Home » APA Citation » Understanding the APA Citation Format

Understanding the APA Citation Format

APA citation is simply a way of listing references in a paper. This is done in order to properly quote the words, phrases, sentences or even paragraphs of another author. It is important to learn the basics of the APA citation to add weight and validity to your work.

Introducing APA Citation

The APA citation format, in particular, is widely used in academic papers in Psychology or the Social Sciences. APA stands for the American Psychological Association, which pioneered and established the rules on documenting sources and listing the references used for the research paper. The APA citation style uses a combination of in-text or parenthetical citations as well as a reference list or a bibliography. There is a general format in citing APA for every kind of source like books, periodicals or websites.

Understanding and Citing APA

References are listed in the APA works cited page, includes in-text citations, which are used in the paper to make sure that the reader knows you are using information from another source. Whenever you make an in-text citation, you should also put in the complete source in the reference list or bibliography. One cannot do without the other for the in-text is simply a reference to finding the source in the APA works cited page.

For every in-text citation like this one:

From the concept of operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938)

A matching APA citation would appear:

Skinner, B. F. (1938). The study of Behaviorism. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

More often than not, sources come from books or publications that have authority on the subject matter tackled in your paper. The following are the basic information you need to retrieve for the APA citation style:

Author’s complete name. It is found on the book cover, jacket or title page.
Date of publication. It is usually at the bottom of the title page or the next page succeeding the word “copyright ©.”
Title. It is indicated in the title page and book cover.
Number of edition or revision. It is stated in the book cover, jacket or title page, indicating whether the book is a 1^st or 2^nd edition. You may assume it is an original, but you do not have to say it, if there is no available information.
Publisher. It is commonly placed at the bottom of the title page or the next one.

APA Citation Format

In an APA citation, the full details of the source will be included in the reference list or bibliography, again, conforming to the APA citation format bearing in mind the following guidelines:

Alphabetize. Arranged all the entries by the last name of the authors in an alphabetical order. If the source has no indicated author, arrange the title instead.
Begin with the complete last names of authors. Include only the last name of the author and initial of the first and middle name like Skinner. B.F. For multiple authors, replace “and” with an ampersand or “&” like Skinner, B.F. & Watson, J.B.
Capitalize the titles. You should capitalize the first word only of the title or even the subtitle as well as any proper names that are included in the title.
Note the pagination. You can use p. or pp. to indicate the page numbers of the source articles found in periodicals with no designated volume like in a newspaper. The abbreviations may also be used to indicate pages sourced from encyclopaedias and chapters from books that have been edited. However, for some periodicals like journals and magazines, indicate the page numbers without the p. or pp.
Make a “hanging indent.” The very first line of your entry should be flush left and succeeding lines need to have 5 to 7 spaced indentation.
Italicize rather than underline. The APA citation style follows italicizing the titles, whether of a book or a journal. Underlining was only commonly used for handwritten or typewritten papers.
You can cut the name/s of the publisher/s but make it intelligible. However, for associations, corporations and university presses, you need to keep the entire name while you may drop redundant labels like Co., Inc. and Publishers.

Examples of APA Citation by source

BOOKS

The standard APA citation format for books is the author/s, publication date, title, publication place, and publisher.

Single Author

Baum, W. M. (1994). Understanding Behaviorism: Science, behaviour and culture. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

Two Authors

Bornstein, M.H. & Lamb, M.E. (2005). Developmental Science: an advanced textbook. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Multiple Authors

Reid, V., Striano, T., & Koops, W. (2007). Social cognition during infancy. Chicago, IL: Psychology Press.

Multi-volumes

Reynolds, W. M., Weiner, I. B., & Miller, G. E. (2003). History and study of Behaviorism: Educational Psychology. (Vol. 7). Mayfield, KY: Bluegrass Publishing.

Citing a chapter

Mitchel, J. (1979). Infancy: The first crucial stage. The inner child: Understanding the intricacies of childhood (pp. 54-72). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Online books

Berger, A. (2007). The principle of social conditioning. Retrieved from http://www.girschner.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=44092

PERIODICALS

Periodicals pertain to scholarly works covering journals, magazines and newspapers. In conforming to the APA citation for journals or magazines, indicate the volume number if the work has pages in every volume. Moreover, when each issue of the volume starts with page 1, you should indicate the volume as well as the issue numbers. In parentheses, you need to italicize the volume number, but not the issue number, which should also be indicated.

References sourced from journals, magazines, newspapers in print must follow this APA citation format:

Authors, publication date, article title, journal title, volume number, issue number (if applicable), and page numbers.

The names of authors are listed similar to the APA citation style for books.

Below are a few samples of reference sourced from periodicals in print and online:

Journals

Format:

Author’s names, publication date, title of the article, name of the journal, volume number, issue number, pages, digital object identifier:

Cespon, M.F. (2009). Empiric study on reverse logistic strategies in the manufacturing sector in the central area of Cuba. Journal of Operations and supply chain management, 14 (9), 72-82.

Guy, M. (2007). Leadership in an organization: The effects of strategic planning and workforce projectionS. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 105(2), 221-232. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2007.08.002

Newspapers

APA citation for newspapers is different from other periodicals because of the use of p. or pp. preceding the page numbers.

Format:

Author’s name, publication date, title of the article, name of the newspaper, page numbers

Schausen, M. (1984, September 26). Impacts of economic status on morality. The Washington Post, pp. A3, A7.

Delaney, K. J., Karnitschnig, M., & Guth, R. A. (2008, May 5). Microsoft ends pursuit of Yahoo, reassesses its online options. The Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A12.

Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http:www.washingtonpost.com

Magazines

Format:

Author’s name, publication date, title of the article, name of the magazine, volume no., issue number (if available), pages

Pearson, W. A., III. (1982, May 9). Conforming to peer pressure. Time, 135, 28-31. Guthrie, L. (2001, October). Rediscovering the atom for today’s students. National Geographic, 212(5), 37-47.

Macpherson, K. (2006, March/June). Healing the inner child. Psychology Today, 42(3). Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com

Websites

Format:

Author’s name, publication date (or “n.d.” if there is no date), title (in italics), and URL.

Reverse Logistics Association. (2008). After-sales support. Retrieved May 3, 2005, from http://www.rfl.abs/learning/re_biofuels.html

Ashe, D. D., & McCutcheon, L. E. (2001). Shyness, loneliness, and attitude toward celebrities. Current Research in Social Psychology, 6, 124-133. Retrieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~grpproc/crisp/crisp.html

When adding an online source to the APA works cited page, there are two key issues you should include:

It is preferable to use a DOI or a digital object finder, but in the absence of one, use a stable internet address instead. It is very important to use an address that directs closest to the real source. When sourcing from online newspapers and other articles that are subscription-based, use the address of the home page site instead because the URLs on these types of sources are often unstable, meaning, they may no longer be valid or available after a period of time.
Use the retrieval date particularly for sources with no indicated date and if the URL is more likely to change as in the case with most online encyclopaedia sources. For sources that are published and dates as final version like in journal articles, use the date indicated in the text of the cited source. For more information on citing APA from online sources, see the APA Style Guide to Electronic References especially in dealing with URLs that are quite lengthy, often taking up several lines.
If the URL is too long like more than 2 lines, you can cut it short after a double sash or just before any punctuation mark. Just make sure you do not put a hyphen or a period at the end.

Samples of In-text Citations

The following are examples of the variations in using the APA citation format for in-text citations with a basic APA citation style of including only the author’s name and publication date.

Single Author Source. Preceding the cited work, use the last name of the author and the date of publication. However, if the author’s name is used in the text, then you may only cite the date:

From the concept of operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938)

Skinner (1938) further illustrates

Multiple Authors. Use both the last names of the authors, joined by an ampersand (&) whenever a reference is used:

as was illustrated in the experiment (Watson & Rayner, 1920)

as Watson and Rayner (1920) discovered

Multiple authors. Cite all the authors’ last names the first time that their work has been used. For subsequent APA citations, you may keep the first name and just add the Latin word “et al.” which means “and others”:

as stipulated in the theory (Rayner, Skinner, & Watson, 1931)

Rayner, Skinner, and Watson (1931)

postulated that contributing to the study of Behaviorism (Rayner et al., 1931)

Citing a chapter. When citing a particular part of the reference text like in a quotation, it is necessary to also indicate the page or chapter with the right abbreviations:

for “learning can occur through reinforcement an punishment” (Skinner, 1935, p.112).

In the study of classical conditioning, Pavlov (1930) states that “extinction occurs when an association disappears” (p. 96).

Online sources. For online sources, you may follow the standard format in citing a book. For web-based journals or PDF files with no page numbers, just indicate the paragraph number with an abbreviation “para.” or you may also use the heading or the succeeding paragraph:

For every child, there is a desire to please the primary caregiver or parents for classical conditioning begins as early as infancy where the action of the child causes an effect on the parents (Schultz and Morris, 2005, para. 12).

The Importance of APA Citation

APA citation is relevant because the work of another author backs up or supports your paper. This will give weight to your methodology, findings or recommendations not that much different in seeking a second medical opinion just to be sure that the first diagnosis is valid.

Equally important, citing APA sources and authors, is the professional and ethical way of giving credit where it is due. We all know that scholars work very hard on their research and the only reward they often get is an acknowledgment of their valuable contribution. In addition, proper citation will protect you from accusations of plagiarism. In the academic world, authors are very serious in protecting their work, that a few copied words or a single sentence can very well mark you as a plagiarist. This will not bode well for your record and perhaps your future as an academician or scholarly author. Equally important, APA works cited page guide your readers to further learning by following the references you indicated. In this way, APA citation is truly a tool for those in real pursuit of knowledge, making use of all the rich sources available.