American Psychological Association (APA) Bibliographic Form
The most common system of documentation used in the social sciences is the author-date system of the American Psychological Association (APA).
APA BIBLIOGRAPHIC FORM CHECKLIST: BOOKS
General APA Bibliographic form:
- For each author, list in order of authorship, author's last name, followed by a comma and initials of first and middle name. Do not use authors' first names.
- The first author's last name is flush with left margin on first line; indent each subsequent line.
- Use "&" to join names of two or more authors. Do not write out "and."
- Place year of publication in parentheses after author(s).
- Place periods between major divisions and at the end.
- Italicize the title of the source (e.g., book, journal).
- If a work is subtitled place a colon between title and subtitle. Capitalize only the first word of title and subtitle (except for proper nouns).
- For books, include the place of publication and publisher, separated by a colon.
- For articles in journals, Italicize journal/magazine title. Capitalize all major words, followed by volume number and inclusive pages, all of which are separated by commas. Italicize the volume number.
- Center the word "References" at the top of your list of references. Include all references you have cited in the text and only these references.
- Single-space within entries; double-space between entries.
- Alphabetize list of references by authors' last names. If a reference has no author, alphabetize by the first word of the article (excluding "a," "an," "the").
Example of citations in APA format
Book:
Garrod, A., Smulyan, L., Powers, S., & Kilkenny, R. (2008). Adolescent portraits: Identity, relationships, and challenges (6th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Chapter in an edited book:
Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), The nature of intelligence (pp. 231-35). Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Journal article:
Tronick, E. A. (1989). Emotions and emotional communication in infants. American Psychologist, 44, 112-119.