Citations & Plagiarism: APA Format Basics

APA In-Text Citation Resources & Examples

In-text citations use the author-date method: the author's last name and the year of publication for the source. A complete reference for each source should be included in the reference list.

When referring to an idea or making reference to another work, but not directly quoting the material, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication,not the page number.

When directly quoting from another work, include the page number at the end of the parenthetical citation. Use the abbreviation p. (for one page) or pp. (for multiple pages).

All sources cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials.

When referring to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater. Both words in a hyphenated compound words should be capitalized.

Short quotations: When directly quoting from a source include: the author, year of publication, and page number of the reference. The quotation can be introduced within a phrase that includes the author's last name and the date of publication in parentheses.If the author's name is not mentioned within the phrase, place the author's last name, year of publication, and page number in parentheses after the quotation.

Long quotations: Direct quotations 40 words or longer should be placed in a free-standing block of typed lines without quotation marks.The quotation should start on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin. The first line of any subsequent paragraph is indented a 1/2 inch from the new margin. Double-space throughout the quotation, but do not add extra blank lines. A parenthetical citation is placed after the closing punctuation mark.

For direct quotations from sources that do not contain pages reference another identifying element such as a paragraph, chapter number, verse number.

When paraphrasing make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference and omit the page numbers.

APA References Resources & Examples

Each source that has been cited in the paper must be included in the reference list.

The reference list begins on a separate page labeled "References" in bold, centered at top of the page, and is not underlined or placed in quotation.

All text should be double-spaced.

Lines added after the first line of each entry are indented one-half inch from the left margin.

Authors' names should be entered with last names first, followed by first and middle names initials.

The last name and first/middle initials are included for all authors of a particular work for up to 20 of the contributing authors. Each author’s initials are separated from the next author's with a comma. An ampersand is used before the last author’s name. If there are 21 or more authors, use an ellipsis rather than an ampersand after the 19th author, and then add the final author’s name. - Reference list entries are alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.

Articles by the same author are listed in chronological order, from earliest to most recent works.

Titles of longer works are italicized (whole books, names of newspapers, etc.). The titles of shorter works (chapters in books, names of articles, etc.) are not italicized, underlined, or placed within quotations.

When referring to the titles of sources (exemption: the titles of academic journals,covered below) capitalize: the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or dash, and proper nouns.

Basic rules for academic journals:

All major words capitalized as well as the first word of the titles and subtitles, the first word after a colon or dash, and proper nouns.

Journal titles are entered in full without italicization or quotation marks. Do not underline. 

Nonstandard punctuation and capitalization used in the title is maintained.