Western Nevada College

APA Style
Research Guide
http://library.wnc.edu

Ask a Librarian:
By phone: Carson Campus 445-3227
Fallon Campus 423-5330
Joe Dini Jr Library & Student Center – Carson City Campus By email: refdesk@wnc.edu

Students using the American Psychological Association (APA) style are required to compile an alphabetical list of sources cited
in their research. This list is referred to as the References page and it is located at the end of the research paper. This guide
provides citation examples from both electronic and print materials and is based on the Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (BF 76.7 .P83). A sample APA References page can be found at the end of this handout.

Note: The citations listed in this guide are single-spaced to save space. The citation must be double-spaced in a
References page. Indentations should be either ½ inch or 5 spaces.

CITING INTERNET SOURCES

Basic APA Format for an Electronic Source (include only those items that apply):

Author. (Date). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume of periodical, pages. Retrieved month day, year, url of source

Author. (Date). Title of work or title of Web page. Retrieved month day, year, url of source

Individual Works (Books, etc.):

Barsky, R. F. (1997). Noam Chomsky: A life of dissent. Retrieved September 16, 1999, from http://mitpress.mit.edu

Parts of Works:

Daniel, R.T. (1995). The history of Western music. In Encyclopaedia Britannica online. Retrieved
September 13, 1999, from http://www.eb.com

Journal Articles:

Inada, K. (1995). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 2.
Retrieved October 15, 1999, from http://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html

Magazine Articles:

Viviano, F. (1995, May/June). The new Mafia order. Mother Jones Magazine.
Retrieved November 12, 1999, from http://mojones.com/MOTHER_JONES/MJ95/viviano.html

Newspaper Articles:

Crowe, J. (1999, September 18). Results of school tests weren't accurate. Reno Gazette Journal.
Retrieved September 11, 2000, from http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/Reno/937629993.html

World Wide Web Sites:

Lynch, J. (1997, January 31). Grammar and style notes. Retrieved March 12, 2000,
from http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/grammar.html

Portuguese language page. Retrieved December 15, 1999, from http://humanities.uchicago.edu/romance/port/

 CITING WNC LIBRARY DATABASES

Ebsco Academic Search Premier Magazine Article:

Ellingwood, S. (1997, July 17). The Dayton game. New Republic, 217, 16-17. Retrieved August 13,
2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

Ebsco Academic Search Premier Journal Article:

DiMatteo, A. (2004). The use and abuse of Shakespeare: a review essay. College Literature,
31(2), 185-197. Retrieved October 10, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text Library Magazine Article:

Weinhouse, B. (1997, October). Should women worry about heart disease? Health, 11, 98-101. Retrieved
March 19, 2007, from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text Library Journal Article:

Royal, H.D., & Siegel, B.A. (1997). Nuclear medicine. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical
Association, 227(23), 1875-1880. Retrieved April 12, 2006, from CINAHL Plus with Full Text Library database.

Biography Reference Bank:

Jim Harrison. (1992). Current Biography. Retrieved September 11, 2006, from H. W. Wilson Biography Reference Bank
database.

Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Desmon, A. Charles Darwin. In Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Retrieved Oct. 22, 2006, from Encyclopaedia Britannica
database.

CQ Researcher:

Hansen, B. (2002, Sept. 20). Nursing shortage. CQ Researcher, 12, 747-754. Retrieved Oct. 1, 2006, from CQ Researcher
database.

LexisNexis:

Rogers, K. (2002, Sept. 22). Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Las Vegas Review Journal, 1B. Retrieved Nov. 1,
2006, from LexisNexis Academic database.

SIRS Researcher:

Kraul, C. (2002, Dec. 4). U. S. role in Afghanistan shifting. Los Angeles Times, 2D. Retrieved Dec. 5, 2006, from SIRS
Researcher database.

Opposing Viewpoints:

McGowan, R. (1999). Legalized gambling: A history. In Contemporary Issues Companion Series. Retrieved Sept. 22, 2006,
from Opposing Viewpoints database.
 CITING PRINT SOURCES

BOOKS

NO AUTHOR College bound seniors. (1979). Princeton, NJ: College Board Publications.

ONE AUTHOR Bernstein, T. M. (1965). The careful writer: A modern guide to English usage.
New York: Atheneum.

TWO AUTHORS Sexton, J. & Byers, W. (2005). The human brain. Washington, DC: National Academy
Press.

THREE TO FIVE AUTHORS Sharp, D., Cole, M., Lave, C., Ginsburg, H. P., Brown, A. L., & French, L. A. (1979).
Education and cognitive development: The evidence from experimental
research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

SIX OR MORE AUTORS Davis, L., et. al. (2007). Global warming and climate change. Boston: Little Brown.

EDITOR Buss, D. M., & Cantor, N. (Eds.). (1989). Personality psychology: Recent trends and
emerging directions. New York: Springer Verlag.
nd
EDITION Gray, J. A. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress (2 ed.). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

SEVERAL VOLUMES Laszlo, L. (Ed.). (1986-1988). World encyclopedia of peace (Vols. 1-4). New York:
Pergamon.

ESSAY OR ARTICLE IN A COLLECTION Hartley, J. T., Harker, J. O., & Walsh, D. A. (1980). Contemporary issues and new
directions in adult development of learning and memory. In L. W. Poon (Ed.),
Aging in the 1980s: Psychological issues (pp. 239-252). Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.

ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES

SIGNED Bergman, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia Britannica (Vol. 26, pp.
501-508). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

UNSIGNED Esperanto. (2005). In The world book encyclopedia (Vol. 6, p. 358 ).

Chicago: World Book, Inc.

REFERENCE BOOKS Claritin. (2002). In Physician's desk reference (pp. 3100-3102). Montvale, NJ: Medical
Economics.

JOURNALS, MAGAZINES &

NEWSPAPERS

ONE AUTHOR Wyly, J. (1990). Abstract art and the unconscious. Quadrant, 23, 22-23.

TWO OR MORE AUTHORS, JOURNAL Just, M., Crigler, A., & Wallach, L. (1990). Thirty seconds or thirty minutes: What
PAGES CONTINUOUS viewers learn from spot advertisements and candidate debates. Journal of
Communication, 40, 120-133.

TWO OR MORE AUTHORS, JOURNAL Becker, L. J., & Seligman, C. (1981). Welcome to the energy crisis. Journal of
PAGES EACH ISSUE SEPARATE Social Issues, 37(2), 1-7.

MAGAZINE ARTICLE, SIGNED Sarnoff, I., & Sarnoff, S. (1990, October). Dialectic of marriage. Psychology Today, 23,
54-57.

MAGAZINE ARTICLE, UNSIGNED Time for court. (1990, November 26). Time, 136, 30-34.

ENTIRE ISSUE OF A JOURNAL Glaser, R., & Bond, L. (Eds.). (1981). Testing: Concepts, policy, practice, and
research [Special issue]. American Psychologist, 36(10).

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE, UNSIGNED The elected aristocracy: 12 is enough. (1990, November 6). Wall Street Journal, p. 22.
 APA REFERENCE CITATIONS IN THE TEXT OF RESEARCH PAPERS

The purpose of the in-text citation is to acknowledge the use of material used from another source in the body of your research paper. When
using material from another source, briefly identify the source used so that the reader can locate the full citation in the list of references at the
end of the paper. Citations used in the text of paper must appear in list of references at the end of the paper, except as noted below.

To cite a specific part of a source, indicate the page, chapter, figure, table, or equation at the appropriate point in the paper. Always give page
numbers for quotations:
(Czapiewski & Ruby, 1998, p. 10)
(Wilmarth, 1980, chap. 3)
If you are citing an electronic source that doesn’t provide page numbers, use the paragraph number: (Winston, 1999,
para. 3)

The name of the author and the date of publication are inserted, usually in parentheses, at appropriate points in the text:
Gray (1987) compared reaction times
In a recent study of reaction times (Gray, 1987)
In 1987, Gray compared reaction times
.
When a work has two authors, always cite both names:
It has been shown (Becker & Seligman, 1981)
Becker and Seligman (1981) demonstrated

When there are three or more authors and fewer than six, all authors are cited the first time. In subsequent citations, include only the last
name of the first author followed by "et al." and the year:
Sharp, Cole, Lave, Ginsburg, and Brown (1979) found that cognitive [first time cited]
Sharp et al. (1979) also found that educational [subsequent citations]

When there are six or more authors, cite only the last name of the first author followed by "et al." and the year for the first and subsequent
citations. (In the reference list, the last names of all the authors are spelled out.):
Recently a study (Takac et al., 1991) has shown

When a work has no author, cite the first two or three words, starting with the same words you used in the reference list. Use double
quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter and underline the title of a periodical or book:
Churchill never wavered in his support (“Time for doubt”, 1990)
the book College Bound Seniors (1979) describes

If you are citing two works by authors with the same last name, include the author's initials in all text citations to avoid confusion:
S. E. Dykes (1983) and B. A. Dykes (1980) also found

Arrange two or more works by the same author in order by year of publication. Give the author's last name once; for each subsequent work,
give only the date:
Past research (Buss & Cantor, 1987, 1989) indicates

List two or more works by different authors who are cited within the same parentheses in alphabetical order by their last names. Separate the
citations by a colon:
Several studies (Bernstein, 1979: Crigler & Wallach, 1990: Gray, 1987)

The names of corporate authors are usually spelled out each time they appear in the paper. The names of some corporate authors are spelled
out in the first citation and are abbreviated thereafter. In deciding whether to abbreviate the name of the corporate author, use the general rule
that you need to give enough information in the next citation for the reader to locate the entry in the reference list without difficulty. If the name
of the corporate author is long and cumbersome and if the abbreviation is familiar or readily understandable, you may abbreviate the name in
the second and subsequent citations. If the name is short or if the abbreviation would not be readily understandable, spell out the name each
time it occurs:
Statistics have been gathered (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 1990) [first citation]
(NIMH, 1990) [subsequent citations]

Personal communications may be letters, memos, telephone conversations, or interviews. Because they do not provide recoverable data,
personal communications are not included in the reference list. Cite personal communications in the text only. Give the initials as well as the
last name of the communicator and provide as exact a date as possible:
J. O. Reiss (personal communication, April 18, 1991) said that
(J. O. Reiss, personal communication, April 18, 1991)
 USEFUL WEB SITES FOR APA STYLE CITATIONS

APA (American Psychological Association) Citation Style Guide. An excellent overview of APA citation style from Bucknell University.
(http://www.bucknell.edu/Documents/ISR/apa.pdf)

APA Formatting and Style Guide. APA citation style guidelines from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University.
(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/)

APA Style Citation Guide. A very useful guide to APA style citation from the Seattle Central Community College Library.
(http://dept.sccd.ctc.edu/cclib/Research_Tools/Citation_Style_Guides/apa.pdf.asp)

Sample Research Paper: APA Style. You can find examples of APA in-text citations, information on how to format a paper, and instructions on
compiling a list of references on this site. This page, from Diana Hacker, also has a sample research paper written in the APA style.
(http://dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_09_s4.html)

Citing Sources: This site provides an extensive list of resources for citing sources in APA, Chicago, MLA, and other citation styles. There is
also a list of writing resources and a guide to compiling annotated bibliographies. The site is maintained by the University of South Florida
Libraries. (http://www.lib.usf.edu/public/index.cfm?Pg=CitingSources)

KnightCite Bibliography Machine. A free citation composer from Calvin College. This site will help you compile a citation list in APA, Chicago,
or MLA styles. (http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/index.php)

BOOKS ON WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS USING APA STYLE CITATIONS

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.
Washington, DC: Author. (BF76.7 .P83)

Ballenger, B. (2007). The curious researcher. New York: Pearson-Longman. (LB2369 .B246)

Coyle, W., & Law, J. (2007). Research papers. New York: Pearson-Longman. (LB2369 .C65)

Hacker, D. (2006). The Bedford handbook. Boston: Bedford-St. Martins. (PE1408 .H277)

Hacker, D. (2007). A writer’s reference. Boston: Bedford-St. Martins. (PE1408 .H2778)

Hubbuch, S. M. (2005). Writing research papers across the curriculum. Boston: Thomson-Wadsworth. (LB2369 .H83)

Lester, J. D., Sr., & Lester, J. D., Jr. (2007) Writing research papers: A complete guide. New York: Pearson-Longman.
(LB2369 .L4)

Reid, S. (2006). Prentice Hall guide for college writers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall. (PE1408 .R424)
 SAMPLE APA REFERENCES PAGE: The Maya Folk Culture 10

References Title of paper and

page number
Berlage, G. (1995). Maya architecture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Evans, S. B. (2004). Ancient Mexico and Central America. London: Thames & Hudson.

Fields, H. (2004). When they were kings. U.S. News & World Report, 136(17), 74-76. Retrieved

August 31, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

Gorman, J. (2002). The original cocoa treat. Science News, 162(2), 38-39. Retrieved August 28,

2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

Lucero, L. (2006). Maya political science: Time, astronomy and the cosmos. Antiquity, 80(307),

226-227. Retrieved August 30, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

McKillop, H. (2002). Salt: White gold of the ancient Maya. Gainesville: University of Florida

Press.

Milbrath, S. (2005). Last great capital of the Maya. Archaeology, 58(2), 26-29. Retrieved August

31, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

Popson, C. (2003). Maya goods in Teotihuacan tomb. Archaeology, 56(1), 16. Retrieved August

31, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

Redfield, R. (1941). Folk culture Yucatan. Retrieved Sept. 5, 2006, from eHRAF Collection of

Ethnography database.

Sosa, J.R., Skoggard, I. (2000, Feb.). Cultural summary: Maya (Yucatan Peninsula). Retrieved

Sept. 2, 2006, from eHRAF Collection of Ethnography database.

Wilford, J. (2004, May 11). In Guatemalan jungles, a bumper crop of Maya treasure. New York

Times, F3. Retrieved August 30, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

Zackowitz, M. (2003, Aug.). Royal city of the Maya. National Geographic, 204(2), 96-99.

Retrieved August 28, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

Indents should be
½ inch or 5 spaces