APA Style References Entries (used in most social science and business courses)

The information below comes from the updated 6th edition of APA (American Psychological Association) style guidelines. APA style dictates that authors are named last name followed by initials; the publication year goes between parentheses and is followed by a period. Titles are written in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized.

Here are a few basic rules for listing/formatting your sources in the APA reference list:

• List only the words you cited in the text of your paper. Do not list works that you only consulted or reviewed.
• Begin your reference list on a new numbered page after the last page of the text of your paper. Center the heading “References” (no quotation marks, no bolding, no underlining, no italics, and no period following it). Double space throughout the list, but do not space add extra spaces between your entries.
• List the words alphabetically by last names of primary authors or by the name of an organization that acts as the author (do not number or bullet the entries).
• Use a period and a space to separate the main parts of each entry.

Use this information for citing BOOKS in your reference page

Citing A Book By One Author:

Williams, J. (1994). Economics. Washington, DC: University Press.

Book With Two To Seven Authors:

Baumol, W.J., Litan, R.E., & Schramm, C.J (2005). Good capitalism, bad capitalism. Washington, DC: University Press.

• Note: Author’s names are listed in the order that they appear on the book or study’s title page, but use reverse order: last name followed by initials. Separate all names with commas, and insert an “&” (ampersand) before the last name.

Edited Book:

Bates, M. & Williams, J. (Eds). (2005). Good capitalism, bad capitalism. Washington, DC: University Press.

• Note: Use “Ed.” if  your book has only one editor. Also notice the title; unlike MLA, APA style capitalizes only the first letter of a title (and the first word after a semicolon). Proper nouns should always be capitalized, regardless of where they appear in the title.

Work in an edited collection or reference book:

DuBois, W.E.B. (2007). Returning Soldiers. In L. Gates, Jr., & G.A. Jarrett (Eds.), The new Negro: Readings on race, representation, and African American culture, 1892 – 1938 (pp. 85 – 91). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

• Note: List the author of the work (the study or essay that you are using), the date of publication of the edited book, and the title of the work. After this information, use “In” followed by the names of the editor(s). Note that the names of the editors are not written in reverse order.
• Note: The titles of the short works in the collection are written using titular capitalization with no quotation marks.

No author identified:

Good capitalism, bad capitalism. (2005). Washington, DC: University Press.

• Note: Put the title first. When alphabetizing, ignore A, An, and The if these words begin your title.

Edited Book with an Author or Authors:

Plath, S. (2000). The unabridged journals K.V. Kukil, (Ed.). New York, NY: Anchor.

A Translation:

Laplace, P. S. (1951). A philosophical essay on probabilities. (F. W. Truscott & F. L. Emory, Trans.). New York, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1814).

• Note: When you cite a republished work, like the one above, work in your text, it should appear with both dates: Laplace (1814/1951).

Edition Other Than the First:

Helfer, M. E., Keme, R. S., & Drugman, R. D. (1997). The battered child (5th ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.

• Note: When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references, except for newspapers.

Multivolume Work:

Wiener, P. (Ed.). (1973). Dictionary of the history of ideas (Vols. 1-4). New York, NY: Scribner's. 

Use this information to cite PERIODICALS in your reference page

Article In A Scholarly Journal Organized By Volume:

Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Article in a scholarly journal organized by issue:

Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(30), 5-13.

Magazine article:

Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today's schools. Time, 135, 28-31.

Note: Include the year and exact publication date in the parentheses. Do not abbreviate months. Magazine titles get italicized.

Newspaper article:

Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.

• Note: Unlike other periodicals, p. or pp. precedes page numbers for a newspaper reference in APA style.

Letter to Editor, Review, Editorial:

Moller,G. (2002, August). Ripples versus rumbles [Letter to the editor]. Scientific American, 287(2), 12.

Angell, M. (2009, January 15). Drug companies and doctors: A story of corruption [Review of the book Shyness: How normal behavior became a sickness, by C. Lane]. The New York Review of Books, 56(1),12.