APA bibliographic style

Lists of works cited: APA style

Books—Journal &Magazine Articles—Newspaper Articles—Electronic Resources—Multimedia and Other Primary Resources

APA style is prominent in the social sciences, but is also used in other disciplines. If you don't see an appropriate example, check the APA style guide.

Books

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (publication date).
                           
     Title of work. Location: Publisher.

Double space between lines.
Indent the second and following lines.
If there is no author, begin with the title and place the date directly after it in parentheses.

With a single author

Lukacs, J. (1981). Philadelphia: Patricians and philistines, 1900-1950.
                  
     New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

More than one author

Londraville, R., & Londraville, J. (2001). Dear Yeats, dear Pound, dear Ford:
                                    
     Jeanne Robert Forster and her circle of friends. Syracuse: Syracuse 
   
     University Press.

Edited book

I. Lodemel & H. Trickey (Eds.). (2001). An offer you can't refuse: Workfare in 
   
     international perspective. Bristol: The Policy Press.

Edition of a book

Shakespeare, W. (1992). The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark (B.A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.). New York:
   
     Washington Square-Pocket.

Book by a corporate author

National Research Council. (1999). Funding a revolution: Government support 
   
     for computing research. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Book of more than one volume

Singer, I. (1984). The nature of love. 3 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago 
   
     Press.

Translated book

Clayton, A. (2000). Subterranean city: Beneath the streets of London (A. Bell, Trans.). 

    Cambridge: Blackwell. (Original work published 1992).

Electronic book

See the APA Style Guide to Electronic References, p. 10.

Article within a book

Schwartz, J. (2001). The triumph of liberalism. In M. M. Klein (Ed.),
                  
     The empire state: A history of New York (pp. 519-621). Ithaca:
                  
     Cornell University Press.

Encyclopedias and other multi-volume works

Boxer, B. (1995). Shanghai. In The new encyclopaedia Britannica
                  
     (Vol. 15, pp. 273-277). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Journal and Magazine Articles

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (publication date).
                           
    Title of article. Title of Periodical, Volume or issue number,
 
    page numbers.

Double space between lines.
Indent the second and following lines.
If there is no author, begin with the title and place the date directly after it in parentheses.

From print journals

Hitchcock, C. (2001). The intransitivity of causation revealed in
                  
     equations and graphs. The Journal of Philosophy, 98, 273-299.

From e-journals

See the APA Style Guide to Electronic References, p. 7.

From full-text databases

See the APA Style Guide to Electronic References, pp. 3,7.

From printed magazines

O'Brien, J. M (2001, November 9). The making of the Xbox. Wired, 146-153.

From online magazines

Stokes, M. (2001, November). Why the west? Lingua Franca. Retrieved
   
     December 2, 2001, from http://www.linguafranca.com/print/0111/cover.html

Book Reviews

Markosian, N. (2001). [Review of the book Semantics, tense, and time]. The
                  
     Journal of Philosophy, 98, 325-329.

Newspaper Articles

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year, month day of publication).
                           
      Title of article. Title of Newspaper, pp. section designation (if used)
                           
      page number.

Double space between lines.
Indent the second and following lines.
If there is no author, begin with the title and place the date directly after it in parentheses.

From print newspapers

Wilford, J. N. (2001, December 2). Artifacts in Africa suggest an earlier
                  
     modern human. New York Times, pp. A1, A16.

Newspaper article with no author

This stadium available. (2002, January 5). Chicago Tribune, p.10.

From online newspapers

See the APA Style Guide to Electronic References, p. 22.

From full-text databases

Wilford, J. N. (2001, December 2). Artifacts in Africa suggest an earlier
                  
     modern human. New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2001 from Lexis-Nexis
                  
     database.

Electronic Resources

[Use whatever form is appropriate for the document]. Retrieved 
                           
   Month Day, Year, from DOI, permanent URL, Database name, or E-Journal name.

This example represents one generic style. Depending on your specific source you might need to include more or less information.

Double space between lines.

Indent the second and following lines.

If there is no author, begin with the title and place the date directly after it in parentheses.

When page numbers are not available to identify part of an electronic document, use chapter or section information

When a document consists of multiple pages or sites, provide the URL of whatever page provides easiest access to all of them (the home page, for example).

Use n.d. when no publication date is available.

The database name does not need to be included unless there is no DOI and no permanent URL, or the database name is needed to locate hard-to-find documents.

See the APA Style Guide for Online References for more detailed directions and for specific examples.

Multimedia and Other Primary Resources

There is no standard reference style for miscellaneous primary resources. Each type of resource has a slightly different format.

Movies

Kurtz, G (Producer), & Lucas, G. (Director). (1977). Star wars [Motion picture]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox.

Music Recording

Morrisey, S. (1985). Meat is murder. On Meat is murder [cassette]. London: Rough Trade Records.

Personal Letters (unpublished)

APA style requires personal letters to be cited in the text.

Interviews (unpublished)

Allam, M. W (Speaker). (1987). Interview with L. Messmer. [Videorecording]. Interview with Lydia Messmer: Oral History. University Archives, University of Pennsylvania.