from your original source, it is your responsibility to use the correct grammar so that it
fits comfortably into your own writing. Break quotations into smaller pieces if you need to and
combine paraphrases with quotations, but ensure that you don't change the meaning of the
quotation by eliminating important words when you trim quotations down.
The sentence below contains a quotation in the middle of a sentence. Pay special attention to the
way in which this quotation is cited.
Beheiry et al. (2006) explain that their experiment
suggested that companies that were more committed to all
three pillars of sustainable business practices—social
development, environmental sustainability, and economic
development—were more likely to see projects coming in
under budget and on schedule. This is important, the authors
claim, because "the historical tendency to focus on
environmental sustainability overaligned SD [sustainable
development] with the green movement and alienated the
business executives" (Beheiry et al., 2006, p. 384). The authors
argue that the reason many companies are slow to embrace
sustainable practices is that there is no relevant business case
to persuade those in charge that sustainability will increase
value to shareholders. The results of this experiment may be
used to support the idea that sustainability can reduce costs,
which might encourage business owners to adopt sustainable
management practices.
Remember that, regardless of the punctuation that the intext citation precedes, the closing
parenthesis of the citation falls before the closing punctuation. Never place the closing
punctuation of the sentence inside the parenthetical citation.
Making changes to quotations. This may be surprising, but in order to keep your writing
grammatically correct and concise, you can actually make changes to quoted material.
For example, you can change the first word of a quotation to an uppercase or lowercase letter so
that the quotation better fits into the grammar of your own sentence. In the example below, Reyes
actually began her sentence with "Developing," so the first letter was capitalized in the original.
But that didn't fit in the grammar of the new sentence, so the letter was made lowercase.
One study found that "developing social networks on
campus counteracted isolation and invisibility" (Reyes, 2011,
p. 257).
You can also change the punctuation mark at the end of a quotation so that it fits the grammar of
your own sentence: for example, a comma can become a period. Don't change the punctuation
marks, however, in any way that would change the quotation's meaning. You wouldn't want to
insert a question mark where an author was making a factual statement, for instance.
If you remove anything from the middle of a quotation, use three spaced ellipsis points ( . . . ) to
indicate the omission:
"For small firms . . . fixed costs are of special concern"
(Gerhard & Milkovich, 1990, p. 667).
Never remove a citation from the middle of a quotation. For example, if you want to quote this
sentence from ShuFen Kao and B. Lusk's article "Attitudes Towards Death and Dying," you may
not remove the citation of Benoliel, even if you are removing material around the citation:
"This behavior might be explained by Benoliel (1987–
1988), in her review of the research literature concerning
health care providers and dying patients, that there is some
evidence that avoidance of dying patients is a preferred coping
strategy for nurses."
You might alter the quotation in this way:
"This behavior might be explained by Benoliel (1987–
1988) . . . that there is some evidence that avoidance of dying
patients is a preferred coping strategy for nurses."
But you may not alter the quotation by removing the citation and anything around it:
"This behavior might be explained by . . . some evidence
that avoidance of dying patients is a preferred coping strategy
for nurses."
You do not need to add sources cited within quotations from sources you are using to your own
reference list.
To quote or parphrase?
Deciding whether to quote or paraphrase. In general, paraphrasing sources will keep your own
writing from becoming choppy and seemingly thrown together. However, you might quote content
directly if you feel that the author's original phrasing offers a tone or a concision that you would
not want to disrupt. The paragraph below uses a quotation that imparts a tone that uniquely and
powerfully describes the type of projects that citizens may object to, so the writer of this paper
chose to keep the quotation intact because it offers more concision than he could replicate.
Beheiry et al. (2006) suggest that "New roads in a
picturesque countryside, refineries in coastal wetlands, and
dams on scarce river resources are typical projects that attract
fierce debate," but then acknowledge that market forces
generally are an important determining factor for which
projects are built where (p. 385).
Patterns for documenting sources listed in reference lists
APA style calls for the sources used in an essay to be documented on a
"References" page. The References section belongs at the end of the essay.
So far, you've learned details regarding how to present author, title, and
publication information according to APA conventions. In this section,
you'll find the APA patterns for arranging the elements of the
documentation for some specific types of resources you may use. Chance
are, you'll find a pattern in this section for most of the sources you're
using. However, you should refer back to the general information section
when information about your source doesn't quite fit a model provided (for
instance, if a date is missing). The general rules in the previous section
will help you fill in the gaps.
One last thing: You don't need to memorize documentation formats. Feel
free to look back at the course materials when you need to check your Luckily, the most common
documentation. source types have clear
patterns for citation.
General principles
This section reviews some general principles for documentation, focusing on authors' names, titles,
location information, dates, sources with missing information, and rules for alphabetization.
One author
A book with one author has a very basic format in APA style:
Kanter, R. M. (1989). When giants learn to dance. Simon &
Schuster.
The author's last name is followed by a comma and then her first and middle initials. If she did not
include her middle initial when she published the source you are using, simply "R." would suffice.
There is always a space between multiple initials, whether there are two or three (or more) in a row:
Kessy, S. S. A. (2006). The contribution of microfinance
institutions to poverty reduction in Tanzania. Mkuki na
Nyota.
Authors with hyphenated first names are treated in a special way: Keep the hyphen but also use
periods after each initial. The following example is for an author named JeanMarie Dru.
Dru, J. M. (1996). Disruption: Overturning conventions and
shaking up the marketplace. John Wiley & Sons.
The author's first name is JeanMarie, and his initials become "J. M."
A suffix such as "Jr." and "II" is included after the last name and a comma:
Hirsch, E. D., Jr. (2006). The knowledge deficit: Closing the
shocking education gap for American children.
Houghton Mifflin.
Multiple authors
The general pattern for citing authors remains the same for two and up to twenty authors.
When a book has two authors, you need a comma after the first author's first initial.
Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (1999). Designing qualitative
research (3rd ed.). Sage.
Notice, as well, that you use an ampersand (&) rather than the word and in your reference page
citations. You will use the ampersand as well in your parenthetical citations in the body of your
paper. However, if you refer to a group of authors in the running text of your paper, you will use
the word and instead of the ampersand.
Most sources with more than more than two authors are treated the same as ones with only two—
the list of names is just longer. This format applies to all number of authors between two and
twenty authors. Here is an example with three authors:
Gaglani, S., De Obaldia, M. E., Kominers, S. D., Li, D., &
Suh, C. Y. (2011). Success with science: The winners'
guide to high school research. Research Corporation for
Science Advancement.
Don't forget the comma before the ampersand.
When a source is written by 21 or more authors, APA instructs you to list the first 19 of those
names and then places ellipses between the 19th author and the final author's name. Do not include
an ampersand.
Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven,
D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White, G., Wollen,
J., Zhu, Y., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Higgins, W.,
Janowiak, J., Mo, K.C., Ropelewski, C., Wang, J.,
Leetmaa, A., . . . Joseph, D. (1996). The NCEP/NCAR
40year reanalysis project. Bulletin of the American
Meteorological Society,77,(3), 437471.
http://doi.org/fg6rf9
Don't forget the comma before the ellipsis.
Editor
Sometimes sources have editors. Whether you're using a source written by an author other than the
editor, or whether you're using an article or chapter written by the editor, you will need to list the
editor in your citation.
Sources that list only editors. If a source only lists editors instead of authors, you will need to
note the editor's name.
BernKlug, M. (Ed.). (2010). Transformative palliative care in
nursing homes: The social work role. Columbia
University Press.
Carr, E., Layzell, M., & Christensen, M. (Eds.). (2010).
Advancing nursing practice in pain management.
Blackwell.
Note that a period appears inside the parentheses after "Eds" in addition to the one that appears
right after the last parenthesis.
Source with an editor in addition to an author. If you are using an article or chapter from an
edited volume, you'll need to list the author and the editor.
Aretz, I. (1984). Music and dance in continental Latin
America, with the exception of Brazil. In M. M.
Fraginals (Ed.), Africa in Latin America (L. Blum,
Trans.) (pp. 189–226). Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc.
(Original work published in 1977)
Aretz is the author's last name, while Fraginals is the editor's last name. The editor's name is
preceded by In. Significantly, when the editor's name is preceded by "In," the editor's last name
and first initial are not reversed.
Source by an author in a larger source he or she also edited. If you are using an article or
chapter that the editor wrote from a volume that he or she also edited, you'll still need to list the
author and the editor.
Fraginals, M. (1984). Cultural contributions and deculturation.
In M. Fraginals (Ed.), Africa in Latin America (L. Blum,
Trans.) (pp. 189–226). Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc.
(Original work published in 1977)
Fraginals is cited in both the author and editor position in the citation.
Organizational or governmental
Source with organizational author. Some books aren't written by individuals but by
organizations.
Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st
Century. (2007). Rising above the gathering storm:
Energizing and employing America for a brighter
economic future. National Academies Press.
You do not need to invert any elements of the name in these cases, and they are alphabetized
according to first major word in the name.
Source with governmental author. Sources written by governmental organizations are treated
similarly.
Centers for Disease Control. (2009). Recommended
immunization schedule for persons aged 0 through 6
years. http://cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/downloads/
child/2009/09_06yrs_schedule_pr.pdf
Source with corporate author. Sources written by corporate authors follow the same pattern for
citing the author.
Toyota USA Newsroom. (2010, March 15). Toyota offers
preliminary findings from technical field examination of
alleged "Runaway Prius" in San Diego.
http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota/toyotaoffers
preliminaryfindings155268.aspx
Unknown
Source with no named author and not an organization either. Sometimes sources, such as
articles in newspapers, have no named author. In such a case, simply begin the referencelist entry
with the title of the article, and alphabetize according to the title:
Venue's loss brings back many memories. (2009, June 20). The
Atlanta JournalConstitution, p. 8A.
Carefully consider the credibility of a source without an author. However in other cases, the
organization might be considered the author of the source, and then you can simply use the
organization's name as the author.
Editorial with no named author. One of the most timehonored sections of the newspaper is the
editorial page. Opinion pieces usually have identified authors; editorials, on the other hand, are
often unsigned. An unusual format results:
Boeing and the N.L.R.B. [Editorial]. (2011, April 25). The
New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/opinion/26tue2.html
Website with no named author. If you cannot find the author's name and you still want to use the
source, you can leave out an author's name and alphabetize by the title of the source.
How to enjoy hummingbirds. (n.d.).
http://howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com/
If you can't find an author's name or institutional author's name anywhere, chances are, you should
move on and find more authoritative information.
General principles: Titles
The formatting of titles will depend on the type of source you are citing and whether it is in the
reference list or in running text. The type and location of the title will determine whether you use
headlinestyle capitalization or sentencestyle capitalization and whether or not you set the title in
italics.
Titles in reference lists
Periodical titles such as those of journals, newspapers, and magazines in your reference list
should be set in headlinestyle capitalization and they should be italicized.
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
Each noun, adjective, and verb is capitalized. Articles ("a, " "an," "the") and conjunctions ("and,"
"but," "or," etc.) are not capitalized; neither are short prepositions, such as "in" and "of." But every
word of four letters or longer has an initial capital.
Titles for books and websites need to be set in sentencestyle capitalization and italicized in
your reference list. This method capitalizes only the initial letters of first words and proper nouns
and adjectives. The first word of every title will have an initial capital. Every word that is proper or
derived from a proper word will be capitalized: "English," "Montana," and "Buddhism," for
example. If you don't know whether a word is proper, look it up in a reputable dictionary. Here is
an example of a book title set sentence style:
Talking about leaving: Why undergraduates leave the sciences.
Notice that the first word that comes after a colon will be capitalized in sentencestyle
capitalization.
Titles for items such as articles, chapters, or other smaller parts of larger works should also
be set in sentencestyle capitalization in your reference list. However, unlike book or periodical
titles, titles of these shorter works should not be italicized.
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for
social exchange. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J.
Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind (pp. 163–228). Oxford
University Press.
In the example above, both the chapter title and book title are set in sentencestyle capitalization,
but only the book title is italicized.
Titles in running text
General principles: Sources in running text. In running text—text in the body of your paper—
you should use headlinestyle capitalization (also called title case capitalization) whenever you
mention a source: an article, chapter, website, journal, or book. This allows the reader to clearly
differentiate between the titles of sources and what you are saying about those sources.
In running text, you should place quotation marks around the title of articles, chapters, or websites.
Compare the way this source is handled in running text and in its accompanying reference page.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web
page "Some Common Misconceptions about Vaccination and
How to Respond to Them" offers a good overview of why
parents are hesitant to give their children vaccines.
Reference
Centers for Disease Control. (2007). Some common
misconceptions about vaccination and how to respond to
them. www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vacgen/6mishome.htm
In running text, you should not use quotation marks, but instead use italics for book, journal, or
other periodical titles.
Despite the reluctance of some parents, 90 percent of
children in the United States do receive vaccines at the age for
which they are prescribed, reports The New York Times
("Public Health Risk").
Reference
Steinhauer, J. (2008, March 21). Public health risk seen as
parents reject vaccines. The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/21vaccine.html
Helpful hint:
In general, any title that you would italicize in your reference list should also be italicized in
running text, and it should be presented in headlinestyle capitalization.
Any title that you would set roman (not in italics) in your reference list will most likely need to be
placed within quotation marks if it appears in running text (the body of your paper). It should also
be capitalized headline style.
General principles: Location information
When citing books, you will need to direct your reader to where they can find the
source, by providing either geographical information or online retrieval information.
Reference citations for journal articles or other periodicals do not need information
about where it was published. Books available only online should have a retrieval
URL instead of the publisher location.
For print sources, you will need to provide information about the publisher.Provide the
publisher's name, which is usually found on one of the first two pages of a book, pamphlet, or any
source created by a publishing company.
Galante, G. A. (2004). Caring for patients from different
cultures. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Online source with DOI
Usually books, articles, and other resources you found through a library database will have a
DOI number assigned. DOI stands for digital object identifier, and the number uniquely identifies
that document. If a resource is only available online, use the DOI number, if one is assigned.
Here is an example of how you might find the DOI in the database entry for a journal article with a
DOI number assigned.
Below, you can see the corresponding referencepage citation.
Kyriacou, A. P. (2010). Intrinsic motivation and the logic of
collective action: The impact of selective incentives.
American Journal of Economics & Sociology, 69, 823–
839. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15367150.2020.00722.x
Here is an example of a book with a DOI number assigned.
Borbye, L. (2011). Sustainable innovation: A guide to
harvesting the untapped riches of opposition, unlikely
combinations, and a Plan B.
https://doi.org/10.2200/S00359ED1V01Y201105TME003
Never add a period after a URL or digital object identifier (DOI) because that can confuse anyone
trying to find your source.
Depending on the database, you may also see the number listed as an accession number. ERIC, a
popular database that hosts research in the field of education that has been published by journals or
that is selfpublished, uses accession numbers instead of DOI numbers. APA has a special format
for articles from ERIC:
Savich, C. (2008). Inclusion: The pros and cons—a critical
review (ED501775). ERIC. htpps://https://eric.ed.gov/?
id=ED501775
Online source without DOI
Online sources without a DOI number assigned. If a book is only available online, and it does
not have a DOI number assigned, use the retrieval URL instead of the publisher location.
Golley, J., & Song, L. (Eds.). (2011). Rising China: Global
challenges and opportunities.
http://epress.anu.edu.au/china_update2011/pdf/whole.pdf
When you cite a website, your reference citation will be different depending on whether you are
citing the entire website or just a page from the website.
United States Environmental Protection Agency (2011).
http://www.epa.gov/
Above, the organizational author is the same name as the website, so it's unnecessary to cite the
name of the website.
Below, a specific page is cited, so the page title is placed in italics. Notice that the page title is not
capitalized.
United States Environmental Protection Agency (2011).
Current drinking water regulations. http://www.epa.gov/
Special Formats
Special online formats. The citation format for digital editions on proprietary platforms are
changing. Note that the pagination of different versions (print, PDF, HTML, Kindle) of texts will
most likely use different pagination, so you should always cite the exact version that you are using.
Plant, R. (2008). An executive's guide to information
technology: Principles, business models, and
terminology [Kindle]. Amazon https://amazon.com
For ease of citing quotations, for which you will need to provide a page number, it is suggested that
you use a paginated version of the text if possible.
YouTube The citation format for a YouTube video contains the date the video was created as well
as an indication, in brackets, that it is a video format.
Thorpe, S. (2008). Bill Nye the science guy on amphibians
[Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/sDb3AyaNYAU
Books should generally have the year of publication listed.
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for
social exchange. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J.
Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind (pp. 163–228). Oxford
University Press.
Periodical articles will usually have a year, and may even have a month or day listed.
Facing up to China. (2010, February 6). The Economist, 11.
http://www.economist.com
Some periodicals will list a season rather than a month.
Giroux, H. A. (2003, Winter). Politics, war, and the
disappearance of children. JAC, 23(1).
http://www.jacweb.org
Many older books have new publications or editions. That information must be noted as well.
Darwin, C. (1998). The origin of species. Ware, England:
Wordsworth Editions Limited. (Original work published
1869)
Offit, P. A., & Bell, L. M. (2009). Vaccines: What you should
know (3rd ed.). J.W. Wiley & Sons.
Notice in the citation below that the page numbers are separated from the edition number with a
comma.
Cohen, M. Z. (2006). Nursing assessment. In J. Fitzpatrick &
M. Wallace (Eds.), Encyclopedia of nursing research
(2nd ed., pp. 387–389). Springer.
Web resources will often have a publication date listed, and they may also list a revision date.
Internal Revenue Service. (2010, June 21). Tax law changes
related to national disaster relief.
http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=203056,00.html
In the example above, the revision date was used because the source was updated with more
information at that point.
General principles: Sources with missing information
Sometimes sources we use lack a discernible publication date;
others have no signed authorship. The first thing to do is only
natural in our connected age: search for the information online.
Perhaps someone else has cited the paper and actually found the
publication date; maybe the online version of the article includes
the author's name. Whatever you find through online searching,
be sure to do the further work of corroborating the evidence: you
don't want to replicate errors that others made.
No publication date
No Publication Date. If a source has no clear publication date, then replace the year with "n.d.":
Ofstead, C. (n.d.). The census reports Wisconsin is changing.
Department of Health and Family Services.
No named author
No named author on a website. If you cannot find the author's name and you still want to use the
source, you can leave out an author's name and alphabetize by the title of the source.
How to enjoy hummingbirds. (n.d.).
http://howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com/
Unsigned newspaper article. Sometimes articles in newspapers do not list authors. In such a case,
simply begin the referencelist entry with the title of the article, and alphabetize according to the
title:
Venue's loss brings back many memories. (2009, June 20). The
Atlanta JournalConstitution, 8A.
General principles: Alphabetization
Alphabetization
Referencelist entries are organized alphabetically and then chronologically. First, arrange your
entries by last name of the first author:
Johnson, A. (2007). Unintended consequences: How science
professors discourage women of color. Science
Education, 91(5), 805–821.
Mahoney, T. A. (1979). Compensation and reward
perspectives. Richard D. Irwin.
If two authors share a last name, then alphabetize by first initials. If a first author is identical to that
of another entry, look at the next element in the list—a second author or a year—and organize
according to that element—remember that numbers come before letters alphabetically. If that
element is the same, go on to the next element, often a title, and organize by that element—always
alphabetically and chronologically.
Au, K. (1980). Participation structures in a reading lesson with
Hawaiian children. Anthropology and Education
Quarterly, 11, 91–115.
Au, K., & Jordan, C. (1981). Teaching reading to Hawaiian
children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution. In H.
Trueba, P. Guthrie, & K. Au (Eds.), Culture and the
bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography
(pp. 139–152). Newbury House.
Same author or authors
Oftentimes, reference lists include multiple entries by the same author. When one author (or exact
set of authors, presented in the same order) has written more than one entry, organize by year, with
oldest publication listed first:
Mintzberg, H. (1978). Patterns in strategy formation.
Management Science, 24, 934–948.
Mintzberg, H. (1987). Crafting strategy. Harvard Business
Review, 87(4), 66–75.
When an author or set of authors published multiple times in the same year, add lowercase letters
after the year to differentiate them.
Thelwall, M. (2008a). Extracting accurate and complete results
from search engines: Case study Windows Live. Journal
of the American Society for Information Science and
Technology, 59, 38–50.
Thelwall, M. (2008b). Quantitative comparisons of search
engine results. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, 59(11), 1702–
1710.
This is also how you will refer to them when you cite these sources in text:
Thelwall (2008a) found that . . .
Same first author, different secondary authors
If two studies have the same primary author but different secondary authors, alphabetize them
according to the second author's name, then the third author, and so on:
Dutton, J. E., & Ashford, S. J. (1993). Selling issues to top
management. Academy of Management Review, 18, 397–
428.
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., Lawrence, K. A., & Miner
Rubino, K. (2002). Red light, green light: Making sense
of the organizational context for issue selling.
Organization Science, 13, 355–369.
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O'Neill, R. M., Hayes, E., &
Wierba, E. E. (1997). Reading the wind: How middle
managers assess the context for selling issues to top
managers. Strategic Management Journal, 18, 407–425.
Always present authors' names in the order in which they appear on the publication itself. Do not
alter the order.
Documenting specific types of sources
This section reviews the rules for documenting books, scholarly articles, periodicals, online
government publications, research reports, white papers, issue briefs, films, music recordings,
television and radio broadcasts, and personal interviews.
Book with one author
A book with one author has a very basic format in APA style:
Kanter, R. M. (1989). When giants learn to dance. Simon &
Schuster.
Book with an editor instead of an author.
BernKlug, M. (Ed.). (2010). Transformative palliative care in
nursing homes: The social work role. Columbia
University Press.
Note that a period appears inside the parentheses after "Ed" in addition to the one that appears right
after the last parenthesis. As usual, a period also appears after the year's closing parenthesis.
Chapter in an edited book. The authors Cosmides and Tooby contributed an essay to a collection they
also edited. To create the referencelist entry, you must include publication information about the
whole book, too:
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for
social exchange. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J.
Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind (pp. 163–228). Oxford
University Press.
The chapter and book titles both use sentencestyle capitalization. The abbreviation Eds. has an s at the
end to indicate that there is more than one editor. Eds has an initial capital, is followed by a period, and
a comma comes after the closing parenthesis to separate the editor information from the name of the
book. The numeral range indicates the pages on which Cosmides and Tooby's article appears; pp.
simply stands for pages.
The names of the book's editors aren't inverted: first initials come before surnames.
Book with an organizational or corporate author. Some books aren't written by individuals but by
organizations.
Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st
Century. (2007). Rising above the gathering storm:
Energizing and employing America for a brighter
economic future. National Academies Press.
You do not need to invert any elements of the name in these cases, and they are alphabetized according
to first major word in the name.
Entry in an encyclopedia or other reference work. Citing an entry from an encyclopedia is similar to
citing a chapter in an edited work:
Korn, M. (2008). Immunization, Active. In Encyclopedia of
Public Health (Vol. 9, pp. 712–716). Springer.
Varma, R., & GalindoSanchez, V. (2006). Native American
women in computing. In E. M. Trauth (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of gender and information technology (pp.
914–919). Idea Group.
The first entry above shows an encyclopedia with a volume number.
Online encyclopedia or dictionary. Many dictionaries and encyclopedias are available online and
through your university library:
Inflation. (2011). In MerriamWebster. http://www.merriam
webster.com/dictionary/inflation
Papinian. (2011). In Encyclopaedia Britannica.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/442142/Papinian
Alphabetize your entry by the word you looked up. Then include the date, the title of the website, and
the retrieval URL.
Usually books, articles, and other resources you find through a library database will have a DOI
number assigned. Include the DOI's URL in your citation.
Borbye, L. (2011). Sustainable innovation: A guide to
harvesting the untapped riches of opposition, unlikely
combinations, and a Plan B.
https://doi.org/10.2200/S00359ED1V01Y201105TME003
Never add a period after a URL or digital object identifier (DOI) because that can confuse anyone
trying to find your source.
If a book is only available online, and it does not have a DOI number assigned, use the retrieval URL
instead of the publisher location.
Golley, J., & Song, L. (Eds.). (2011). Rising China: Global
challenges and opportunities.
http://epress.anu.edu.au/china_update2011/pdf/whole.pdf
The citation format for digital editions on proprietary platforms are changing. Note that the pagination
of different versions (print, PDF, HTML, Kindle) of texts will most likely use different pagination, so
you should always cite the exact version that you are using.
Plant, R. (2008). An executive's guide to information
technology: Principles, business models, and
terminology [Kindle]. Amazon https://amazon.com
For ease of intext citations, for which you will need to provide a page number, it is suggested that you
use a paginated version of the text if possible.
Cedja, B. D. (1997). An examination of transfer shock in
academic disciplines. Community College Journal of
Research and Practice, 21(3), 279–288.
Titles of journal articles are not formatted in any special way (no italics, no quotation marks), and they
take sentencestyle capitalization. Journal names, remember, are capitalized headline style. Notice that
the journal's volume number is in italics, while the issue number is set roman (no italics) and within
parentheses that are also not italicized. There is no space between volume and issue numbers.
If no issue number is available, simply omit that information:
Milkovich, G. T. (1988). A strategic perspective on
compensation management. Research in Personnel and
Human Resources Management, 6, 263–288.
Generally, use Arabic numerals instead of Roman numerals. Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4 . . . ) are
always used for journal volumes. Roman numerals are only allowed when part of the title itself (such
as "Title IX and Physical Education: A Compliance Overview") or to indicate pages in front matter,
such as a preface, which often uses lowercase Roman numerals (pp. ix–xii). APA does not drop digits
in ranges of page numbers or years: write "221–228" instead of "221–8."
Journal article with DOI. Here is an example of an article with its DOI:
Gebauer, J., Shaw, M. J., & Gribbins, M. L. (2010). Task
technology fit for mobile information systems. Journal
of Information Technology, 25(3), 259–272.
https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2010.10
No period appears after the DOI.
Article with a URL. If the article does not have a DOI, provide the URL for the journal's homepage,
whether or not you found it through the journal's home page or a database:
Ong, M. (2001). Playing with in/visibility: How minority
women gain power from the margins of science culture.
Women in Higher Education, 10(11), 42–44.
http://www.wihe.com
The APA's Publication Manual only suggests that you include database (JSTOR, PsychINFO,
EBSCO) information if a source is only available through a database. This is a very rare occurrence.
In most cases, you should instead refer to the online home of the publication itself, as modeled in the
entry on above.
Special issue of a journal. Sometimes journals publish special issues around certain themes. To cite a
whole special journal issue, follow this format:
Chen, N., & Tsai, C. (2009). Knowledge infrastructure and the
future [Special issue]. Journal of Educational
Technology & Society, 12(1).
Magazine article. Scientific American is a monthly magazine, so the date includes both month and
year. The full name of the month—not an abbreviation—is given.
Nadeau, R. (2008, April). The economist has no clothes.
Scientific American, 298(4), 42.
Online magazine article. The online counterpart to the magazine article's format is very similar,
except it includes a URL or DOI:
Cook, N. (2010, April 4). The death of liberal arts. Newsweek.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/04/the
deathofliberalarts.html
Newsweek is a weekly magazine, so the date includes not just month and year but also an exact date.
Newspaper article. Follow the same basic format for hardcopy newspaper articles:
Meier, B. (2011, June 26). In medicine, new isn't always
improved. The New York Times, pp. 1, 7.
The page numbers listed are the first page of the article and the one onto which it continues. If the
article appeared continuously on all pages from 1 to 7, the entry would state "pp. 1–7." If the article
only appeared on page one, the entry would indicate simply "p. 1." Note that APA includes the initial
article with newspaper titles in reference lists: The New York Times, not New York Times.
Online newspaper article. To include in a reference list the online version of the same New York
Times article, replace the page numbers with electronicaccess information.
Meier, B. (2011, June 26). In medicine, new isn't always
improved. The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/health/26innovate.html
Note that you should use as simple a URL as possible:
"http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/health/26innovate.html?pagewanted=1&ref=health" takes one to
the same page as "http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/health/26innovate.html". It, therefore, makes
sense to drop the unnecessary parts. Often—but not always—material after a question mark in a URL
is extraneous. Before using it in a reference list, verify that the shortened URL works.
Unsigned newspaper article. Sometimes articles in newspapers do not list authors. In such a case,
simply begin the referencelist entry with the title of the article, and alphabetize according to the title:
Venue's loss brings back many memories. (2009, June 20). The
Atlanta JournalConstitution, p. 8A.
Unsigned editorial. One of the most timehonored sections of the newspaper is the editorial page.
Opinion pieces usually have identified authors; editorials, on the other hand, are often unsigned. An
unusual format results:
Boeing and the N.L.R.B. [Editorial]. (2011, April 25). The
New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/opinion/26tue2.html
Government publication or research report.
Hoachlander, E. G., Sikora, A. C., Horn, L., & Carroll, C. D.
(2003). Community college students: Goals, academic
preparation, and outcomes (NCES 2003164). Institute
of Education Sciences, National Center for Education
Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS126081
The author names, year, and title are selfexplanatory. The strange sequence of numbers and letters that
appears in parentheses after the title is the report number, which is included for utmost clarity. Note
that APA uses "U.S."—not "US" or "U. S."—as an adjective. The noun form is always spelled out: for
example, "the history of the United States."
Organizational author who is also the publisher. Government reports are often authored by a group
instead of by named authors.
Council of Chief State School Officers. (1992).
Recommendations for improving the assessment and
monitoring of students with limited English proficiency.
Author.
In this case, the writer did not access the document online but found it in hard copy at a library. Hence,
no URL is given. "Author" after the city means that the Council of Chief State School Officers is also
the publisher.
Organizational author, revised edition.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2010). Comorbidity:
Addiction and other mental illnesses (Rev. ed.). Author.
As with the previous source, this research report was published by the organization that authored it.
Note that "Rev. ed." always begins with an initial capital letter.
Court Case. Citing a court case requires a special format as well.
New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S. C. 649, 655 (1984).
The series of numbers and letters after the case indicate where the case was documented. Here, we see
U.S.C, which stands for United States Code; though you may also see an F in the same place, would
stand for Federal Reporter, another periodical dedicated to documenting resources. The year of the
case would follow.
If you are using a court case, chances are you can find the citation for that court case within the
document in which you are reading about the case.
Court cases should be italicized in running text.
White paper. A white paper is a problemsolving guide or focused research for public dissemination
and can be written by a government, a profit or nonprofit organization, or an individual.
McAfee Foundstone Professional Services and McAfee Labs.
(2011). Global energy cyberattacks: "Night Dragon."
http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/whitepapers/qp
globalenergycyberattacksnightdragon.pdf
Issue brief. In publicpolicy circles, a short, neutral paper discussing the state of a certain problem or
subject is called an "issue brief." They are often named as such and numbered. Treat them in much the
same way you would treat a white paper.
Trude, S., & Conwell, L. J. (2004). Rhetoric vs. reality:
Employer views on consumerdriven health care (Issue
Brief No. 86). Center for Studying Health System
Change.
Films or videos.
Films should begin with the names and functions of the primary contributors (director; if the director is
unknown, then use the producer's name) followed by the year, the title, the medium, and the studio
name. If the film or video is accessible online, you can also include the URL at the end of the citation.
Forster, M. (Director). (2004). Finding neverland [Film].
Miramax Films.
Reitman, J. (Director). (2009). Up in the air [Film]. Paramount
Pictures.
In the example below, note that if the film viewed is a special edition, include the special edition
information as part of the citation.
Jackson, P. (Director). (2001). The lord of the rings: The
fellowship of the ring [Film; fourdisc special extended
ed. on DVD]. WingNut Films; The Saul Zaentz
Company.
Television or Radio Programs.
For a single episode of a television or radio series, use the same format as for a chapter in a book, but
list the scriptwriter and director in the author position and the producer in the editor position.
MacRury, M. (Writer) & Guggenheim, D. (Director). (2004).
Deep water [TV series episode]. In D. Guggenheim & S.
Stephens (Executive Producers), Deadwood. HBO
Films.
Koch. H. (Writer)& Welles, O. (Director). (1938, October 30).
The War of the worlds [Radio broadcast]. In J.
Houseman (Executive Producer), Mercury Theatre on
the Air. CBS Radio.
Below is the an example of how to document an entire series (rather than one episode).
Hewitt, D. (Producer & Director). (19682010). Sixty minutes.
[TV series]. CBS Studios.
Musical Recordings.
When documenting a musical recording, follow the same conventions that you would use for a motion
picture documentation.
Perry. K. (2010). Firework [Song]. On Teenage dream. Capitol
Records.
Thiele, B. & Weiss, G.D. (1990). What a wonderful world.
[Song recorded by Louis Armstrong]. On Louis
Armstrong's alltime greatest hits. Universal Music
Group.
Personal interviews
According to the APA Publication Manual, personal interviews are not included in the reference list
because they do not provide recoverable data. Therefore, information and quotations drawn from
personal interviews should be documented within the text of the paper. You should use initials as well
as the surname of the interviewee. You should also provide the date of the communication.
Paraphrased information documented from a personal interview
The managers of the project admitted that there had been
delays in the construction of the new buildings (J.
Frasco, personal communication, October 19, 2012).
Quotation documented from a personal interview
The manager admitted, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, we
are forced to delay this project" (J. Frasco, personal
communication, October 19, 2012).