A guide to creating a reference list and in-text citations using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

1. Beth Downey
Research Services
MSU Libraries

2.  Overview of APA
 In-text References
 Reference List
 Other citation tools

3.  Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.)
 APA Style Guide to Electronic References (e-
book)
 APA Style website’s blog
◦ http://blog.apastyle.org/
 APA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue)
◦ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/
560/01/

4.  http://guides.library.msstate.edu/citationguides
 Examples and links for:
◦ APA (including links to Purdue OWL, APA site and
e-book guide)
◦ MLA
◦ Chicago
◦ Harvard

5.  Citing is about intellectual honesty:
◦ Required in academia.
◦ Essential to retain integrity.
 Citing is part of good research:
◦ Connects to previous research.
◦ Adds to the collective knowledge.
◦ Assists future researchers.
◦ Credits others for their ideas.
◦ Defines the ideas that are unique.
◦ Gives your ideas authority.

6.  The appropriation of another person’s ideas,
processes, results, or words without giving
appropriate credit.
 Presenting the work of another as one’s own.
 Failing to credit sources used.
 Attempting to receive credit for work performed
by another.
 Failing to cite ALL resources used, including
Internet, databases, and other electronic
resources.

7.  Unique information.
 Direct quotes.
 Paraphrased passages.
 “Borrowed facts.”
 Anything that is not common knowledge.

8.  American Psychological Association citation and
formatting guidelines.
 Originally created and sponsored in 1929 by the
United States National Research Council, the first
edition was published in 1952.
 Also used in the fields of:
◦ Anthropology
◦ Education
◦ Communication
◦ Business
◦ Political Science
◦ Other social sciences

9.  Title page
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Method
 Results
 Discussion
 References

10.  Footnotes
◦ Additional explanations
◦ Copyright permissions
 References
◦ Sources used in your paper that identify unique
information.

11.  Listing of the “recoverable” sources used in
the paper.
 Alphabetically by the surname of the first
author.
 Serves as an index for the reader; in-text
references “link” to the main citation list.

12.  For authors and editors, abbreviate first and
middle names to initials only.
◦ Invert all authors’ names (Author, A.B., Author,
C.D., Author, E.F.).
◦ Invert editors’ names when referencing edited
book, but not a chapter within an edited book.
 Titles normally are “sentence-style”;
capitalize only first word of title, subtitle, and
proper nouns.
◦ Exceptions: periodicals and serials.

13. Author, A. B. (year of publication). Title of work: Capital
letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
Johnson, S. (2002). Who moved my cheese? An amazing
way to deal with change in your work and in your
life. New York: Putnam.
Barnham, L., Priestley, P., & Targett, A. (1999). In search
of Cheddar man. Stroud, UK: Tempus.

14. Jacobowitz, S. (2005). Chuck E. Cheese at noon:
Adventures in parenting and higher education. In
R. H. Bassett (Ed.), Parenting & professing:
Balancing family work with an academic career
(pp. 133-140). Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt
University Press.

15. Ma, L., & Lillard, A. (2006). Where is the real cheese?
Young children's ability to discriminate between real and
pretend acts. Child Development, 77(6), 1762-1777.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00972.x.
If there is no DOI and the article was retrieved online,
use the URL of the journal home page. Magazine
articles, note, don’t normally use DOI; those citations
can end at the page numbers.
Carter, L., Sumrall, W., & Curry, K. (2006). Say cheese!
Digital collections in the classroom. Science and
Children, 43(8), 19-23. Retrieved from
http://www.nsta.org/elementaryschool

16.  Print version:
Hevesi, D. (2010, August 3). Morrie Yohai, 90, the man
behind Cheez Doodles, is dead. The New York Times, p.
A16.
 Online version:
Hevesi, D. (2010, August 2). Morrie Yohai, 90, the man
behind Cheez Doodles, is dead. The New York Times.
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

17. Landmark, S. A. (2004). Effect of vitamin D fortified
cheese on muscular strength in older adults
(Master's thesis). Available from ProQuest
Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No.
1425385)
Aryana, K. J. (1997). Microstructure of some dairy foods
and food protein gels (unpublished doctoral
dissertation). Mississippi State University,
Mississippi State, MS.

18. Downey, E. M., & Davidson, K. S. (2010, June). Graphic
novels on campus: Academic collaboration and
outreach with the K-12 community. Poster session
presented at the meeting of the American Library
Association, Washington, D.C.

19.  Include report number.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
National Institutes of Health, National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute. (2003). Managing
asthma: A guide for schools (NIH Publication No.
02-2650). Retrieved from
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/lung/asthma/a
sth_sch.pdf

20. Sabieh, C. (2002). American Chunky Blue Cheese Salad:
A Look at Multicultural Education. Retrieved from
ERIC database. (ED478571)

21. PZ Myers. (2007, January 22). The unfortunate
prerequisites and consequences of partitioning your
mind [Web log post]. Retrieved from
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/01/the_u
nfortunate_prerequisites.php
Screennames can be used by themselves if
author’s real name is unknown.

22. Mississippi State University [msstate]. (2012, December
13). Celebrate 75 yrs of MSU cheese & tell us how
you’re enjoying it this season, tweet a pic! Use
hashtag #SayCheeseState. bit.ly/Z3Nj9N [Tweet].
Retrieved from https://twitter.com/msstate/status
/279351983213801472

23. Showtime (2008, March 10). Time-lapse of 1200 lbs. of
cheese carved [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0bQh2ipARI

24.  One Author
◦ Johnson (2000) found no relationship between …
◦ However, no relationship has been found between
… (Johnson, 2000).
 Two Authors
◦ Smith and Roberts (1995) suggested that …
◦ Others have suggested that … (Smith & Roberts,
1995).
◦ Note the “and” used to connect authors in the
first example versus the ampersand in the
second.

25.  Three to Five Authors
◦ According to Jackson, Leonard, and Pruitt (1986),
… [first citation in text]
◦ Jackson et al. provided clear evidence
[omit year from subsequent citations after first
citation within a paragraph]
◦ Jackson et al. (1986) also found that …
[subsequent first citation per paragraph
thereafter]

26.  Six or More Authors
◦ According to Wirt et al. (2004), …
 Multiple References
◦ Previous studies (Smith, 2004; Williams &
O’Connor, 1999) showed …

27.  Personal communications (e-mail, letters,
phone interviews) generally aren’t retrievable
sources. Therefore cite them in text, but not
in the reference list.
◦ R.S. Thomson (personal communication, June
13, 2006) emphasized that …
◦ … although this has been denied by the author
(R.S. Thomson, personal communication, June 13,
2006).

28. When citing a direct quote you must include
the page or paragraph (in the case of an
HTML document) in which it appears.
 (Williams, 2004, p. 243)
 (Peterson, 1995, ¶5)

29.  Are references cited both in text and in the
references list?
 Do the text citations and reference list entries
agree both in spelling and in date?
 Are journal titles in the reference list spelled
out fully?
 Are the references (both in the parenthetical
text citations and in the reference list)
ordered alphabetically?

30.  EBSCOhost
 ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
 Scopus
 MSU Online Catalog
 Use these as guides, but review computer-
generated citations for accuracy.

31.  Citation management software
 Students - $50; Faculty - $75
 Resource page
◦ http://guides.library.msstate.edu/endnote

32.  Instructional Media Center
◦ http://guides.library.msstate.edu/imc
Thomas La Foe
Instructional Technology Specialist
Instructional Media Center
tlafoe@library.mssatate.edu
325-6781

33.  Phone, email, text or Tweet
 Schedule a consultation with a subject
specialist
 Ask-A-Librarian Virtual Chat