The American Psychological Association (APA) has created a citation style that is used increasingly throughout the social, natural and health sciences.  Use the links below to find information about how to use the guide and the box to the right to see examples of how the guide is used in specific examples.

APA Citation Guide

The following guide is based on the American Psychological Association Publication Manual, 6^th edition (2010) which you can find in the Archer Library reference collection on the main floor at call number: BF76.7 P83 2010.  The examples selected below are not exhaustive but include the most common cases that you will come across when creating a reference list.  For other cases please contact our reference staff at the information desk or call us at 585-4495.

What’s in a citation?

The citation tells you the title of the article, the author(s) name, the title of the journal in which the article appears, along with the year volume, issue, and page numbers. You will use this information to find the journal.

You can usually tell the title of the journal/magazine because it will be bolded, italicized, or underlined, and followed by volume, issue, and page number the article begins on. When we search the library catalogue we will be using the journal title, so it’s important to be able to recognize it.

DOI versus websites.

Whenever you are citing from an electronic document add the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to the citation if one exists.   DOI is a number that is unique to a document. APA 6^th edition suggests that you use the DOI whenever possible instead of the website address. DOIs can usually be found in the journal record in the database that you have downloaded it from.  Sometimes they will be listed on the cover page of the pdf document itself.  If you know the DOI you can find the article by copying the DOI in the box at the following website:  http://dx.doi.org/  If you do not know the DOI you can find out if there is one by using the following website: http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/ 

Example (no DOI available):

Smith, M. E. G. and Campbell, P. (1997). Discourses on deafness: social policy and the communicative habilitation of the deaf. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 22(4) 437-456. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3341692

Example (DOI available):

Palmer, B. D. (2010). The personal, the political, and permanent revolution: Ernest Mandel and the conflicted legacies of Trotskyism. International Review of Social History, 55(1) 117-132. doi:10.1017/S0020859009990642

Direct Quotations:

When making direct quotation include the author, year and page number:

“This conflict between epistemic and comfort criteria for truth is an old one” (Furedy, 1997, p. 210). 

Furedy has argued that “[t]his conflict between epistemic and comfort criteria for truth is an old one” (1997, p. 210). 

When there is no page numbers (as in many electronic documents) include the paragraph number:

“[A] university’s role is to protect and promote the academic freedom and free speech of all of its members” (Seligman, 2010, para. 5).

When there is neither a page nor paragraph number, include the heading enclosed in quotation marks and paragraph number following the heading.

The AEI has recently argued in a submission to the House Committee on Ways and Means that the “IMF would be the appropriate institution under which to establish new norms for international financial behavior” (Levy, 2010, “Multilateral Approaches,” para. 3).

In Text Citations

The following table outlines how to write in text citations. 

Note:  Do not put the author’s initials in the in text citation unless it is needed to distinguish authors with similar names:  D T Suzuki (1954) has discussed…  Others have more recently questioned this perspective… (T. Suzuki, 2000).

Where adding “et al.” to multiple author entries will create confusion add extra names:

Eg. If you have entries for Fountas, Schuurman, Kuyper,  and Ross (2000)   and another for Fountas, Rekker, Vanderkooy and Winter (2000) shorten the first to Fountas, Schuurman et al (2000) and the second to Fountas, Rekker et al. (2000)

Reference Examples:

The following citation examples show some of the most common found by students and researchers.  For a complete list please consult chapter 7 of the APA guide.

Book:

Webster, D. (2009). Fire and the full moon: Canada and Indonesia in a decolonizing world. Vancouver: UBC Press.

Book: Corporate Group as author

American Psychological Association (2009). APA concise dictionary of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Edited book:

Blackwell, J. C., Smith, M. & Sorenson, J. (Eds.) (2003). Culture of prejudice : arguments in critical social science. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.

Chapter in an edited book:

In text:

(Haakonssen, 1993)

Haakonssen, K. (1993). Structure of Hume's political theory. In D. F. Norton (Ed.), Cambridge Companion to Hume. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Journal Print

Anderson, P. (2010). Two revolutions. New Left Review, 61, 59-96.

Journal Electronic

Zinn, J. O. (2008). Heading into the unknown: Everyday strategies for managing risk and uncertainty. Health, Risk & Society, 10(5), 439-450. doi:10.1080/13698570802380891

Note: If there is no DOI write “Retrieved from” followed by the URL of the Journal homepage (not the database page).  Example:  Retrieved from http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0265-5012&site=1 (Article actually retrieved from Ebscohost).  Exceptions are ERIC and JSTOR which may be cited directly.

Newspaper Article: daily print or electronic

Bradsher, K. (2010, April 9). China poised to strengthen yuan. The Globe and Mail, p. B7.

Petrie, R. (2010, March 15). Tracing Regina’s Stadium History. The Leader-Post. Retrieved from http://www.leaderpost.com

Note: If there is a DOI include this after the newspaper name.  If there is no DOI include the homepage of the newspaper as in the second example (even if the file was found in a database such as Proquest).  Do not include page numbers from electronic sources unless they are based on a print source (for example from a PDF).

Website Document Individual or Organization

Workplace Bullying Institute (2010).  2007 United States Workplace Bullying Survey. Retrieved from http://www.workplacebullying.org/research/zogbyflyer_2010.pdf 

Dawson, M. (2008). The Thibault Inquiry. Retrieved from http://ciec-ccie.gc.ca/resources/Files/English/Public%20Reports/Inquiry%20Reports/The%20Thibault%20Inquiry.pdf

Encyclopedia / dictionary: print or electronic

Entire Work:

Print:

Simpson, J. A. (Ed.). (1989). Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Online:

Simpson, J. A. (Ed.). (1989). Oxford English Dictionary Online.  Retrieved from http://dictionary.oed.com/

Entry in Encyclopedia / dictionary:

Antinomian (1989).  Oxford English Dictionary Online.  Retrieved from http://dictionary.oed.com/

Greschat, M. (1996). Martin Bucer. In H. J. Hillerbrand (Ed.), The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation (Vol. 1, pp. 221-224).  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Note: if there is no author listed for an article entry use the title of the entry as the author as in the first example.  If there is an author listed follow the second example (author-date-title).

MULTIMEDIA FORMATS:

AUDIO VISUAL

In text:

(Garner & Jhally, 2003)

Reference List:

Garner, K. (Producer), & Jhally, S. (Director). (2003). No logo [Motion Picture]. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.

Podcasts:

Name, N. (Producer). (2009, December 18).  Name of programme [Audio Podcast].  Retrieved from http://website.com

Shanks, C. (Producer). (2010, March 28).  Cross Country Check-up [Audio Podcast].  Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/archive/2010/100328CC.mp3  

In-text example:  Rex Murphy has said in one recent broadcast “…” (Shanks, 2010).

Streaming Video on Website:

In text:

(Spooner, 2010)

Reference List:

Spooner, M. (2010, January 17). Homelessness in Regina: Taking Stock, Taking Action 2009 video4 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHtwt2paYx4

MAY 11, 2010 Revision.