Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by Most databases allow you to choose a style manual and will create a citation for you. While that's a great feature, be aware that no online resource is 100% accurate. To ensure that you don't get any points taken off for incorrect citation elements, always check your style manual or credible online examples. Here are examples of APA citations from the Purdue OWL.
|
Material Type |
In-text Citation |
Bibliography |
|
A book |
(Sapolsky, 2017) |
Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books. |
|
Chapter in an edited book (If the chapter is from an authored book, use the book citation) |
(Dillard, 2020) | Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 115–129). Routledge. |
|
An article in a print journal |
(Weinstein, 2009) |
Weinstein, J. (2009). “The market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology, 104(4), 439-458. |
|
An article in an electronic journal |
(Grady et al., 2019) |
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185 |
|
A website |
(Bologna, 2019) |
Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e |
Most of these examples came from the Reference Examples page on the APA website. Use the same format for print books and ebooks. For ebooks, the format or device (e.g., Kindle) is not included in the reference.
Correctly citing information is an essential skill for any academic researcher. Always consult the most recent APA style manual! Otherwise, you are almost sure to lose points. Most ULS libraries have reference copies of standard citation style guides including the American Psychological Association.
If you're writing papers, cutting together bibliographies, or working up literature reviews, consider using a citation management tool. Online citation managers make it easy to keep track of all of your references. Library resources work with citation management tools such as Mendeley and EndNote. Either of these will help you:
Need someone to review your paper? Visit the Writing Center or Academic Success Center on your campus.
