The Reference List: A Brief Guide to APA (Sixth Edition)

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APA is an author-date citation system for documenting sources that uses in-text citations which correspond to a list of references. In-Text Citations are used in the body of a paper to link specific ideas to their sources; full bibliographical details of sources must be provided within a Reference List that appears at the end of the paper. Each reference cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and each entry in the reference list must be cited in the text.

Refer to UNB Libraries' In-Text Citations: A Brief Guide to APA (Sixth Edition) for proper formatting of basic kinds of in-text citation, such as direct quotation, paraphrasing, and citing secondary sources.

(Citation style examples for APA (Fifth Edition) are also available.)

General Guidelines

The Reference List must provide the full bibliographical details of the sources for all in-text citations. It should appear on a separate page at the end of the paper and should be entitled "References" (without quotation marks and centred). Entries should be arranged in alphabetical order by the surname of the first author, using hanging indentations, and be double-spaced. Each entry within the reference list must be formatted according to the type of source; see the basic examples below.

The numbers in the { } refer to the relevant section(s) of the APA Manual. For more detailed explanations and additional examples, consult the APA Manual (Sixth Edition) in one of the libraries (HIL-REFDSK, ENGRESERVE, SCI-REF, Call Number: BF76.7 .P83 2010b), or see the tips and FAQs on the APA Style website.

Print Sources

For each entry in the reference list, you need to provide specific information about the source to enable another person to locate it. You need to identify the author(s), title, place of publication, publisher, and date of publication, and you may need to provide more details, such as information about a specific edition or page numbers. Bear in mind the following guidelines:

  • List the name(s) of the author(s) by surname, followed by the initial(s) of the first name(s). [e.g. Blackwell, E., & Conrod, P. J.]
  • When a reference has more than one author, use commas to separate names and use an ampersand [&] before the final name.
  • When a reference has up to seven authors, spell out all authors' names in the reference list.
  • Identify works by the same author (or the same two or more authors in the same order) with the same publication date by the suffixes a, b, c, and so forth, after the year; repeat the year. Suffixes are assigned according to the reference list where entries are ordered alphabetically by title (of the article, chapter, or complete work).
  • When the author and publisher are the same, use the word Author (without italics) as the name of the publisher.
  • Publication information for nonperiodicals (books and reports):
    • Give the location (city and state/province or, if outside of the United States, city and country) where the publisher is located (i.e., Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Pretoria, South Africa: Unisa.).
    • If the publisher is a university and the name of the state/province is included in the name of the university, do not repeat the name of the state/province in the publisher location (i.e., New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. New York: University of New York Press.).
    • Write out the names of associations, corporations, and university presses, but omit superfluous terms, such as Publishers, Co., and Inc.. However, retain the words Books and Press.
    • Place information about editions, volume numbers, and page numbers in parentheses following the title, with the period after the parentheses: (Rev. ed.) or (Vol 22, pp. 313-385).
  • For any nonroutine information that is important for identification and retrieval, place a description of content in brackets following the title: [Brochure].
  • Capitalization: For the title of articles and books, capitalize the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle, and proper nouns. For the title of journals, capitalize the first word of the title and all key words; put in lower case all conjunctions, articles, and short prepositions (up to 3 letters).
  • Italicization: In general, italicize the title of the main work (e.g. book, journal, newspaper); however, do not italicize the title of a chapter in a book, an article in a journal or newspaper, or an entry in a reference work. Italicize volume numbers for journals.
  • Issue number: If a journal is paginated by issue, include the issue number (in parentheses, unitalicized, immediately following the volume number without an intervening space, and followed by a comma).
  • Page numbers: For newspaper articles and book chapters, precede page numbers with "p." or "pp." (without quotation marks). Do not put "p." or "pp." before the page numbers for journal articles and magazine articles.
  • Final punctuation: Finish each entry with a final period.
Journal Article (Periodical) {7.01}
Hartnagel, T. (1998). Labour-market problems and crime in the transition from school to work. The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 35, 435-459.
Article with Multiple Authors {7.01.3}
Light, M. A., & Light, I. H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigraion in the United States and its implications for local law enforcement. Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal, 8(1), 73-82.
Corporate Author, Government Report {7.03.31}
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2003). Managing asthma: A guide for schools (NIH Publication No. 02-2650). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Author as Publisher {7.02}
Modern Language Association of America. (2009). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (7th ed.). New York, NY: Author.
Magazine Article {7.01.7}
Chamberlin, J., Novotney, A., Packard, E., & Price, M. (2008, May). Enhancing worker well-being: Occupational health psychologists convene to share their research on work, stress, and health. Monitor on Psychology, 39(5), 26-29.
Newspaper Article {7.01.10}
Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.
Book {7.02}
Harnack, A., & Kleppinger, E. (1997). The Internet guide for students and writers. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
Chapter in a Book {7.02}
Hurst, S. A. (2003). Legacy of betrayal: A theory of demoralization from the perspective of women who have been depressed. In J. M. Stoppard & L. M. McMullen (Eds.), Situating sadness: Women and depression in social context (pp. 139-161). New York: New York University Press.
Entry in a Reference Book {7.02}
Rock, P. (2001). Sociology of prison life. In International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (Vol. 18, pp. 12055-12059). New York, NY: Elsevier.

Electronic Sources and Locator Information

In general, include the same elements, in the same order, as you would for a reference to a print source [fixed-media source] and add as much electonic retrieval information as needed for others to locate the sources you cited. Bear in mind the following guidelines:

  • DOI or URL? {APA 6.31-6.32} When a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is available, use the DOI instead of a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to identify the source. When a DOI is used, no further retrieval information is needed because a DOI is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies content and provides a persistent link to its location on the Internet. For more information, including instructions on finding an article from a DOI, please consult UNB Libraries' DOI Guide.
  • For works licensed by UNB Libraries that do not have a DOI, give the home page URL of the journal or publisher; do not give the full URL for the exact article or item. However, give the full URL for other websites.
  • In general, do not include database information. If the document cannot be easily located through its primary publishing channels (e.g., discontinued journals, monographs, dissertations, or papers not formally published), give the home page URL for the online archive.
  • In general, do not include retrieval dates, unless the source material may change over time (e.g., a blog, a wiki, or other websites).
  • Put the abbreviation "DOI" in lower-case letters and do not add a space after the full colon that introduces the DOI (e.g., doi:10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225).
  • Do not add a final period after either a DOI or a URL.
  • Do not use the phrase "[Electronic version]" to identify print articles viewed in electronic form in the reference list.
e-Journal Article with DOI Assigned {7.01.1}
Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225
e-Journal Article with no DOI Assigned [Journal licensed by UNB Libraries] {7.01.3}
Felsenstein, D., & Freeman, D. (1998). Simulating the impacts of gambling in a tourist location: Some evidence from Israel. Journal of Travel Research, 37(2), 145-156. Retrieved from http://jtr.sagepub.com
Online Magazine Article {7.01.8}
Clay, R. (2008, June). Science vs. ideology: Psychologists fight back about the misuse of research. Monitor on Psychology, 39(6). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/
Online Newspaper Article {7.01.11}
Brody, J. E. (2007, December 11). Mental reserves keep brain agile. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
Electronic Version of a Print Book {7.02.19}
Schiraldi, G. R. (2001). The post-traumatic stress disorder sourcebook: A guide to healing, recovery, and growth [Adobe Digital Editions version]. doi:10.1036/0071393722
Electronic-only Book {7.02.20}
O'Keefe, E. (n.d.). Egoism & the crisis in Western values. Retrieved from http://www.onlineoriginals.com/showitem.asp?itemID=135
Entry in an Online Reference Work {7.02.29}
Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2007 ed.). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/
Corporate Author, Government Report {7.03.31}
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2003). Managing asthma: A guide for schools (NIH Publication No. 02-2650). Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/lung/asthma/asth_sch.pdf
Blog Post {7.11.76}
PZ Myers. (2007, January 22). The unfortunate prerequisites and consequences of partitioning your mind [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/01/the_unfortunate_prerequisites.php

NOTES

ATTENTION STUDENTS: The APA Manual is a guide for scholars preparing articles for publication. Consequently, the interpretation of APA format may vary from course to course. Consult your course instructor as the final authority for the application of APA Guidelines to university papers.

For more citation style examples and additional details see:

  • The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010).
    In print at HIL-REFDSK, ENGRESERVE, and SCI-REF (Call Number: BF76.7 .P83 2010b)
  • APA Style website
    www.apastyle.org (includes tips and FAQs, but not the entire manual online)

For guides to other styles (MLA, Chicago, CSE, etc.), see the Writing Handbooks and Style Manuals page.

You can use RefWorks to automatically format citations: As you conduct your online research you can export citations to your own RefWorks database, and later use RefWorks to automatically format your bibliography using any of the standard citation styles. If you are using library databases from CSA (Sociological Abstracts, Criminal Justice Abstracts, etc.), you also have the option of directly creating a formatted bibliography using QuickBib.

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