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APA Citation Style 7th Edition

This guide will help you with formatting your citations according to the APA guidelines.

About Citing Books

 

When you're finding books for your research, make note of the author name(s), book title, publication date, and publisher.

For each type of source in this guide, both the general form and a specific example will be provided.

The following format will be used:

In-text Citation (Paraphrase) - entry that appears in the body of your paper when you express the ideas of a researcher or author using your own words.

In-text Citation (Direct Quotation) - entry that appears in the body of your paper, word for word from a source, and in quotation marks

References - entry that appears at the end of your paper.

Information on citing and several of the examples were drawn from Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 

Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in the manual.

General Formatting

 

  • Alphabetize your reference list by the first word of the citation (usually the author's last name).
  • Double space all of the citations on your reference page.
  • Indent the second & following lines of the citation 5-7 spaces.
  • Up to 20 authors: Include surname and initials for up to 20 authors. Wingert, P., Smith, J., & Brown, P., ...
  • More than 20 authors: After the 19th author, add an ellipsis [...]  to replace additional authors, then include the final author's surname and initials.
  • Capitalize ONLY the first word of the document title and proper nouns. If there is a colon in the title, capitalize the first word after the colon.
  • No period after URL for e-books.
  • No retrieval date is needed.

Book with Three to Five Authors or Editors (pp. 288)

 

When you are referencing a book that has three to five editors instead of authors, insert the editors' names where the authors' names would be, followed by "(Eds.)" without the quotation marks (as per the example).  The rest of the format remains the same.
General Format

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Author Surname, Author Surname, & Author Surname, Year)

NOTE: Only the first in-text citation for a work with three to five authors/editors includes all of the names of the authors/editors. All following citations include only the first author's/editor's surname, followed by et al. and the year.

In-Text Citation (Direct Quote):

(Author Surname, Author Surname, & Author Surname, Year, page number)

References:

Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial., Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial., & Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. 

          (Year). Book title: Subtitle. Publisher.

Example

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Johnson, Roberts, & Worell, 1999)

NOTE: A subsequent citation would appear as (Johnson et al., 1999)

In-Text Citation (Direct Quote):

(Johnson, Roberts, & Worell, 1999, p. 72)

 References:

Johnson, N. G., Roberts, M. C., & Worell, J. (Eds.). (1999). Beyond appearance: A new look at adolescent girls. 

          American Psychological Association.

Learn More

 

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University offers an online resource which can be used in some cases.  However, it does not include everything required for citing sources in one place.

The APA citation style does not cover Canadian government sources, and has only a limited section on American government resources.

Please refer to the staff at the Library Reference Desk for clarification when citing Canadian government sources.