CITATION& REFERENCES

December 2, 2011
PRESENTED BY
JIMPELE AMBAU
SENIOR EXECUTIVE/ LIBRARIAN
REFERENCE & RESEARCH UNIT
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
libref@umtech.edu.my

We are here to
assist

APA STYLE
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Example of citation for

book
Author

Edition

Year of
Publication

Title

Rumsey, Sally. (Eds.). (2008). How to

find information: a guide for
researchers.
England:
Open
University Press.
Place of
Publication

Publisher

CITATION

The APA style includes three kinds of information in intext citations.

The author's last name*
The work's date of publication*
The page number, appears only in a citation to a
direct quotation.
(*these items must match exactly the
corresponding entry)

American Psychological Association

AUTHORS (AND EDITORS)

Take names from the first page of an article or
from the title page of a book.
Authors or creditors names are listed in the order
in which they appear (not alphabetical order), and
initials are used instead of first or middle names.
Authors are listed with the last name first,
followed by a comma and the initials of the
authors.

The
names
of
group,
institutional,
or
organizational authors are spelled out completely.

American Psychological Association

PUBLICATION DATES
For journals and books, include the publication
year in parentheses.
For sources that use specific dates, such as
popular
magazines,
newspapers,
television
broadcasts, or websites, include the year and the
month or the year, month, and day in parentheses.
If the source has no author, the entry begins with
the title, followed by the date.

American Psychological Association

TITLES
List titles completely, taking information from the
first page of an article or from the title page of a
book.
Include both titles and subtitles, no matter how
long they are.

American Psychological Association

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Include any of the following information in the
order presented here if it is listed on the first page
of the article, essay, chapter or other subsection, or
the page of the book:
Translator
Edition number
Volume number
Issue number (if
separately by issue)
Inclusive pages

journal

is

paginated

American Psychological Association

FACTS OF PUBLICATION
For periodicals, take the volume number, issue
number (if needed), and date from the first few
pages in journals and magazines.
For books, use the first city listed on the title page
and provide a two-letter abbreviation for the state
or the full name of the foreign country.
Take the publisher full name of the foreign
country. Take the publishers name from the title
page, presenting in it abbreviated form.
Use the recent date of from the copyright page.

American Psychological Association

RETRIEVAL INFORMATION

For electronic sources, provide a retrieval

statement to direct readers to the electronic copy.

American Psychological Association

When should
I use it?

APA style is primarily used in the social

sciences, so if you're taking a psychology
or sociology course, chances are you'll be
expected to write papers in APA style.
Your instructor will let you know whether
you need to use APA style for your papers.

What do I really
need to know?

In any paper that refers to other sources,

you MUST cite these sources properly.
Failure to do so could result in charges of
plagiarism by your instructor.

Determine what types of sources you have

How should I
best use this
resource?

(journal articles, books, or interviews, etc.). Then

use these pages to learn how to cite them within
the body of your paper using APA parenthetical
citations and also how to create an APA
reference list.
Once you've cited everything properly, refer to
the APA Headings and APA Formatting pages to
find out how to make your paper visually
conform to APA guidelines.
When in doubt whether to use a particular
aspect of APA style, always ask your lecturer to
clarify.

American Psychological Association :

Parenthetical Citations

There are three options for placing citations:

Option

Description

Sample Citation

1. Ideafocused

Place the author(s)

and date(s) in
parentheses at an
appropriate place
in or at the end of
a sentence

Researchers have pointed

out that the lack of trained
staff is a common barrier to
providing adequate health
education (Fisher, 1999) and
services
(Weist
&
Christodulu, 2000).

2. Research
erfocused

Place only the date

in parentheses

Fisher (1999) recommended

that health education be
required for high school
graduation in California.

3. Chronolo
gyfocused

Integrate both the

author and date
into your sentence

In 2001, Weist proposed

using
the
Child
and
Adolescent Planning Schema
to analyze and develop
community mental health
programs for young people.

American Psychological Association :

Parenthetical Citations

A source with 1 or
2 authors

First and
subsequent
citations
Within a paragraph,
omit the year in
citations after the first
one if no confusion
with other studies will
result
Fisher (1999)
administered a
questionnaire
Fisher's results
indicated
[new paragraph] The
questionnaire
administered
Fisher
A source by
with
3
(1999) was used by

- 5 authors

In all citations after

the first, use the first

authors name
followed by et al.
First citation :
(Baldwin, Bevan &
Beshalke, 2000)
Subsequent

Cite name(s) in first

and all subsequent
citations
(Adkins & Singh,
2001)
Adkins and Singh
(2001)

A source with 6 or
more authors
Use the first authors

name followed by et al.

in all citations
6 authors: (Utley et
al., 2001)
7 authors : (Yawn et
al., 2001)
[Note: In the
reference list, use of et
al. Begins with 7
author-author
references.]

Authors with the

same surname
Use initials even if the

years are different

D. Baldwin (2001) and
M. L. Baldwin (1999)

Sources with 2 or
more 6-author
groups with same
first surname
If 2 or more 6-author
groups shorten to the
same surname, cite the
surnames of as many
subsequent authors as
needed to distinguish
refereences
(Baldwin, Utley et al.,
2001)
(Balwin, Bevan et al.,

American Psychological Association :

Parenthetical Citations

A source with no author

Use the first few words of the title in quotation
marks for article or chapter, in italics for selfcontained item
(Mad Cow, 2001)
(Sleep Medicine, 2001)
An editors work with no author
Use editor(s) names in the author position
See guidelines for citing authored work

American Psychological Association :

Parenthetical Citations

American Psychological Association :

Parenthetical Citations

REFERENCING

20

American Psychological Association :

Format for the Reference List

TITLE
Type the word References at the top of a new
page, centered.
Title

American Psychological Association :

Format for the Reference List

SPACING
All entries should be double-spaced, unless your
assignment/ lecturer instructs you otherwise.

Double
spacing

American Psychological Association :

Format for the Reference List

INDENTATION
The standard for indentation is as follow:
First line flush left
Following lines five spaces indent
For references used only single spacing
Indentation
1st
line
Following
lines , 5
spaces

American Psychological Association :

Format for the Reference List

CAPITALIZATION
Capitalize only the first word of titles of books and
articles and the first word after a colon (:), question
Capitalization
mark (?) or Exclamation
mark (!). Capitalization
1st word of the
title

1st word after

colon

Abualuda, A. (2003). Quality management practices

and perceived organizational performance : An
exploratory
study of Malaysian hospitality
industry in Klang Valley
(Masters thesis).
Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Kelana Jaya.

American Psychological Association :

Format for the Reference List

PUNCTUATION
Use a comma (.) to separate
surname from initials
a newspapers title from p. or pp.
a journal title from volume number
a volume number from page numbers
when given, an issue number from page numbers
(Ed.) from book title (editor)
city of publication from state
Abualuda, A. (2003). Quality management practices and
perceivedorganizational performance : An exploratory study of
Malaysian hospitality industry in Klang Valley (Masters
thesis).
Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Kelana Jaya.
Shetty, Y.K. and Ross, J.E. (1987). Quality and its management in
service
business. In Sepehri, Mehran (Eds.), Quest for
quality (pp. 187-192). Norcross, G.A. : Industrial Institute of
Engineering.
After a comma, must followed by a space tab.

QUOTING

26

American Psychological Association

IN-TEXT QUOTATIONS
When using APA format, follow the author-date
method of citation. This means that the author's
last name and the year of publication for the source
should appear in the text, and a complete
reference should appear in the reference list.
Examples:
Smith (1970) compared reaction times . . .
In a recent study of reaction times (Smith,
1970), . . .
In 1970, Smith compared reaction times . .

American Psychological Association

SHORT/ BRIEF QUOTATIONS

To indicate short quotations (fewer than 40 words) in
your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation
marks.
Provide the author, year, and specific page citation in
the text, and include a complete reference in the
reference list.
When paraphrasing, the citation (author and page
number) must still be included. Paraphrasing is preferred
over direct quoting.
Examples:
She stated, "The placebo effect disappeared when
behaviors
were studied in this manner" (Miele, 1993,
p. 276), but she
did not clarify which behaviors were
studied.
According to Miele (1993), "The placebo effect
disappeared when behaviors were studied in this
manner" (p. 276).

American Psychological Association

LONG QUOTATIONS
Quotations longer than 40 words in a freestanding block of
typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks.
Start the quotation on a new line, indented five spaces from
the left margin.
Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the
first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation
five spaces from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing
throughout.
The parenthetical citation should come after closing
punctuation
mark.study found the following: The placebo
Miele's 1993
effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this
Example:
manner. Furthermore, the behaviors were never exhibited
again, even when real drugs were administered. Earlier
studies conducted by the same group of researchers at
the hospital were clearly premature in attributing the
results to a placebo effect. (p. 276)