Berkeley College Library
Adapted from APA Style Guide website from St. Francis College Library, Brooklyn Heights, NY (2010)
(http://library.stfranciscollege.edu/apa.htm) by Berkeley College Library; last updated 04/2014
APA References & Citations:
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
____________________________________________________
When you write a college paper, your professor may ask you to use the APA or MLA Style. These styles are
standardized ways to format your paper and cite your references. This handout will give you some examples to
help you use the APA style.
The APA Style was developed by the American Psychological Association as a guideline for writing
research papers, mostly used in Psychology and the Social Sciences. For a detailed description of it, see the
book The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition, 2009). This book is
available at all Berkeley libraries.
In-Text Citations
Whenever you include someone else’s quotes or ideas in your paper, you must give them credit. Do this by
referring to them in the section of your paper where you use their ideas. If you have a citation on your
References bibliography page, you must have a corresponding reference to them (in parentheses) in the text of
your paper. APA style uses the author’s last name followed by a comma and the year of publication in the text,
in parentheses. For a direct quote, also include the page number where you found the original. Here are
examples:
In-Text:
While many may disagree, a number of eminent ethicists and biologists assert that "animals have the same rights as
humans" (Smith, 2006, p. 24).
Corresponding References Entry (for this book):
Smith, J. (2006). The animal kingdom: How humans mistreat animals and why. New York: Random House.
Note: If the source has no author’s name, you can use the name of an organization or government agency it
came from in place of the author. If you don’t know who wrote it, just use a short title of the article.
In-Text:
Hypertension affects over 74 million Americans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010).
Corresponding References Entry (for this web page):
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010, May 3). May is High Blood Pressure Education Month. Retrieved
from http://www.cdc.gov/Features/HighBloodPressure/
References Page
APA requires that you create your list of references on its own page after the last page of your text. Center
the title – References – one inch from the top of the page. Each entry normally contains an author, year
published, title, and publication data – all the info for someone to find the exact source in a library or online.
References should be formatted as hanging indents - where the first line is flush left on the page, and any other
lines are indented. Alphabetize the list of references by the last name of the authors. If the work has no author,
no editor, and no corporation/organization that wrote it, then alphabetize the work by the first word of the title
(excluding A, An, or The). Put the date after the author – the year for most entries, but for magazines and
newspapers, the full date after the year - (2009, June) or (2010, March 5). If there is no date at all, use n.d. –
(n.d.).
Berkeley College Library – APA Style
Adapted from APA Style Guide website from St. Francis College Library, Brooklyn Heights, NY (2010)
(http://library.stfranciscollege.edu/apa.htm) by Berkeley College Library; last updated 04/2015
Book or Textbook
Groom, A., Campbell, R.T., & Gould, W. (1999). Psychology and you: a bright world and a bright future. New York:
John Wiley.
Chapter from a Book (no authors or editors)
Pancreatic cancer. (2013). In Professional guide to diseases (10
th
ed., pp. 740-743). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams
& Wilkins.
Chapter or Section from an Electronic Book
Pancreatic cancer. (2013). In Professional guide to diseases (10
th
ed., pp. 740-743). Retrieved from Books@Ovid
http://ovidsp.ovid.com
Newspaper Article
Print
Kustanovich, A. (2009, September 23). Taming a wild goose. The Louisville Times , p. A14.
Online
Watson, P. (2008, October 19). Biofuel boom endangers orangutan habitat. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from
http://www.latimes.com
Article in a Magazine
Print
Smith, J.P., & Wasserman M. (2009, November). Neurozoology: Creating a futuristic monkey. Science, 290(10), 30-35.
Online
Chen, B.X. (2010, March). Indie Coder Proves Android Apps Can Make Money, Too. WIRED. Retrieved from
http://www.wired.com
Article in a Scholarly Journal
Print
Mellers, B.A. (2000). Choice and the pleasure of consequences in your world. Psychological Bulletin, 126 , 7-9.
Online
NOTE: Online articles and books sometimes include a DOI number (digital object identifier). APA uses the DOI, when
available, in place of a URL (web address) in reference list entries. If there's no DOI, include the URL for the journal.
Whitmeyer, J. M. (2000). Power through appointment. Social Science Research, 29, 535-555. doi:10.1006/ssre.2000.0680
Article from a Library Database
Eid, M., & Langeheine, R. (1999). The measurement of consistency and occasion specificity with latent class models.
Psychological Methods, 4, 100-116. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/met/index.aspx
Webpages
Webpages (with no specific author’s name)
Mayo Clinic. (2014). Lung cancer. MayoClinic.com. Retrieved from
http:/www.mayoclinic.com/health/lung-cancer/DS00038
Webpage (with no author, no year, & no page numbers)
optimum. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary (11th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/
optimum
