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HHPF 502: Introduction to Research

About APA Style

APA stands for the American Psychological Association. APA citation and formatting style is most commonly used in Psychology, Education & Social Sciences. Other disciplines beyond the Social Sciences also use APA. At SU, the Health and Human Performance program widely uses APA as the preferred citation and formatting style, but please check with your individual professor.

APA Quick Tips

  • Author(s) should be listed by the last name, followed by the first initial (and second initial). 
  • When there is no apparent author, list the source by title in your reference list. Alphabetize reference list entries beginning with a title using the primary word of the title (excluding a, an, and the)..
  • When it comes to article titles, book titles, webpage titles: capitalize the first word of the title, subtitle, and proper nouns, followed by a period.
  • When it comes to journal titles: capitalize all important words and put in italics.
  • APA references should be listed in the alphabetical order by author's last name, not alphabetical order by title or the order they were used within your paper

APA Citation Examples

Journal Article

Author's last name, Initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of the article. Journal Title, volume number (issue number), pages. DOI or URL

Article Example 

Ke, F., & Hoadley, C. (2009). Evaluating online learning communities. Educational Technology Research & Development, 57(4), 487-510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-009-9120-2

Print book

Author's last name, Initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of the book. Publisher name.

Print book example

Veletsianos, G. (2020). Learning online: The student experience. Johns Hopkins University Press.

eBook

Author last name, first initial. (Year). Book title. Publisher. DOI or URL.

eBook example

Chaffe-Stengel, P., & Stengel, D. (2012). Working with sample data: Exploration and inference. Business Expert Press. https://doi.org/10.4128/9781606492147

Website

Author last name, first initial. (Date). Title of page. Host site. URL

Website example

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). What is health literacy? https://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/learn/index.html