APA Citations: APA: The Core Elements

REFERENCE LIST 

The reference list should be on a separate page at the end of the project with the label “References” centered at the top of the sheet.

• All reference entries should be hanging; first line flush with left margin, each additional line shall be indented 5 spaces from left margin.
• Reference entries should be double spaced.
• Entries should be alphabetized by author’s last name. Unauthored entries should be alphabetized by the first significant title word.

Sample APA Reference Page from the Common Reference Examples Guide by the APA.

FORMATTING ENTRIES

Author's and editor's names are always inverted. List the author's surname first, followed by a comma, then their initials and a period after them for up to and including 20 authors or editors. In instances where the references have two or more authors, use a serial comma after the previous authors initials before the ampersand (&). For editor(s), the abbreviation should be placed parenthetically after the name, e.g. (Ed.) or (Eds.) followed by a period.

• Beckett, S.  
• Bloom, H. (Ed.)
• Partridge, M., & Quayle, B.

If there are two group authors, there is no need to use a serial comma before the ampersand (&) to separate the groups.

• American Psychological Association & National Institute of Mental Health

For works with up to 20 authors, provide the surnames and initials of all authors. An ampersand should be place prior to the final author's name.

In resources where there are 21 or more authors, list the first 19 authors and then insert three ellipses (...) before adding the last author. 

Publication dates are always placed in parentheses immediately after the author(s) or editor(s) and are followed by a period. 

• Evans, K. (2008).

If there is no publication date or if the publication date is unknown simply use n.d.: Pangloss, D. (n.d.).

Book titles should always be italicized. The first word of a title should be capitalized along with the first word of a subtitle. Proper nouns in the title are always capitalized.

• Szanto, A. (Ed.). (2007). What Orwell didn't know: Propaganda and the new face of American politics.

Publishers are listed for books without including Co., Inc., Publishers, etc... in the entry. A period follows the listing.

• Random House., Harvard University., Plain Press.

E-books from academic databases like OhioLink EBC, Ebsco E-books, Safari E-books, Salem E-books do not need to include a URL simply provide the publisher; however, works from other websites do need to include the URL. If a DOI is provided for the E-book, even if it is from an academic database be sure to include the DOI.

Journal, Magazine, and Newspaper titles are italicized and all major words in the journal title are capitalized. The titles of individual articles or essays from these sources are not italicized but should follow the APA title capitalization format.

• Journal of Cognitive Dissonance Theory.

Citations for journal articles should include the italicized volume and issue number (if there is one) in parentheses followed by a comma then the page number. 

• 39(13), 139-153.