The Everyday Writer


Documenting Sources
MLA Documentation
APA Documentation
• APA: In-Text Citations
• APA: Content Notes
• APA: List of References
• APA: Sample Essay
CSE Documentation
Chicago Documentation



Book-Specific Resources / Documenting Sources /
APA Format: List of References

The alphabetical list of the sources cited in your document is called References. If your instructor asks that you list everything you have read—not just the sources you cite—call the list Bibliography. Here are some guidelines for preparing a References list:
  • Start your list on a separate page after the text of your document but before any appendices or notes.
  • Type the heading References, neither italicized nor in quotation marks, centered one inch from the top of the page.
  • Begin your first entry. Unless your instructor suggests otherwise, do not indent the first line of each entry, but indent subsequent lines one-half inch or five spaces. Double-space the entire list.
  • List sources alphabetically by authors' last names. If the author of a source is unknown, alphabetize the source by the first major word of the title.
APA style specifies the treatment and placement of four basic elements—author, publication date, title, and other publication information.
  • Author. List all authors' last names first, and use only initials for first and middle names. Separate the names of multiple authors with commas, and use an ampersand (&) before the last author's name.
  • Publication date. Enclose the date in parentheses. Use only the year for books and journals; use the year, a comma, and the month or month and day for magazines; use the year, a comma, and the month and day for newspapers. Do not abbreviate.
  • Title. Italicize titles and subtitles of books and periodicals. Do not enclose titles of articles in quotation marks. For books and articles, capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle and any proper nouns or proper adjectives. Capitalize all major words in a periodical title.
  • Publication information. For a book, list the city of publication (and the country or postal abbreviation for the state if the city is unfamiliar), a colon, and the publisher's name, dropping Inc., Co., or Publishers. For a periodical, follow the periodical title with a comma, the volume number (italicized), the issue number (if appropriate) in parentheses and followed by a comma, and the inclusive page numbers of the article. For newspapers and for articles or chapters in books, include the abbreviation p. ("page") or pp. ("pages") before the page numbers.
The following sample entries use hanging indent format, in which the first line aligns on the left and the subsequent lines indent one-half inch or five spaces. This is the customary APA format for final copy, including student papers. Note, however, that for manuscripts submitted to journals, APA requires the reverse (first lines indented, subsequent lines flush left), assuming that the citations will be converted by a typesetting system to a hanging indent format.
List of References Index
BOOKS:
1. One author
2. Two or more authors
3. Organization as author
4. Unknown author
5. Editor
6. Selection in a book with an editor
7. Translation
8. Edition other than the first
9. One volume of a multivolume work
10. Article in a reference work
11. Republication
12. Two or more works by the same author(s)
PERIODICALS:
13. Article in a journal paginated by volume
14. Article in a journal paginated by issue
15. Article in a magazine
16. Article in a newspaper
17. Editorial or letter to the editor
18. Unsigned article
19. Review
20. Published interview
21. Two or more works by the same author in the same year
ELECTRONIC SOURCES:
22. Chapter or section of a web site
23. Article in an online periodical
24. Article or abstract from a database
25. Email message or real-time communication
26. Online posting
27. Software or computer program
OTHER SOURCES:
28. Government document
29. Dissertation abstract
30. Technical or research report
31. Conference proceedings
32. Paper presented at a meeting or symposium, unpublished
33. Poster session
34. Film, video, or DVD
35. Television program, single episode
36. Recording


BOOKS


Lightman, A. P. (2002). The diagnosis. New York: Vintage Books.



Walsh, M. E., & Murphy, J. A. (2003). Children, health, and learning: A guide to the issues. Westport, CT: Praeger.




Committee on Abrupt Climate Change, National Research Council. (2002). Abrupt climate change: Inevitable surprises. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.


Use the word Author as the publisher when the organization is both the author and the publisher.

Resources for Rehabilitation. (2003). A woman's guide to coping with disability. London: Author.




National Geographic atlas of the Middle East. (2003). Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.




Dickens, J. (Ed.). (1995). Family outing: A guide for parents of gays, lesbians and bisexuals. London: Peter Owen.




Burke, W. W., & Nourmair, D. A. (2001). The role of personality assessment in organization development. In J. Waclawski & A. H. Church (Eds.), Organization development: A data-driven approach to organizational change (pp. 55-77). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.




Al-Farabi, A. N. (1998). On the perfect state (R. Walzer, Trans.). Chicago: Kazi.




Moore, G. S. (2002). Living with the earth: Concepts in environmental health science (2nd ed.). New York: Lewis.




Barnes, J. (Ed.). (1995). Complete works of Aristotle (Vol. 2). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.




Dean, C. (1994). Jaws and teeth. In The Cambridge encyclopedia of human evolution (pp. 56-59). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.


If no author is listed, begin with the title.



Piaget, J. (1952). The language and thought of the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1932)




List two or more works by the same author in chronological order. Repeat the author's name in each entry.

Goodall, J. (1999). Reason for hope: A spiritual journey. New York: Warner Books.

Goodall, J. (2002). Performance and evolution in the age of Darwin: Out of the natural order. New York: Routledge.


PERIODICALS



O'Connell, D. C., & Kowal, S. (2003). Psycholinguistics: A half century of monologism. The American Journal of Psychology, 116, 191-212.



Hall, R. E. (2000). Marriage as vehicle of racism among women of color. Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior, 37(2), 29-40.



Ricciardi, S. (2003, August 5). Enabling the mobile work force. PC Magazine, 22, 46.




Faler, B. (2003, August 29). Primary colors: Race and fundraising. The Washington Post, p. A5.




Zelneck, B. (2003, July 18). Serving the public at public universities [Letter to the editor]. The Chronicle Review, p. B18.




Annual meeting announcement. (2003, March). Cognitive Psychology, 46, 227.




Ringel, S. (2003). [Review of the book Multiculturalism and the therapeutic process]. Clinical Social Work Journal, 31, 212-213.




Smith, H. (2002, October). [Interview with A. Thompson]. The Sun, pp. 4-7.




List the works alphabetically by title, and place lowercase letters (a, b, etc.) after the dates.

Shermer, M. (2002a). On estimating the lifetime of civilizations. Scientific American, 287(2), 33.

Shermer, M. (2002b). Readers who question evolution. Scientific American, 287(1), 37.


ELECTRONIC SOURCES


The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition, includes guidelines for citing various kinds of electronic resources, including Web sites; articles, reports, and abstracts; some types of online communications; and computer software. Updated guidelines are maintained at the APA Web site, www.apa.org.

The basic entry for most sources you access via the Internet should include the following elements:
  • Author. Give the author's name, if available.

  • Publication date. Include the date of Internet publication or of the most recent update, if available. Use n.d. (no date) when the publication date is unavailable.
  • Title. List the title of the document or subject line of the message, neither italicized nor in quotation marks.
  • Publication information. For articles from online journals, newspapers, or reference databases, give the publication title and other publishing information as you would for a print periodical.
  • Retrieval information. For most Internet sources, type the word Retrieved followed by the date of access, a comma, and the word from. End with the URL or other retrieval information and no period. For listserv or newsgroup messages and other online postings, type Message posted to, followed by the name of the list or group, and the URL of the group or its archive.


To cite a whole Web site or a document from a Web site, include information as you would for a print document, followed by information about its retrieval. If no author is identified, give the title of the document followed by the date (if available), other publication information, and a retrieval statement.

Talking about your choices. (2001). Partnership for caring. Retrieved January 15, 2004, from http://www.partnershipforcaring.org/HomePage/

DotComSense: Commonsense ways to protect your privacy and assess online mental health information. (2000, January). APA Monitor, 31, 32. Retrieved January 25, 2001, from http://helping.apa.org/dotcomsense/




If the article also appears in a print journal, no retrieval statement is required; instead, include the label [Electronic version] after the article title. However, if the online article is a revision of the print document (if the format differs or page numbers are not indicated), include the date of access and the URL.

Steedman, M., & Jones, G. P. (2000). Information structure and the syntax-phonology interface [Electronic version]. Linguistic Inquiry, 31, 649-689.

Palmer, K. S. (2000, September 12). In academia, males under a microscope. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 23, 2001, from http://www.washingtonpost.com

To cite an online article that did not appear in print, give the date of access and URL.

Lou, L., & Chen, J. (2003, January). Attention and blind-spot phenomenology. Psyche, 9(2). Retrieved March 22, 2003, from http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v9/psyche-9-02-lou.html



Give the information as you would for a print document. List the date you retrieved the article and the name of the database. If you are citing an abstract, end by typing Abstract retrieved and the date of access and name of the database. End with the document number in parentheses, if appropriate.

Crook, S. (2003). Change, uncertainty and the future of sociology. Journal of Sociology, 39(1), 7-14. Retrieved January 10, 2004, from Expanded Academic ASAP database (A101260213).

Hayhoe, G. (2001). The long and winding road: Technology's future. Technical Communication, 48(2), 133-145. Retrieved September 22, 2001, from ProQuest database.

McCall, R. B. (1998). Science and the press: Like oil and water? American Psychologist, 43(2), 87-94. Abstract retrieved August 23, 2002, from PsycINFO database (1988-18263-001).




Because the APA stresses that any sources cited in your list of references be retrievable by your readers, you should not include entries for email messages or real-time communications (such as IMs); instead, cite these sources in your text as forms of personal communication (see instructions for citing personal communication in the APA Format: Content Notes section, under "Email and other personal communication").


List an online posting in the references list only if you are able to retrieve the message from a mailing list's archive. Provide the author's name (if the author's real name is unavailable, include the screen name); the date of posting, in parentheses; and the subject line from the posting. Include any information that further identifies the message in square brackets. For a listserv message, end with the retrieval statement, including both the name of the list and the URL of the archived message.

Troike, R. C. (2001, June 21). Buttercups and primroses [Msg 8]. Message posted to the American Dialect Society's electronic mailing list, archived at http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/ads-l.html


For a newsgroup posting, end with the name of the newsgroup.

Wittenberg, E. (2001, July 11). Gender and the Internet [Msg 4]. Message posted to news://comp.edu.composition




PsychMate [Computer software]. (2003). Pittsburgh, PA: Psychology Software Tools.



OTHER SOURCES


Office of the Federal Register. (2003). The United States government manual 2003/2004. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.


Cite an online government document as you would a printed government work, adding the date of access and the URL. If there is no date, use n.d.

U.S. Public Health Service. (1999). The surgeon general's call to action to prevent suicide. Retrieved November 5, 2003, from http://www.mentalhealth.org/suicideprevention/calltoaction.asp




If you use Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI), include the DAI volume, issue, and page number. If you use the UMI digital dissertation service, include the UMI number in parentheses.

Bandelj, N. (2003). Embedded economies: Foreign direct investment in Central and Eastern Europe (Doctoral dissertation, Princeton University, 2003). Dissertation Abstracts International, 64 (03), 1083. (UMI No. 3085036)




Give the report number, if available, in parentheses after the title.

McCool, R., Fikes, R., & McGuinness, D. (2003). Semantic web tools for enhanced authoring (Report No. KSL-03-07). Stanford, CA: Knowledge Systems Laboratory.




Mama, A. (2001). Challenging subjects: Gender and power in African contexts. In Proceedings of Nordic African Institute Conference: Rethinking power in Africa. Uppsala, Sweden, 9-18.




Cite the month of the meeting if it is available.

Jones, J. G. (1999, February). Mental health intervention in mass casualty disasters. Paper presented at the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference, Laramie, WY.




Barnes Young, L. L. (2003, August). Cognition, aging, and dementia. Poster session presented at the 2003 Division 40 APA Convention, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.




Moore, M. (Director). (2003). Bowling for Columbine [Motion picture]. United States: MGM.




Imperioli, M. (Writer), & Buscemi, S. (Director). (2002). Everybody hurts [Television series episode]. In D. Chase (Executive Producer), The Sopranos. New York: Home Box Office.




The Avalanches. (2001). Frontier psychiatrist. On Since I left you [CD]. Los Angeles: Elektra/Asylum Records.





Bedford/St. Martin's   |   About This Book   |   Composition   |   Catalog   |   Order a Book   |   Contact Us   |   Tech Support