APA 6th Edition PLEASE NOTE: All sections of this APA Library Guide are based on APA 6th edition. A summary of the major changes between APA 6th and 7th is available below. Please check with your unit co-ordinator as to which version you are expected to use. |
APA style is an author-date citation style. It was developed mainly for use in psychology, but has also been adopted by other disciplines.
There are two major components to the APA author-date style
All in-text citations must have a corresponding reference list entry, and the converse applies for reference list entries.
This guide is based on more detailed information in:
Frequently asked questions about APA style http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx
APA Academic Writer is a new online resource designed to assist in the application of APA style formatting rules.
Printing this guide: Please note printing directly from pages in this guide may alter the citation formatting display. A printable document is available below. Note that this document is adapted from this online guide and does not contain all information and examples. Please use it in conjunction with the online guide which is more regularly updated.
Where a publication has: | List authors in the reference list as: |
One author | Author, A. A. |
Two authors | Author, A. A., & Author B. B. |
Three to seven authors |
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., Author, C. C., Author, D. D., Author, E. E., Author, F. F., & Author, G. G. |
Eight or more authors - list first six authors, add a three dot elipse, then the last author | Author, A. A., Author, B. B., Author, C. C., Author, D. D., Author, E. E., Author, F. F., ...Author, Z. Z. |
No author | Transfer the title to the author space |
Two or more works by same author |
Use author's name for all entries and list entries by year - earliest year comes first. If they are the published in the same year, list alphabetically by title, assigning a suffix of a, b, c, d etc after the year (e.g. 2011a, 2011b) |
a group or corporate author | Spell the name out |