Every cited source from your essay, with the exception of personal communications, should appear in your References page, which comes at the end of the essay.
Formatting the References Page
The References page must conform to the following rules:
- Begin on a separate page at the end of your essay, using the same format as your essay (i.e., one-inch margins and page number).
- Entries in your list of references should be alphabetized by the authors’ last names. Use the title if a work does not have an author. (Don’t use any article in alphabetizing – The new America gets alphabetized under “n.”)
- Center and bold the word References at the top of the page.
- Double-space all references, even within individual references.
- Use a hanging indent of 0.5 inches for each reference. This means the first line of each entry will be flush against the left margin, and subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches.
- In Microsoft Word, for example, you simply highlight your citations, click on the small arrow right next to the word “Paragraph” on the home tab, and in the popup box, choose “hanging indent” under the “Special” section. Click OK, and you’re done. In Google Docs, highlight the area you want to indent, then choose Format > Align & Indent > Indentation options > Select “Special,” then “Hanging” > Apply.
- All book and article titles in APA appear in sentence case, meaning that the capitalization rules here are different than what you are accustomed to seeing:
- only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized (The great Gatsby). The first word of a subtitle that comes after a colon is also capitalized.
- books are italicized, and articles have neither italics nor quotation marks (A study of symbolism in American movies).
- Journal titles are capitalized and italicized (New Jersey English Journal).
You can view the transcript for “APA References Seventh Edition” here (opens in new window).
Read the information below on how to create a specific reference entry for your source type.
APA citations
| Source Type | Elements | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Print Book with a Single Author | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials. (Year). Title. Publisher. | Larson, M. S. (1977). The rise of professionalism. University of California Press. |
| Print Book with Two to Twenty Authors | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials. (Year). Title. Publisher. | Rivano, N. S., Hoson, A., & Stallings, B. (2001). Regional integration and economic development. Palgrave. |
| Online Book | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year). Title. URL | Austen, J. (1813). Pride and prejudice. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342 |
| Online Book with a DOI | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year). Title. Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx | Smith, J. (2018). Women’s support groups. Routledge. https://doi.org/10/1022/0000091-00 |
| Edited Ebook from a Library Database | Editor’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other editors if any. (Ed. or Eds.). (Year). Title. URL Note: Use (Ed.) if there is a single editor. |
Randall, S., & Ford, H. (Eds.) (2011). Long term conditions: A guide for nurses and health care professionals. http://www.ebrary.com |
| Print Journal Article | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume number(Issue number), page range. | Winans, A. D. (1992). The Mafioso and American political culture. Journal of Popular Culture, 22(1), 21–47. |
| Online Journal Article with a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume number(Issue number), page range. https://doi.org/xxxxx | Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support… Health Psychology, 24(2), 225–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/027806133.24.2.225 |
| Journal Article without a DOI, with a Nondatabase URL | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume number(Issue number), page range. URL | Kelley, H., & Betsalel, K. (2004). Mind’s fire… Anthropology & Humanism, 29(2), 104–116. http://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/… |
| Journal Article without a DOI from Academic Research Database | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume number(Issue number), page range.
|
Anderson, H. (2019). Teaching during times of trauma. Education Today, 36(1), 35–43. |
| Print Magazine Article | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year, Month and Day). Title of article. Title of Magazine, Volume number(Issue number), page range. Note: For monthly magazines, include the month. For weekly, include month and day. |
Cooper, H. (1998, May). The trouble with debt. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, 43, 100–103. |
| Online Magazine Article | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year, Month and Day). Title of article. Title of Magazine, Volume number(Issue number). URL or DOI | Vogel, C. (2008, June). A honeymoon cut short… American Heritage. http://www.americanheritage.com/… |
| Article from a Database | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year, Month). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume number(Issue number), page range. Note: If the article does not have a DOI, format it like a print version. Do not include the database name or URL. |
Mershon, D. H. (1998, November). Star trek on the brain… American Scientist, 86(6), 585. |
| Online Newspaper Article | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year, Month and Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. URL | Hunter, J. D. (2019, April 14). Pressure cooker… The Oregonian. https://www.oregonlive.com/… |
| Webpage on a News Website | Author’s Last name, First & Middle initials., & other authors if any. (Year, Month and Day). Title of webpage. Site Name. URL | Street, F. (2020, January 9). How the village that inspired ‘Frozen’ is dealing with overtourism. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/… |
| Webpage | Author (person or organization). (Year, Month and Day). Title of webpage. Site Name. URL Note: If no author, begin with the title. If no date, use (n.d.). |
Boyd, V. (2012, January 15). About Zora Neale Hurston. Zora Neale Hurston. http://zoranealehurston.com/about/ |
| Television Broadcast | Contributor(s). (Function). (Year, Month and Day). Title of episode. In Producer(s), Title of series. Production company. | Levy, S. (Director). (2017, October 27). Chapter three: The pollywog. In M. Duffer et al. (Executive Producers), Stranger Things. Netflix. |
| YouTube or Other Streaming Video | Contributor(s). (Year, Month and Day). Title of the video [Video]. Platform. URL | Ezekiel, S. (2012, March 21). MIT understanding laser and fiberoptics: Fiberoptics fundamentals [Video]. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DCrIAxEv_Y |
| Podcast | Contributor(s). (Function). (Year, Month and Day). Title of episode (No. episode number) [Audio or video podcast episode]. In Title of the series. URL Note: Episode number may be omitted if not available. If no URL is known, omit it. |
Garber, J. (Host). (2019, November 22). The grazing revolution: A radical plan to save the Earth (No. 638) [Audio podcast episode]. In The farming podcast. https://www.thefarmingpodcast.com/… |
| Social Media Post | Author or Group. [@username]. (Year, Month and Day). First 20 words of post [Media description] [Source type]. Platform. URL | NASA. [@NASA]. (2020, January 5). A team of astronomers have found EGS77—the farthest galaxy group known to date! [Video attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/… |