• Page format
• Headings
• Text details
• Citations in the text

• Figures, tables, and footnotes
• Tables
• Abbreviations
• Capitalization
• Commas
• Hyphenation
• Italics (underlining)
• Miscellaneous
  

• Short quotations
• Long quotations (block quotes)

• Sources in print
• Electronic (Internet) sources
• Alphabetizing within a reference list
• Abbreviations used in a reference list

• The bibliography is called References. It is doublespaced throughout; that is, doublespace each entry and doublespace between entries.
• Your text and the reference list must agree. "References cited in text must appear in the reference list; conversely, each entry in the reference list must be cited in text."
• Your references should begin on a separate page from the text of the essay, at the end of the paper, under the label References (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), centered at the top of the page.
• All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
• Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work. Your reference list should be alphabetized by authors' last names.
• Personal communications, such as e-mail messages to you, or private interviews that you conducted with another person, should not be cited in your reference list because they are not retrievable sources for anyone else. You should make reference to these sources in your in-text citations.
• To cite a personal communication, provide initials and last name of the communicator, the words personal communication, plus an exact date in the body of your paper. For example:
  A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2002).

• Use "&" instead of "and" when listing multiple authors of a single work (in text citations in parentheses, too).
• The date of publication is enclosed in parentheses and immediately follows the author's name. When citing a monthly or weekly magazine, the month or month and date, follow the year in parentheses.
• Only the first word in the title of the article or book is capitalized. If there is a subtitle, the first word of the subtitle is also capitalized.
• Quotation marks are not used around article titles.
• All major words are capitalized in the name of periodicals (e.g., The New York Times).
• Italicize titles of periodicals or books.
• Italicize the volume number of a periodical reference, but do not italicize the issue number.
• Place the issue number in parentheses.
• Include page numbers that a periodical article appears on, without the abbreviation pp.
• If you have retrieved the article from an electronic database, include that information after the original publication information.
• If you have more than one article by the same author(s), single-author references or multiple-author references with the exact same authors in the exact same order are listed in order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest.
• References that have the same first author and different second and/or third authors are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the second author, or the last name of the third if the first and second authors are the same.
• If no author is given for a particular source, begin with and alphabetize by using the title of the work, which will be listed in place of the author, and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.

A book or article with no author or editor named

Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.).(1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

• For parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a shortened version of the title instead of an author's name. For example, parenthetical citations of the source above would appear as: (Merriam-Webster's, 1993).

An article in a periodical (e.g., a journal, newspaper, or magazine)

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of periodical, volume number, pages.

• For a magazine or newspaper article, you need to include specific publication dates (month and day, if applicable) as well as the year. For a journal article, you do not need to include the month or day of publication.
• You need list only the volume number if the periodical uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume. If each issue begins with page 1, then you should list the issue number as well: Title of Periodical, Volume number(Issue number), pages. Note that the issue number is not italicized. If the journal does not use volume numbers, use the month, season, or other designation.

Part of a nonperiodical (e.g., a book chapter or an article in a collection)

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.

• 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, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references.

Journal article, one author:

Journal article, three to six authors

Magazine article, one author

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

Book

Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Work discussed in a secondary source

Coltheart, M., Curtis, B., Atkins, P., & Haller, M. (1993). Models of reading aloud: Dual-route and parallel-distributed-processing approaches. Psychological Review, 100, 589-608.

• Give the secondary source in the references list; in the text, name the original work, and give a citation for the secondary source. For example, if Seidenberg and McClelland's work is cited in Coltheart et al. and you did not read the original work, list the Coltheart et al. reference in the References. In the text, use the following citation:

Web page:

Dewey, R. A. (2002). Psych Web by Russ Dewey. Retrieved January 25, 2003 from http://www .psywww.com/

Nonperiodical Internet Document (e.g., a Web page or report)

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Retrieved month date, year, from http://Web address.

• When an Internet document is more than one Web page, provide a URL that links to the home page or entry page for the document. Also, if there isn't a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.

Article in an Internet Periodical

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of journal, volume number(issue number if available). Retrieved month day, year, from Web address.

Part of Nonperiodical Internet Document

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. In Title of book or larger document (chapter or section number). Retrieved from Web address.

• Because long explanatory notes can be distracting to readers, APA style guidelines recommend the use of endnotes/footnotes. In the text, place a superscript numeral immediately after the text about which you would like to include more information (e.g., Scientists examined the fossilized remains of the wooly-wooly yak.1) Number the notes consecutively in the order they appear in your paper. At the end of the paper, create a separate page labeled Notes (centered at the top of the page).

• Use prefixes in alphabetizing names if commonly part of the surname (De Vries).
• Do not use von in alphabetizing (Helmholtz, H. L. F. von), or Jr., III, or Sr.
• Treat Mc and Mac literally; Mac comes before Mc.
• Disregard apostrophes, spaces, and capitals in alphabetizing; D'Arcy comes after Daagwood, Decker comes after de Chardin.
• Single-author citations precede multiple-author citations of the same year (Zev, 1990 then Zev et al., 1990).
• Alphabetize corporate authors by first significant word. Do not use abbreviations in corporate names.
• Many documents are now available online as exact facsimile copies of the print original (usually in Adobe's PDF format). References to these facsimiles just add the note [Electronic version] to the reference. If the document is not an exact copy of a print version--" (e.g., the format differs from the print version or page numbers are not indicated)"--add the date you retrieved the document and the URL to the reference.
• When directly quoting or citing a document, a page number or other means of identifying a specific passage is required. In the absence of page numbers, if paragraph numbers appear in an electronic document, add the paragraph symbol or the abbreviation para. and the paragraph number to the citation (e.g., Kortepeter & Parker, 1999,  17). If there is no paragraph number, cite the nearest preceding section heading and count paragraphs from there (e.g., Kortepeter & Parker, 1999, Method section, para. 4).