LibGuides: Citation and Style Guides: APA Citation Style

Basics of Citing in APA

The American Psychological Association (APA) Citation Style has become a very popular one with fields of study focused on using current resources. The basic rule for APA citing within your writing, also known as in-text citing, is to include the author(s) last name and date. This is called the Author-Date convention.

Type of Citation	Narrative Citation	Parenthetical Citation
One work by one author	Walker (2007)	(Walker, 2007)
One work by two authors	Walker and Allen (2004)	(Walker & Allen, 2004)
One work by three or more authors	Bradley et al. (1999)	(Bradley et al., 1999)
Groups as authors	University of Pittsburgh (2005)	(University of Pittsburgh, 2005)

Source: American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.

Purdue OWL on APA

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University is a widely-used and respected source for style formatting and writing guidance. This is a great place to find sample papers (to learn how to structure an APA paper) and instructions on citing various types of resources. Use the navigation on the left-side of the screen (instead of the tabs across the top) in the Purdue OWL APA Landing Page to remain within APA-related resources. Here are some direct links:

General APA Format
Guidelines on formatting an APA paper, including sample papers.
In-Text Citations: The Basics
Basics of in-text citation in APA 7.
In-Text Citations: Author/Authors
Rules for citing different types of authors in APA 7.
Reference List: The Basics
Basic guidelines for creating reference lists in APA 7.
Reference List: Author/Authors
How to handle works by single or multiple authors in your reference list in APA 7.
Reference List: Electronic Sources
How to cite electronic resources (including journal articles retrieved online) in your reference list in APA 7 style.
APA Sample Paper
Sample APA papers in APA style.

Books on APA

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by American Psychological Association
Call Number: Ref BF76.7 .P83 2020

ISBN: 9781433832161

Publication Date: 2019-10-01
The Concise APA Handbook by Paul Iida; Rachael Ruegg; Mark de Boer; Naoko Araki; Mary Frances Agnello
Publication Date: 2021-02-01

This is a summary of the Publication Manual of the American Psychologoical Association: The Official Guide to APA Style, not the APA Guide itself. It is available as an eBook and includes additional guidance on finding and evaluating information sources. Some students find it easier to follow than the official APA Guide.

Citing UpToDate in APA

This page contains a reference example for an article from the UpToDate database. Source: APA Style. Section 10.1 of the APA Publication Manual.

Bordeaux, B., & Lieberman, H. R. (2020). Benefits and risks of caffeine and caffeinated beverages. UpToDate. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/benefits-and-risks-of-caffeine-and-caffeinated-beverages

Parenthetical citation: (Bordeaux & Lieberman, 2020)

Narrative citation: Bordeaux and Lieberman (2020)

Articles in the UpToDate database are available only in that database and have information that changes over time.
In the reference list, format UpToDate articles like periodical articles. Italicize the database name in the reference like a periodical title, but do not italicize the database name if it appears in the text.
Use the year of last update in the date element.
Include a retrieval date because the content is designed to change over time and versions of the page are not archived.