APA Citation Tutorial

Part II: Creating Citations

By the end of Part II, you will be able to

• Access and use APA style guides• List the elements required to create citations

for the six most frequently used research resources

• Construct correct citations for the six most frequently used research resources

In Part I, we discussed the six most frequently used research resources: journal articles, books, book chapters, websites, government documents, and reference works.

Each of these types of resources has its own citation format. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association gives you the guidelines for creating each of these different types of citations.

APA Publication Manual

The official Publication Manual is nearly 300 pages long, and gives specific details about how to cite nearly every kind of resource that exists.

It organizes this information by resource type, so identifying the type of resource that you want to cite is the first step. Again, we discussed identifying resources in Part I.

APA Publication Manual Table of Contents

Other APA Guides

While the official Publication Manual is the best option for finding and using guidelines for creating citations, you may not always have access to the ~300 page book.

There are many excellent guides online. We recommend the Purdue Online Writing Lab guide, which is linked in the box on the right side of this page. You can also access it here:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/

Citation Formats

Regardless of the guide that you choose to use, the information that you find should be the same.

We will now explore the different formats for citing different types of research resources.

Journal Articles

Journal article citations require the following elements:

• Author(s)• Publication year• Article title• Journal title• Volume and issue of journal issue• Page numbers of journal article• DOI (digital object identifier), if available

Journal ArticlesJournal title

Article title

Volume, issue, year, and page numbers

Authors

There is no DOI for this example

Journal Articles

The elements for a journal article citation are put together in the following order:

Author, A. A. & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy

Test Yourself!

What’s wrong with this journal article citation? Hint: there are two problems.

Harlow, Henry. Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal

articles. (1983) Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Test Yourself!

The problems are:1. Only the author’s initials are used, rather than the

first and middle names2. The publication year should immediately follow the

author

The citation should look like this: Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Journal Articles: One More Thing

You may have noticed that the citation that we just looked at didn’t include either a DOI (for electronic articles) or an issue number.

Not all articles will have a DOI or even an issue number. If the article doesn’t include these elements, then you will not include them in your citation.

Books

Book citations require the following elements:

• Author(s)• Publication year• Book title• Publisher location• Publisher

Books

Book title

Author

Publisher

Location and publication year

Books

The elements for a book citation are put together in the following order:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Test Yourself!

What’s wrong with this book citation? Hint: there are two problems. Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA Guide

to Preparing Manuscripts for Journal Publication. American Psychological Association: Washington, DC.

Test Yourself

The problems are:1. Only the first word (or proper nouns) in the book title

should be capitalized2. The publication location should precede the publisher

The citation should look like this:Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Book Chapters

Book chapter citations require the following elements:

• Chapter author(s)• Publication year• Chapter title• Book editor(s)• Book title• Page range of chapter• Publisher location• Publisher

Book ChaptersBook titleBook editor

Publisher (and location)Publication year

Chapter title

Chapter authorsPage number(s)

Book Chapters

The elements for a book chapter citation are put together in the following order:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. A. Editor

& B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of

chapter). Location: Publisher.

Test Yourself!

What’s wrong with this book chapter citation? Hint: there are two problems.

O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and Women's Gender Role Journeys: A Metaphor

for Healing, Transition, and Transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle. New York, NY:

Springer.

Test Yourself!

The problems are:1. The page numbers of the chapter are missing2. Only the first word (and any proper nouns) need to be

capitalized in the chapter title

The citation should look like:O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys: A metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York, NY: Springer.

Websites

The following elements are required for a website citation:

• Author(s)• Publication date (year, month date)• Article title• Website title• Web address

WebsitesURL

Website title

Webpage/article title

AuthorPublication date

Websites

The elements in a website citation are put together in the following order:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year, month date of publication). Article title. Website Title. Retrieved from http://Web address

Test Yourself!

What’s wrong with this book chapter citation? Hint: there are two problems.

Brett Jones. The MUSIC model of academic motivation. Educational Psychology at Virginia Tech Website. Retrieved from http://www.ep.soe.vt.edu/ms/

Test Yourself!

The problems are:1. The date is missing (and in this case, only the year is

available, rather than the year, month, and date)2. The author’s name should appear as last name, first initial,

rather than the full named spelled out

The citation should look like:Jones, B. (2013). The MUSIC model of academic motivation.

Educational Psychology at Virginia Tech Website. Retrieved from http://www.ep.soe.vt.edu/ms/

Government Documents

The following elements are required for a government document citation:

• Author(s) OR government agency/organization name• Government agency• Publication year• Publication title• Publication report number (if available)• Publication location• Publisher

Government DocumentsPublisher (all GPO publications have Washington, DC as their location)

Publication date

Report number

Government agencyReport title

Government Documents

The elements in a government document citation are put together in the following order:

Author, A.A. & Author, B.B. OR Government Name. Name of Government Agency. (Year). Title: Subtitle (Report No. xxx

[if available]). Publication Location: Publisher.

Test Yourself!

What’s wrong with this government document citation? Hint: there are two problems.

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Satellite Television Act of 1999: Report of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on S. 303, together with minority views.

Test Yourself!The problems are:1. The year of publication is missing2. The publisher and publication location are missing. Most

government documents will be published by the Government Printing Office, but you still must include this in your citations.

The citation should look like:United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (1999). Satellite Television Act of 1999: Report of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on S. 303, together with minority views. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.

Reference Works

The following elements are required for a reference work citation:

• Reference work entry author(s)• Publication year• Reference work entry (article) title• Reference work title• Page range of reference work entry (if print)• Publication location• Publisher• URL (if electronic)

Reference Works

Author

Entry/article title

Reference work title

Publication year and publisher

URL

Reference Works

The elements in a reference work citation are put together in the following order:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year Published).

Article title. In Reference Work Title. (pp. page

(s)). Publication Location: Publisher.

Test Yourself!

What’s wrong with this government document citation? Hint: there are two problems.

McGhee, K., & McKay, G. (2007). Insects. In Encyclopedia of animals. (pp. 170-171). Washington, DC.

Test Yourself!

The problems are:1. All of the words in the reference work title

should be capitalized, not just the first word2. The publisher is missing

The citation should look like:McGhee, K., & McKay, G. (2007). Insects. In Encyclopedia of Animals. (pp. 170-171). Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.

Now that we’ve discussed the unique characteristics of each type of citation that you are likely going to need to construct, it is time to test your understanding a bit more.

Click on the link abovein order to complete the activity (Activity 2) for this section, and to get a sense of how well you understand and are able construct different types of citations.

When you are finished, continue on to Part III: Creating Bibliographies