APA style is most commonly used in Psychology, Education & the Social Sciences.
A copy of the APA style manual is available in the Ready Reference area at the Research Help Desk on the first floor of the Academic Commons:
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Call Number: Ref. BF76.7 .P83 2010 c.2
Format: Author's last name, Initial(s). (Date of publication). Title of the book. Place of Publication: Publisher name.
Example: Staff, F.E. (1969). The Valentine & Its Origins. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.
With a DOI (Online or Hardcopy)
(See below for an explanation of DOI)Format: Author's last name, Initial(s). (Date of publication). Title of the article. Journal title, volume number (issue number), pages. DOI number.
Example: Ke, F., & Hoadley, C. (2009). Evaluating online learning communities. Educational Technology Research & Development, 57(4), 487-510.
doi:10.1007/s11423-009-9120-2Without a DOI (Hardcopy)
Format: Author's last name, Initial(s). (Date of publication). Title of the article. Journal title, volume number (issue number), pages.
Example: Carter, K. (1995). Teaching stories and local understandings. Journal of Educational Research, 88(6), 326-330.
Without a DOI (Database or Website)
Format: Author's last name, Initial(s). (Date of publication). Title of the article. Journal title, volume number (issue number), pages. Retrieved from website
Example: Goral, T. (2009). The Sustainable Learning Community. University Business, 12(7), 18. Retrieved from http://www.universitybusiness.com/
Format: Author's last name, Initial(s). (Date of publication). Title of the article. Journal Title, volume number(issue), pages.
Example: Zimmer, C. (2009, July/August). The Brain. Discover, 30(7), 24-25.
Format: Author's last name, Initial(s). (Date of publication). Title of the article. Newspaper Title, pages. Discontinuous pages are separated by commas
Example: Poirot, C. (2004, March 17). HIV prevention pill goes beyond 'morning after'. The Hartford Courant, pp. F1, F6.
Format: Author's last name, Initial(s). (Date of document or date of last revision, if known). Title of the website/article. Retrieved date of web retrieval, from URL.
Example: Burka, L. P. (1993). A hypertext history of multi-user dimensions. Retrieved August 2, 2007, from http://www.csun.edu/~hceng028/m-hist.txt.
The DOI is a set of numbers and/or letters given to individual journal articles.
You should include the DOI for articles retrieved online or from hardcopy
The database might give the DOI in the citation section. If not, then you may find it at the top or bottom of the first page
When you have a DOI, you do not need to include the web address
When you do not have a DOI, you must include the URL of the journal's homepage from the publisher's website. If this URL is too long, you may use the publisher's
homepage. You may have to search for this website online.
Do not use the direct URL of the article and do not use the database name or URL
(exceptions; a dissertation, an ERIC document or older JSTOR article)
Older hardcopy journals will not have a DOI, so you will cite it without one
Some useful online resources include:
APA Exposed (Harvard University Graduate School of Education)
American Psychological Association (APA) Format (Purdue OWL)
Research and Documenting Sources: APA Style: The Social Sciences The Diana Hacker site on the basics of APA style
What's New in the Sixth Edition - APA - APA Website Tutorial