APA 6th Citation Help
This website provides assistance with APA 6th edition. If you need the 7th edition, please see the APA Style and Grammar Guidelines, 7th edition.
Below are citation examples for the most commonly cited kinds of resources using APA rules. For MLA and Chicago (Turabian), please see our MLA Citation Help page or the Chicago (Turabian) Quick Guide.
ALWAYS: check with your instructor if you have questions about citation or other format issues.
APA References
Books
Authors. (Year of publication). Title of book, sentence style capitalization. Place of publication: Name of publisher.
Rule 7.02 on page 202 (6th ed.)
Gaines, L. K., & Miller, R. L. (2003). Criminal justice in action.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
See Rule 7.02, Example 18 on page 203 (6th ed.)
Goode, E. (2002). Drug legalization. In D. Levinson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of crime and punishment (Vol. 2, pp. 559-65). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
See Rule 7.02 on pages 202-203 (6th ed.)
Periodicals
Authors. (Date of Publication). Title of article, sentence style capitalization. Title of Publication, Headline Style Capitalization, volume number(issue number if not continuously paginated), inclusive page numbers. doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx
Note: Do not give the volume number of a newspaper even if it is listed.
Rule 7.01 on page 198 (6th ed.)
Fodor, J. (2006). How the mind works: What we still don't know. Daedalus, 135(3), 86-94.
See Rule 7.01, Example 3 on page 199 (6th ed.)
Côté, S., & Bouchard, S. (2009). Cognitive mechanisms underlying virtual reality exposure. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12, 121-129. doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0008
See Rule 7.01, Example 1 on page 198 (6th ed.)
Ishitani, T. T. (2006). Studying attrition and degree completion behavior among first-generation college students in the United States. The Journal of Higher Education, 77, 861-865. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.
APA style modification as preferred by most WTAMU faculty. For exact information, see Rule 7.01, Example 3 on page 199. Use doi if available.
A counselor's resounding cry, even from her hospital bed: Go directly to college. (2005, December 28). The New York Times, p. B10.
See rule 7.01, Examples 9 and 10 on page 200 (6th ed.) If author is known, use the author, date, article title sequence.
Kalb, C. (2006, March 27). The therapist as scientist. Newsweek, 147(13), 50-51.
See Rule 7.01, Example 7 on page 200 (6th ed.)
Other
Bank, J., & Jackson, B. (2006, April 4). Can you prevent global warming? Retrieved from http://www.factcheck.org/society/can_you_prevent_global_warming.html
See Rule 7.03, Examples 32-34 on page 206 (6th ed.) Include as much information as possible.
United Nations. (1991). Consequences of rapid population growth in developing countries. New York, NY: Taylor.
See Rule 7.03, Example 31 on page 205 (6th ed.)
Hearings on the "Equal Rights" Amendment: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments of the Committee on the Judiciary, 91st Cong. 1 (1970).
See Appendix 7.1 Example 13 on page 221. Other governmental forms can vary widely. See the full appendix on pages 216-224 (6th ed.)
Specific examples provides in Appendix 7.1, p. 216-221 (6th ed.) with reference to The bluebook for additional detail.
APA In-Text Citation
When you present someone else's ideas in your research papers, you should insert citations within your text so that others will be able to understand how you reached your conclusions.
Your citation will be inserted before the period at the end of a sentence in which you have presented information you gathered from one of your reference sources. For example, if you were using the APA style a citation may look like this: Sam was unable to convince his companion to eat green eggs and ham (Seuss, 1988).
The following outlines some of the more common variations of in-text citation, but it does not list every possible variation. If you have any questions about a particular citation please see the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. This manual is kept at the Research & Access Desk in the Cornette Library.
For More Information
Our Recommended Web Sites: Citing Sources page links to web sites with more detailed citation information, as well as other citation styles.