Chapter 10 of the 7th ed. APA Manual provides many more reference examples for numerous types of reference materials. This guide provides only a few of the citations. For more examples, see the manual.
| Author type | Parenthetical citation | Narrative citation |
| One author | (Luna, 2020) | Luna (2020) |
| Two authors | (Salas & D'Agostino, 2020) | Salas and D'Agnostino (2020) |
| Three or more authors | (Martin et al., 2020) | Martin et al. (2020) |
|
Group author with abbreviation First citation* Subsequent citations |
(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020) (NIMH, 2020) |
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2020) NIMH (2020) |
| Group author without abbreviation | (Stanford University, 2020) | Stanford University (2020) |
(American Psychological Association [APA], 2020)
There are 4 basic parts of a citation:
A citation or reference includes all the information needed for someone to identify and find the resource. Elements will change depending on the resource (a blog, article, legal materials, etc.). Depending on the citation style, a citation may include any of the following: title, author, date, page numbers, publisher, place of publication, link, doi, etc.
Journal article with a DOI (Don't know what a DOI is? Find the answer here.)
McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1-51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126
Journal article without a DOI, with a nondatabase URL
Ahmann, E., Tuttle, L. J., Saviet, M., & Wright, S. D. (2018). A descriptive review of ADHD coaching research: Implications for college students. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 31(1), 17-39. https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/publications/jped/archived-jped/jped-volume-31
Journal article with a DOI, 21 or more authors
Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White, G., Woollen, 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 40-year reanalysis project. Bulletin of the American Meterological Society, 77(3), 437-471. http://doi.org/fg6rf9
*Because the original DOI was long and complex, a short DOI is used (see Section 9.36). Either the long or short form of the DOI is acceptable.
Journal article, in press
Pachur, T., & Scheibehenne, B. (in press). Unpacking buyer-seller differences in valuation from experience: A cognitive modeling approach. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Article from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Mehrholz, J., Pohl, M., Platz, T., Kugler, J., & Elsner, B. (2018). Electromechanical and robot-assisted arm training for improving activities of daily living, arm function, and arm muscle strength after stroke. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858/CD006876.pub5
Article from the UpToDate database
Morey, M. C. (2019). Physical activity and exercise in older adults. UpToDate. Retrieved July 22, 2019, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/physical-activity-and-exercise-in-older-adults
Magazine Article
Bergeson, S. (2019, January 4). Really cool neutral plasmas. Science, 363(6422), 33-34. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau7988
Newspaper Article
Hess, A. (2019). Cats who take direction. The New York Times, C1.
*To cite articles from online news websites (vs. online newspapers as shown here), see Example 110 in the APA manual.
Blog post
Klymkowsky, M. (2018, September 15). Can we talk scientifically about free will? Sci-Ed. https://blogs.plos.org/scied/2018/09/15/can-we-talk-scientifically-about-free-will/
Editorial
Cuellar, N. G. (2016). Study abroad programs [Editorial]. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 27(3), 209. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659616638722
Authored book with a DOI:
Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000
Authored book without a DOI, from most academic research database or print version
Burgess, R. (2019). Rethinking global health: Frameworks of power. Routledge.
Authored ebook (e.g., Kindle book) or audiobook without a DOI, with a nondatabase URL
Cain, S. (2012). Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking (K. Mazur, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Random House Audio. http://bit.ly/2G0Bpbl
Edited book without a DOI, from most academic research database or print version
Hacker Hughes, J. (Ed.). (2017). Military veteran psychological health and social care: Contemporary approaches. Routledge.
DSM manual (DSM, ICD)
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
World Health Organization. (2019). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (11th ed.). https://icd.who.int/
Chapter in an edited book with a DOI
Balsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones, K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287-314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012
Chapter in an edited book without a DOI, from most academic research databases or print version
Weinstock, R., Leong, G. B., & Silva, J. A. (2003). Defining forensive psychiatry: Roles and responsibilities. In R. Rosner (Ed.), Principles and practice of forensic psychiatry (2nd ed., pp. 7-13). CRC Press.
Chapter in an edited ebook (e.g., Kindle book) or audiobook without a DOI, with nondatabase URl
Tafoya, N., & Del Vecchio, A. (2005). Back to the future: An examination of the Native American Holocaust experience. In M. McGoldrick, J. Giordano, & N. Garcia-Preto (Eds.), Ethnicity and family therapy (3rd ed., pp. 55-63). Guilford Press. http://a.co/36xRhBT
You may need to use a direct quote from an e-book, websites and webpages, or other material that do not have page numbers. When there are no page numbers provided, the in-text citation must still indicate where in the text the quote can be located. Any of the following approaches is acceptable; use the approach that will best help readers find the quotation:
EasyBib's barcode scanner pulls citation information and formats it in APA, MLA or Chicago style. You can then e-mail the citation to yourself to copy and paste into your reference list. Available for iOS, Android, and Google Apps.
Entry in a mobile app reference work
Epocrates. (2019). Interaction check: Aspirin + sertraline. In Epocrates medical references (Version 18.12) [Mobile app]. Google Play Store. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.epocrates&hl=en_US
There are 4 important components of any citation: author, year, title, and source (site name/URL). To cite websites, the most important components are the author (whether an individual or institution), the date, the title of the page, and the url for the site.
Webpage on a website with a group author
World Health Organization. (2018, March). Questions and answers on immunization and vaccine safety. https://www.who.int/features/qa/84/en/
Webpage on a website with an individual author
Martin Lillie, C. M. (2016, December 29). Be kind to yourself: How self-compassion can improve your resilience. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/self-compassion-can-improve-your-resiliency/art-20267193
Webpage on a website with a retrieval date
U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). U.S. and world population clock. U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved July 3, 2019, from https://census.gov/popclock/
Nightingale, F. (1853-1893). Correspondence. Florence Nightingale Letters. Reynolds-Finley Historical Library, University of Alabama at Birmingham. http://contentdm.mhsl.uab.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/NIGHTINGALE
References for letters in a digital repository may be formatted using the template shown in Section 10.8 of the seventh edition of the Publication Manual. A letter is not likely to have a title, so you can substitute in a description in brackets in the title position. The best example to follow is actually Example 95 on page 346, a radio interview recording in a digital archive, although Example 73, an informal work from an institutional repository, also provides an idea of what the reference would look like.
Nightingale, F. (1866, July 15). [Letter to Madame Schwabe]. Reynolds-Finley Historical Library. https://uab.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/NIGHTINGALE/id/97
Alternatively, if you think using the title assigned by the library would aid in retrieval, you could put the library's title in the title position instead of the description. Because the library's title identifies the source as being a letter, you do not need to add [Letter] after the title.
Nightingale, F. (1866, July 15). Florence Nightingale letter to Madame Schwabe, July 15, 1866. Reynolds-Finley Historical Library. https://uab.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/NIGHTINGALE/id/97
For archival documents that are not online, guidance may be found here:
Manual for a test, scale, or inventory
Tellegen, A., & Ben-Porath, Y. S. (2011). Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - 2 Restructure Form (MMPI-2-RF): Technical manual. Pearson.
Test, scale, or inventory itself
Project Implicit. (n.d.). Gender-Science IAT. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
Cite the test, scale, or inventory itself only if a manual or other supporting literature is not available to cite; if a manual is available for a test, cite the manual, not the test.
Database record for a test
Cardoza, D., Morris, J. K., Myers, H. F., & Rodriguez, N. (2000). Acculturative Stress Inventory (ASI) (TC022704) [Database record]. ETS Testlink.
For most guidelines posted through AHRQ and National Guideline Clearinghouse (guideline.gov) you will cite these documents like websites and web reports. In other words, you need the same 4 major components discussed earlier on this page: author, year, title, and source. After the title of the work, provide any number or identifier for the standard (if any) in parentheses without italics. Below is an example of a guideline found on Guideline.gov:
Example:
National Environmental Education & Training Foundation. (2005, August). Environmental management of pediatric asthma: Guidelines for health care providers. http://guideline.gov/content.aspx?id=10019&search=asthma
Guidelines published in a traditional journal, whether in print or online, should be cited as journal articles.
Data set
National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). Fast Response Survey System (FRSS): Teachers' use of educational technology in U.S. public schools, 2009 (ICPSR 35531; Version V3) [Data set and code book]. National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35531.v3
Pew Research Center. (2018). American trends panel Wave 26 [Data set]. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/dataset/american-trends-panel-wave-26/
Unpublished raw data
Baer, R. A. (2015). [Unpublished raw data on the correlations between the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills]. University of Kentucky.
Oregon Youth Authority. (2011). Recidivism outcomes [Unpublished raw data].
Sometimes you will use a website which allows you to select and compare data. These might be sites from the Census, the CDC, or a site like Nursing Home Compare from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Purdue's OWL site for APA offers recommendations for citing data sets and graphic data. We recommend you combine pieces of these two formats to cite a resource like Nursing Home Compare. This allows you to credit the source and provide your reader with the information needed to retrieve the data you used.
Example:
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2013, June 30). [Comparison of Mount Royal Towers and Fairview Health and Rehabilitation Center]. Nursing Home Compare [Data file]. http://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/
Report by a government agency or other organization
Austrailian Government Productivity Commission & New Zealand Productivity Commission. (2012). Strengthening trans-Tasman economic relations. http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/austrailia-new-zealand/report/trans-tasman.pdf
Report by individual authors at a government agency or other organization
Fried, D., & Polyakova, A. (2018). Democratic defense against disinformation. Atlantic Council. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/Democratic_Defence_Against_Disinformation_FINAL.pdf
Report by a task force, working group, or other group
British Cardiovascular Society Working Group. (2016). British Cardiovascular Society Working Group report: Out-of-hours cardiovascular care: Management of cardiac emergencies and hospital in-patients. British Cardiovascular Society. http://www.bcs.com/documents/BCSOOHWP_Final_Report_05092016.pdf
Annual report
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (2017). Agency financial report: Fiscal year 2017. https://www.sec.gov/files/sec-2017-agency-financial-report.pdf
Issue brief
Lichtenstein, J. (2013). Profile of veteran business owners: More young veterans appear to be starting businesses (Issue Brief No. 1). U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy. https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/Issue%20Brief%201,%20Veteran%20Business%20Owners.pdf
One-author entries should be arranged by year, the earliest being first. No-date (n.d.) references precede references with dates, and in-press references are listed last.
Examples:
One author entries precede multiple author entries beginning with the same first name author, even if the multiple-author work was published earlier.
Multiple-author entries in which all authors appear in the same order should then be arranged by the year of publication. Multiple-author entries with the same first author and different subsequent authors are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the second author, then third, and so forth.
Some confusing and ambiguity may arise for works with same author(s) and dates. To distinguish between these works, put a lowercase letter after the year in both the in-text citation and the reference list.
Assigning letters is a two-step process. First, compare dates. References with only a year preceded those with more specific dates, and specific dates are placed in chronological order.
Second, if the references have identical dates, alphabetize the references by title (disregarding the words "A," An," & "The" at the beginning of the reference title).