This document provides guidelines for citing sources in APA style. It offers examples of how to cite different types of sources like books, journal articles, web pages, and more. Key elements included in citations are author names, publication dates, titles, publishers. Parenthetical citations within the text must correspond to full references at the end. The document advises consulting the APA manual for more details on citations.

1. APA Citation Guide Morgan State University, New Library
Correctly citing sources in writing a research paper or preparing a presentation is an important step in the research process.
Psychology and social and natural sciences primarily use the APA Style. Below you will find examples of APA Style as a
starting point to citing resources. Please refer to the APA Handbook, located at the Information Desk, for more detailed
information.
Please note: APA recommends double-spacing both within & between citations. Refer to your
instructor for individual preferences.
Books:
Basic Form - Author name. (Publication date). Title of the book. Publisher location: Publisher name.
Examples - Gilbert, P. (1992). Depression: *The evolution of powerlessness. **New York: Guilford.
Scileppi, ***J. A., Teed, E. L., ***& Tores. R. D. (2000). Community psychology: A common sense
approach to mental health. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Abell Foundation. (1993). Baltimore’s drug problem: It’s costing too much not to spend more on it.
Baltimore: ****Author.
Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L. N., Jr. (Eds.). (1991). Children of color: Psychological interventions with minority
youth (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Massaro, D. (1992). Broadening the domain of the fuzzy logical model of perception. In H. L. Pick, Jr., P.
van den Broek, & D. C. Knill (Eds.). Cognition: Conceptual and methodological issues (pp. 51-84).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
NOTES: * Only the first word after “:” is capitalized.
** State abbreviations not required for Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, or San Francisco. See: Publication
Manual of the APA for foreign cities at the Information Desk.
*** Only use initials for first and middle names of authors and editors and “&” between last two names.
**** Author/Publisher are the same.
Magazines and Newspaper Articles:
Basic Form - Author name. (Issue date). Title of the article. Journal title, Volume. Pages.
Examples - Kandel, E. R., & Squire, L. R. (*2000, November 10). Neuroscience: Breaking down scientific barriers to the
study of brain and mind. Science, **290, 1113-1120.
Mathews, J. (2009, July 13). Should high schools bar average students from rigorous college-level
courses and test? The Washington Post, pp. ***B2, B5.
NOTES: * Dates are written “year, month day”; month names are spelled out.
** The volume number is also italicized.
*** If a newspaper section is given as a letter, put the letter and number together, ex: p. B12. If the section is given as a number, give more
information rather than less, ex: p. 5:6.)
Scholarly Articles:
Basic Form - Author name. (Publication year). Title of the article. Periodical title, and Publication information.
Journals with continuous pagination – Journals that page each issue separately –
volume, pages NOTE: pages are NOT italicized volume (issue), pages
Mellers, B. A. (2000). Choice and the relative pleasure Klimoski, R., & Pamler, S. (1993). Going green at the
of consequences. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 910-924. office. Environmental Management, 67(3), 10-36.

2. Articles Retrieved from Online Databases:
Basic Form - Author name. (Issue date). Title of the article. Title of journal or magazine, volume number, page numbers.
*doi
Examples -
Scholarly - Boyer, T. G., Chen, P., & Lee, W. (2001, May 1). Genome mining for human cancer genes: Whereforartthou?
Trends in Molecular Medicine, 7(5), **187-189. doi: 10.1016/S1471-4914(01)01990-6
Magazine - Marano, H. E. (2007, July/August). The Flavor of cleverness. Psychology Today, 40(4), 54. ***Retrieved
from EBSCO Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection database.
Newspaper - de la Merced, Michael J. (2009, June 1). Court clears path for Chrysler [National Desk]. New York Times,
late ed. (East Coast), sec. A, ****pp. 14+. Retrieved from Proquest Newspapers database.
NOTES: * doi=digital object identifier; unique alphanumeric code assigned by the publisher, permanent through multiple databases
** page numbers are NOT italicized; no volumes numbers = use “p.” for one page or less OR “pp.” for multiple pages
*** no doi available
**** unlike journals, use p. or pp. for the page(s) of a newspaper
Web Pages:
Basic Form - Author(s) of document (may not be a person). (Date of publication, if available, otherwise use n.d.). Title of
document. Date retrieved online if no pub date or edition is listed. (NOTE: Retrieval date is
unnecessary for journal article or book found on the web.) Full web address/URL (If URL is long,
break it before punctuation.)
Example -
Whole web site Funetics is a site guaranteed to teach your preschooler to read (http://www.funeticslearning.com/).
No author New tool could predict your Alzheimer’s risk. (2009. May 13). Retrieved July 13, 2009, from
http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/web-page-no-author.aspx
With author Scott, E., M.S. (2007, November 1). Music and your body: How music affects us and why music
therapy promotes health. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from
http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/music_therapy.htm
Organization United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2009, May 4). The Holocaust. Holocaust Encyclopedia.
Retrieved July 14, 2009, from
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005184
Parenthetical References:
Parenthetical references or references within the text of a research paper must point to a specific source in that paper’s list of
references at the end of your paper. These references generally consist of the author or authors’ names and the publication
date of the source material. If the author’s name is clearly identified in your text, include the year of publication reference in
parentheses the first time the reference is used per paragraph. If the author’s name is not identified in the text, the
references are placed within parentheses with the author’s name followed by a comma, a space, and then the publication
year. Below are a few common examples. For more specific information, consult at the Information Desk.
Print Sources -
One work by a single author / Two or more authors: (Gilbert, 1992) (Gibbs & Huang, 1991).
More than three authors: (Henry, Kulpepper, Jenkins, & Riley, 1999).
In subsequent citations: (Henry et al., 1999).
Authors with same surname – add initials: (H. P. Jones, 1998) or (M. L. Jones, 1976).
Unknown author: (cite the “source title”, date) (“APA effects,” 2009).
Electronic Sources –
Use the author,date style the same as any other document. (Scott, 2007)
Unknown author and unknown date: *(“APA challenges,” n.d.).
When an electronic document has numbered paragraphs, use the ¶ symbol, or the abbreviation "para." followed by
the paragraph number (Hall, 2001, ¶ 5) or (Hall, 2001, para. 5)
NOTE: * Use the full title of the web page if it is short for the parenthetical citation.
This handout has derived from: American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual. (6th ed.).Washington, DC: Author.
Some examples were taken from The Owl at Purdue web page.
For additional examples and information, ask at the Information Desk.