Abbreviating within a reference

• chap. for chapter
• ed. for edition
• rev. ed. for revised edition
• 2nd ed. for second edition
• Ed. for Edited by
• (Eds.) for multiple editors
• Trans. for Translated by
• p. for page number, with a space after the period
• pp. for page numbers in encyclopedia entries, multi-page newspaper articles, chapters or articles in edited books, but not in journal or magazine article citations, where numbers alone should be used (see examples of reference formats).
• Vol. for Volume
• vols. for volumes
• No. for Number
• Pt. for Part
• Suppl. for Supplement,
• Tech. Rep. for Technical Report

Alphabetizing within reference lists

• Use prefixes in alphabetizing names if commonly part of the surname (De Vries).
• Do not use "von" in alphabetizing (Helmholtz, H. L. F. von).
• Treat Mc and Mac literally; Mac comes before Mc.
• Disregard apostrophes and capitals in alphabetizing; D'Arcy comes after Daagwood.
• Single-author citations precede multiple-author citations (Zev, 1990 then Zev et al., 1990).
• Alphabetize corporate authors by first significant word. Do not use abbreviations in corporate names.

In-text references

• Use the author-date format to cite references in text. For example: as Smith (1990) points out, a recent study (Smith, 1990) shows...
• For two-author citations, spell out both authors on all occurrences.
• For multiple-author citations (up to five authors) name all authors the first time, then use et al., so the first time it is Smith, Jones, Pearson and Sherwin (1990), but the second time it is Smith et al., with a period after "al" but no underlining.
• The first time an "et al." reference is used in a paragraph, give the year, thereafter (if the citation is repeated in the paragraph) omit the year.
• For six or more authors, use et al. the first time and give the full citation in references.
• Include page reference after the year, outside quotes but inside the comma, for example: The author stated, "The effect disappeared within minutes" (Lopez, 1993, p. 311) , but she did not say which effect. Another example would be: Lopez found that "the effect disappeared within minutes" (p. 311). Notice also that the sentence is capitalized only if presented after a comma, as a complete sentence.
• If two or more multiple-author references which shorten to the same "et al." form, making it ambiguous, give as many author names as necessary to make them distinct, before et al. For example: (Smith, Jones, et al., 1991) to distinguish it from (Smith, Burke, et al., 1991).
• Join names in a multiple-author citation with and (in text) or an ampersand (&) in reference lists and parenthetical comments. For example: As Smith and Sarason (1990) point out, the same argument was made by in an earlier study (Smith & Sarason, 1990).
• If a group is readily identified by its initials, spell it out only the first time. For example, "As reported in a government study (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 1991), blah blah..." and thereafter, "The previously cited study (NIMH, 1991) found that...
• If the author is unknown or unspecified, use the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title), for example: ("Study Finds," 1992).
• If citing multiple works by the same author at the same time, arrange dates in order. In general, use letters after years to distinguish multiple publications by the same author in the same year. For example: Several studies (Johnson, 1988, 1990a, 1990b, 1995 in press-a, 1995 in press-b) showed the same thing.
• For old works cite the translation or the original and modern copyright dates if both are known, for example: (Aristotle, trans. 1931) or (James, 1890/1983).
• Always give page numbers for quotations, for example: (Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 332) or (Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3, p. 5).
• For e-mail and other "unrecoverable data" use personal communication, for example: (V.-G. Nguyen, personal communication, September 28, 1993). These do not appear in the reference list.

Reference list formats

The APA publication manual contains 77 examples of different reference types (pp. 195-221). Here are a few examples of the most commonly used formats.

Anonymous or unknown author (common in newspapers):

Books:

_____American Psychiatric Association. (1990). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

(note: "Author" is used as above when author and publisher are identical.)

_____Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 19, pp. 3-66). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923)

In text this would be cited as (Freud, 1923/1961).

Group or institutional authors

Journal article

Letter to the editor

Magazine article

Newsletter article

The date is given as it appears on the publication. For anonymous newspaper articles, see the previous section titled "Anonymous or unknown authors."

Pamphlet