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How To Cite References Using APA Style

Examples of APA Citation Style for use in Reference Lists.

APA 7th Edition Examples - Books & Book Chapters

  • One Author

Drucker, P. F. (1998). Peter Drucker on the profession of management. Harvard Business School.

  • Two Authors

McGuire, M. T., & Anderson, W. H. (1999). The US healthcare dilemma: Mirrors and chains. Auburn House.

  • Three authors or more

Marquart, J. W., Olson, S. E., & Sorensen, J. R. (1994). The rope, the chair, and the needle: Capital punishment in Texas, 1923-1990. University of Texas Press.

When there are 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors' names, insert an ellipsis (no ampersand), and then add the final author's name. See page 285-289 of the APA 7th Edition Publication Manual for more information on authors.
 
  • No author

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved February 20, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/

  • Corporate author

Central Intelligence Agency. (2020, February 14). Brazil. In The world factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/br.html

  • Edited Book

Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L. N. (Eds.). (1991). Children of color: Psychological interventions with minority youth. Jossey-Bass.

  • Article or chapter in an edited book

Massaro, D. (1992). Broadening the domain of the fuzzy logical model of perception. In H. L. Pick Jr., P. van den Broek, & D. C. Knill (Eds.), Cognition: Conceptual and methodological issues (pp. 51-84). American Psychological Association.

  • Edition

Philips, M., & Rasberry, S. (1997). Marketing without advertising (2nd ed.). Nolo Press.

  • Book in several volumes

Magill, F. N. (1993). Survey of social science: Psychology series (Vol. 2). Salem Press.

  • E-book from a website without a DOI

London, C. (1921). The book of Jack London (Vol. 1). The Century Co. https://archive.org/details/bookofjacklondon00lond/page/n10/mode/2up

  • E-book with DOI

Schiraldi, G. R. (2001). The post-traumatic stress disorder sourcebook: A guide to healing, recovery, and growth. Lowell House. https://doi.org/10.10.36/0071393722

  • E-book from a database

Munroe, M. (2009). Echoes of the Haitian Revolution, 1804-2004. University of the West Indies Press.

Provide database information only when it is necessary for readers to retrieve the cited work from that exact database, or when the database publishes original proprietary works available only in that database. Most published resources from academic databases are widely available. Always include the doi if available.

  • E-book only (no print version, no DOI)

O’Keefe, E. (n.d.). Egoism & the crisis in Western values. http://www.onlineoriginals.com/showitem.asp?itemID=135

  • Chapter in an e-book

Strong, E. K. Jr., & Uhrbrock, R. S. (1923). Bibliography on job analysis. In L. Outhwaite (Series Ed.), Personnel Research Series: Vol. 1. Job analysis and the curriculum (pp. 140-146). https://doi.org/10.1037/10762-000

  • Doctoral dissertation or master's thesis retrieved from the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database

McNiel, D. S. (2007). Meaning through narrative: A personal narrative discussing growing up with an alcoholic mother (Publication No. 1434728) [Master’s thesis, California State University, Long Beach). ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I.

IMPORTANT:  The Publication Number is equivalent to the Dissertation/thesis number field that appears in the Abstract/Details information in the database. Examples of dissertation or theses references can be found on page 333-334, APA Publication Manual, 7th Ed.

  • Online reference book (author listed)

Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2007 ed.).  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/

  • Entry in a dictionary, thesaurus or encyclopedia (no author listed)

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Heuristic. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved February 21, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heuristic

  • APA Style Manual

American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.

  • DSM-V

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 

Individual chapter from the DSM-V

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Cautionary statement for forensic use of DSM-5. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).  https://doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.744053

E-Books

  • For e-books or e-book chapters, include the doi when available.
  • if the ebook is from an academic database, you do not need to include the database name or retrieval information, because most of these works are widely available.
  • For ebooks or ebook chapters, you do not need to include the format, platform or device (e.g Kindle) in the reference.

For example, this is a book from ebook Central database which does not have a DOI

Morton, T., & Gray, J. (2018). Social interaction and English language teacher identity. Edinburgh University Press.

In text citing from e-books

  • For e-books from platforms that are read online do not have page numbers, add an overarching heading plus a paragraph number within that section. If the heading is too long to cite in full, create a short title in quotation marks.

Examples

In-text citation, no page numbers, using a heading   (Smith, 1978, Introduction section, para. 5)

In-text citation, no page numbers, create a short title   (Smith, 1978, "The Future of Libraries," para. 1)

APA 7th Edition Examples - Encyclopedia Articles

  • Print encyclopedia (author listed)

White, P.D. (1998). Heart. In The Encyclopedia Americana (International edition, Vol. 14, pp. 1-5). Grolier.

  • Online encyclopedia (from the internet)

Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2007 ed.). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/

  • Online encyclopedia (from a database)

Ehrensal, P. (2008). Bullying. In C.J. Russo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Education Law (Vol. 1, pp. 130-132). Sage Publications Inc.  

More APA Style Guides

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) is available at any Wayne State library reference desk. Call number is BF 76.7 .P83 2020
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