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APA (7/e) Style Guide

A guide to help users create citations in APA (American Psychological Association) 7 style.

A Note on Textual Resources

Chapter 10 sections 10.1-10.8 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition is dedicated to formatting textual resources in your reference list. What is presented here is a brief overview on some of this topic based on the rules found in the manual. For more details and exceptions to the rules, be sure to reference the manual.

A Note on DOIs and URLs

  • For all resources that have DOIs, put the DOI in the citation regardless of what resource format you used (i.e. print or electronic.)
  • For print resources without a DOI, do NOT include either a DOI or a URL.
  • For online resources with both a DOI and URL, ONLY use the DOI.
  • For online resources with a URL but not DOI, include a URL that points directly to the resource - NOT the resource homepage.
    • EXCEPTION: If your online resource comes from an academic research database that has content widely available in other places (e.g. ClinicalKey, AccessMedicine, CINAHL, Google Scholar, etc.), do NOT include a URL or database information in your citation. 

General Book Format

  • Complete information on what to include in a book (whether in print or electronic format) citation can be found in section 10.2 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition.
  • Below is the general format of a reference citation for a book:

Author Last Name, Author First Initial. Author Middle Initial. (Date). Title of the book. Publisher Name. DOI or URL

Book Examples

PRINT EXAMPLES

Drabkin, D. L. (1958). Thudichum, chemist of the brain. University of Pennsylvania Press.

​Groch, J. (1963). You and your brain. Harper & Row.

Toga, A. W. (1999). Brain warping. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-692535-7.X5074-5


ELECTRONIC EXAMPLES

Costanzo, L. S. (2018). Physiology (6th ed.). Elsevier, Inc.

Keller, M. (2010). The science of grapevines: Anatomy and physiology. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2009-0-01866-2

Tedeschi, H. (1974). Cell physiology: Molecular dynamics. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-685150-2.X5001-4

 

NOTE: If you have 20 or fewer authors, you must list all of the authors in the reference.  If you have 21 or more authors, list the first 19 authors, an ellipsis (...), and the last author (9.8, pp. 286).

 

PRINT EXAMPLES

Brick, J., & Erickson, C. K. (2013). Drugs, the brain, and behavior: The pharmacology of drug use disorders (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Jetha, M. K,, & Segalowitz, S. J. (2012). Adolescent brain development: Implications for behavior. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2011-0-09656-4

Vanderah, T. W., & Gould, D. J. (2016). Nolte's the human brain: An introduction to its functional anatomy (7th ed.). Elsevier, Inc.


ELECTRONIC EXAMPLES

Kamel, K. S., & Halperin, M. L. (2017). Fluid, electrolyte, and acid-base physiology: A problem-based approach. (5th ed.). Elsevier, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2013-0-13529-5

Mulroney, S. E., & Myers, A. K. (2016). Netter's essential physiology (2nd ed.). Elsevier, Inc.

Verkhratsky, A., & Butt, A. (2013). Glial physiology and pathophysiology. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118402061

PRINT EXAMPLES

Balthazar, E. J., & Megibow, A. J. (Eds.). (1986). Computed tomography of the gastrointestinal tract. Mosby.

Fazio, V. W., Church, J. M., & Wu, J. S. (Eds.). (2012). Atlas of intestinal stomas. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78851-7

Sun, D. (Ed.). (2018). Modern techniques for food authentication (2nd ed.). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2017-0-01345-9


ELECTRONIC EXAMPLES

Boland, M., Golding, M., & Singh, H. (Eds.). (2014). Food structures, digestion and health. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2012-0-02243-0

James, J. M., Burks, W., & Eigenmann, P. (Eds.). (2012). Food allergy. Saunders. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2009-0-42473-5

Madramootoo, C. (Ed.). (2016). Emerging technologies for promoting food security. Woodhead Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2014-0-02820-1

PRINT EXAMPLES

Aquino, P. R., & Lakritz, K. (2020). Other psychiatric disorders. In J. Srinivasan, C. J. Chaves, B. J. Scott, & J. E. Small (Eds.), Netter's neurology (3rd ed., pp. 431-439). Elsevier, Inc.

Feldman, H. M., & Messick, C. (2008). Language and speech disorders. In M. L. Wolraich, D. D. Drotat, P. H. Dworkin, & E. C. Perrin (Eds.), Developmental-behavioral pediatrics: Evidence and practice (pp. 467-482). Mosby, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-04025-9.50016-7

Hansen, R. L., & Ulrey, G. L. (2009). The spectrum of social cognition. In W. B. Carey, A. C. Crocker, W. L. Coleman, E. R. Elias, & H. E. Feldman (Eds.), Developmental-behavioral pediatrics (4th ed., pp. 373-380). Saunders. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-4160-3370-7.00038-9


ELECTRONIC EXAMPLES

Fogel, B. L., & Geschwind, D. H. (2016). Clinical neurogenetics. In R. B. Daroff, J. Jankovic, J. C. Mazziotta, & S. L. Pomeroy (Eds.), Bradley's neurology in clinical practice: Vol. 1. Principles of diagnosis (7th ed., pp. 648-675.e5). Elsevier Inc.

Hurko, O. (2014). The skin and neurologic disease. In M. J. Aminoff & S. A. Josephson (Eds.), Aminoff's neurology and general medicine (5th ed., pp. 401-430). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407710-2.00021-7

Parks, E. P., Shaikhkhalil, A., Sainath, N. N., Mitchell, J. A., Brownell, J. N., & Stallings, V. A. (2011). Feeding healthy infants, children, and adolescents. In R. M. KliegmanJ. W. St Geme III, N. J. Blum, S. S. Shah, R. C. Tasker, K. M. Wilson, & R. E. Behrman (Eds.), Nelson textbook of pediatrics (21st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 321-331.e1). Elsevier Inc.

General Periodical Format

  • Complete information on what to include in a periodical (whether in print or electronic format) citation can be found in section 10.1 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition.
    • NOTE: Periodicals include journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and blog posts.
  • Below is the general format of a reference citation for a periodical:

Author Last Name, Author First Initial. Author Middle Initial. (Date). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Volume Number(Issue Number), Page Numbers or Article Number. DOI or URL

Periodical Examples

PRINT ​EXAMPLES

Lippi, D. (2009). Chocolate and medicine: Dangerous liaisons? Nutrition, 25(11-12), 1100-1103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2009.08.002

Verna, R. (2013). The history and science of chocolate. The Malaysian Journal of Pathology, 35(2), 111-121.

Weinzirl, J. (1922). The cause of explosion in chocolate candies. Journal of Bacteriology, 7(6), 599-604.


ELECTRONIC EXAMPLES

Alonso-Alonso, M. (2015). Cocoa flavanols and cognition: Regaining chocolate in old age? The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 101(3), 423-424. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.114.106146

Shulman, S. T. (2012). Thoughts about chocolate, junk food, and the constitution. Pediatric Annals, 41(12), 486-487. https://doi.org/10.3928/00904481-20121126-01

Messerli, F. H. (2012). Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and Nobel laureates. New England Journal of Medicine, 367(16), 1562-1564. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMon1211064

NOTE: If you have 20 or fewer authors, you must list all of the authors in the reference.  If you have 21 or more authors, list the first 19 authors, an ellipsis (...), and the last author (9.8, p. 286).

See example:

MORE THAN TWENTY AUTHORS

List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the first 19 authors’ names, use an ellipsis in place of the remaining author names. Then, end with the final author's name (do not place an ampersand before it). There should be no more than twenty names in the citation in total.

Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D. C., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R., DelSole, R., Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H., Gottschalck, J., Metzger, E. J., Barton, N. P., Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R., . . .  Kim, H. (2019). The subseasonal experiment (SubX): A multimodel subseasonal prediction experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society100(10), 2043-2061. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0270.1

 

​PRINT EXAMPLES

Maslansky, L., & Wein, G. (1971). Chocolate allergy: A double-blind study. Connecticut Medicine, 35(1), 5-9.

McShea, A., Ramiro-Puig, E., Munro, S. B., Casadesus, G., Castell, M., & Smith M. A. (2008). Clinical benefit and preservation of flavanols in dark chocolate manufacturing. Nutrition Reviews, 66(11), 630-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2008.00114.x

Stahl, L., Miller, K. B., Apgar, J., Sweigart, D. S., Stuart, D. A, McHale, N., Ou, B., Kondo, M., & Hurst, W. J. (2009). Preservation of cocoa antioxidant activity, total polyphenols, flavan-3-ols, and procyanidin content in foods prepared with cocoa powder. Journal of Food Science, 74(6), C456-C461. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2009.01226.x


ELECTRONIC EXAMPLES

De Clercq, N., Van Coilie, E., Van Pamel, E., De Meulenaer, B., Devlieghere, F., & Vlaemynck, G. (2015). Detection and identification of zerophilic fungi in Belgian chocolate factories. Food Microbiology, 46, 322-328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2014.08.012

Leopard, D. C., & Williams, R. G. (2015). Nasal foreign bodies: A sweet experiment. Clinical Otolaryngology, 40(5), 420-421. https://doi.org/10.1111/coa.12385

Steiger, S. N., Ross, J. W., & Nailor, M. D. (2016). New Federal Drug Administration fluoriquinolone warning and a practical approach to managing patients. Connecticut Medicine, 80(10), 601-605. http://ctmed.csms.org/publication/?m=52908&l=1#{%22issue_id%22:%22449523%22,%22page%22:26}

NOTE: Newspapers and online news sources are two different types of resource. Online news resources (e.g. CNN or Bloomberg) are not typically associated with daily, weekly, or monthly newspapers and are thus cited as online resources as opposed to periodicals. The same principle applies to magazines. See the Citing Online Resources tab for more information.

 

EXAMPLES

Bakalar, N. (2019, November 11). Poor sleep may be bad for your heart. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/well/live/poor-sleep-may-be-bad-for-your-heart.html

Evans, M. (2019, November 12). Major midwest hospital systems call off planned merger. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/major-midwest-hospital-systems-call-off-planned-merger-11573613986?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=10

Graham, J. (2019, November 11). Taking steps to establish a National Volunteer Care Corps to help older adults. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/taking-steps-to-establish-a-national-volunteer-care-corps-to-help-older-adults/2019/11/08/ab1f5882-fa6a-11e9-8906-ab6b60de9124_story.html

EXAMPLES

Aloia, D. (2019, September 9). The future of health is in the genes! FYI...: Health Sciences Library Online Newsletter. https://fyi.libmedia.nymc.edu/?p=7320

Ascher, M. (2016, October 7). Time to renew UpToDate? FYI...: Health Sciences Library Online Newsletter. https://fyi.libmedia.nymc.edu/?p=5688

Webb, N. (2019, August 6). The New York Medical College Archives. FYI...: Health Sciences Library Online Newsletter. https://fyi.libmedia.nymc.edu/?p=9085