Sunday, 15 June 2014
Writing a Bibliography: APA Format
Please ensure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If
you leave JavaScript disabled, you will only access a portion of the content we
are providing. <a
href="/science-fair-projects/javascript_help.php">Here's how.</a>
Below are standard formats and examples for basic bibliographic
information recommended by the American Psychological Association (APA). For
more information on the APA format, see http://www.apastyle.org.
Basics
Your list of works cited should begin at the end of the paper on
a new page with the centered title, References. Alphabetize the entries
in your list by the author's last name, using the letter-by-letter system
(ignore spaces and other punctuation.) Only the initials of the first and
middle names are given. If the author's name is unknown, alphabetize by the
title, ignoring any A, An, or The.
For dates, spell out the names of months in the text of your
paper, but abbreviate them in the list of works cited, except for May, June,
and July. Use either the day-month-year style (22 July 1999) or the
month-day-year style (July 22, 1999) and be consistent. With the month-day-year
style, be sure to add a comma after the year unless another punctuation mark
goes there.
Underlining or Italics?
When reports were written on typewriters, the names of
publications were underlined because most typewriters had no way to print
italics. If you write a bibliography by hand, you should still underline the
names of publications. But, if you use a computer, then publication names
should be in italics as they are below. Always check with your instructor
regarding their preference of using italics or underlining. Our examples use
italics.
Hanging Indentation
All APA citations should use hanging indents, that is, the first
line of an entry should be flush left, and the second and subsequent lines
should be indented 1/2".
Capitalization,
Abbreviation, and Punctuation
The APA guidelines specify using sentence-style capitalization
for the titles of books or articles, so you should capitalize only the first
word of a title and subtitle. The exceptions to this rule would be periodical
titles and proper names in a title which should still be capitalized. The
periodical title is run in title case, and is followed by the volume number
which, with the title, is also italicized.
If there is more than one author, use an ampersand (&)
before the name of the last author. If there are more than six authors, list
only the first one and use et al. for the rest.
Place the date of publication in parentheses immediately after
the name of the author. Place a period after the closing parenthesis. Do not
italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works within
longer works.
Format Examples
Books
Format:
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Book title. Additional information. City of publication: Publishing company.
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Book title. Additional information. City of publication: Publishing company.
Examples:
Allen, T. (1974). Vanishing wildlife of North America.
Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.
Boorstin, D. (1992). The creators: A history of the heroes of
the imagination. New York: Random House.
Nicol, A. M., & Pexman, P. M. (1999). Presenting your
findings: A practical guide for creating tables. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Searles, B., & Last, M. (1979). A reader's guide to
science fiction. New York: Facts on File, Inc.
Toomer, J. (1988). Cane. Ed. Darwin T. Turner. New York:
Norton.
Encyclopedia &
Dictionary
Format:
Author's last name, first initial. (Date). Title of Article. Title of Encyclopedia (Volume, pages). City of publication: Publishing company.
Author's last name, first initial. (Date). Title of Article. Title of Encyclopedia (Volume, pages). City of publication: Publishing company.
Examples:
Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia
britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993).
Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
Pettingill, O. S., Jr. (1980). Falcon and Falconry. World
book encyclopedia. (pp. 150-155). Chicago: World Book.
Tobias, R. (1991). Thurber, James. Encyclopedia americana.
(p. 600). New York: Scholastic Library Publishing.
Magazine &
Newspaper Articles
Format:
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Article title. Periodical title, volume number(issue number if available), inclusive pages.
Note: Do not enclose the title in quotation marks. Put a period after the title. If a periodical includes a volume number, italicize it and then give the page range (in regular type) without "pp." If the periodical does not use volume numbers, as in newspapers, use p. or pp. for page numbers.
Note: Unlike other periodicals, p. or pp. precedes page numbers for a newspaper reference in APA style.
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Article title. Periodical title, volume number(issue number if available), inclusive pages.
Note: Do not enclose the title in quotation marks. Put a period after the title. If a periodical includes a volume number, italicize it and then give the page range (in regular type) without "pp." If the periodical does not use volume numbers, as in newspapers, use p. or pp. for page numbers.
Note: Unlike other periodicals, p. or pp. precedes page numbers for a newspaper reference in APA style.
Examples:
Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology
journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55,
893-896.
Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today's
schools. Time, 135, 28-31.
Kalette, D. (1986, July 21). California town counts town to big
quake. USA Today, 9, p. A1.
Kanfer, S. (1986, July 21). Heard any good books lately? Time,
113, 71-72.
Trillin, C. (1993, February 15). Culture shopping. New Yorker,
pp. 48-51.
Website or Webpage
Format:
Online periodical:
Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number, Retrieved month day, year, from full URL
Online periodical:
Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number, Retrieved month day, year, from full URL
Online document:
Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of work. Retrieved month day, year, from full URL
Note: When citing Internet sources, refer to the specific website document. If a document is undated, use "n.d." (for no date) immediately after the document title. Break a lengthy URL that goes to another line after a slash or before a period. Continually check your references to online documents. There is no period following a URL.
Note: If you cannot find some of this information, cite what is available.
Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of work. Retrieved month day, year, from full URL
Note: When citing Internet sources, refer to the specific website document. If a document is undated, use "n.d." (for no date) immediately after the document title. Break a lengthy URL that goes to another line after a slash or before a period. Continually check your references to online documents. There is no period following a URL.
Note: If you cannot find some of this information, cite what is available.
Examples:
Devitt, T. (2001, August 2). Lightning injures four at music
festival. The Why? Files. Retrieved January 23, 2002, from
http://whyfiles.org/137lightning/index.html
Dove, R. (1998). Lady freedom among us. The Electronic Text
Center. Retrieved June 19, 1998, from Alderman Library, University of
Virginia website: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/afam.html
Note: If a document is contained within a large and complex website (such as that for a university or a government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department before giving the URL for the document itself. Precede the URL with a colon.
Note: If a document is contained within a large and complex website (such as that for a university or a government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department before giving the URL for the document itself. Precede the URL with a colon.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2000, March 7). Cultivating positive
emotions to optimize health and well-being. Prevention & Treatment,
3, Article 0001a. Retrieved November 20, 2000, from
http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre0030001a.html
GVU's 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/usersurveys/survey1997-10/
Health Canada. (2002, February). The safety of genetically
modified food crops. Retrieved March 22, 2005, from
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/protection/biologics_genetics/gen_mod_foods/genmodebk.html
Hilts, P. J. (1999, February 16). In forecasting their emotions,
most people flunk out. New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2000, from
http://www.nytimes.com
Sample
Sample Bibliography: APA Reference List Format
Please ensure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If
you leave JavaScript disabled, you will only access a portion of the content we
are providing. <a href="/science-fair-projects/javascript_help.php">Here's
how.</a>
References
Battery. (1990). Encyclopedia britannica. (pp. 100-101).
Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.
Best batteries. (December 1994). Consumer Reports Magazine, 32,
71-72.
Booth, Steven A. (January 1999). High-Drain Alkaline
AA-Batteries. Popular Electronics, 62, 58.
Brain, Marshall. How batteries work. howstuffworks.
Retrieved August 1, 2006, from http://home.howstuffworks.com/battery.htm
Cells and batteries. (1993). The DK science encyclopedia.
New York: DK Publishing.
Dell, R. M., and D. A. J. Rand. (2001). Understanding
batteries. Cambridge, UK: The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Learning center. Energizer. Eveready Battery Company,
Inc. Retrieved August 1, 2006, from
http://www.energizer.com/learning/default.asp
Learning centre. Duracell. The Gillette Company.
Retrieved July 31, 2006, from
http://www.duracell.com/au/main/pages/learning-centre-what-is-a-battery.asp
