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APA Style 7th Edition: Citing Your Sources

Provide guidance on APA format style based on the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

Standard Format

Click on the categories below to see what types of information is included for that reference component for Books or Book Chapters.

Basic Format: Who = Author (When = year). What = Title of work.  Where = Publisher information and DOI/URL if available

Books & Reference Works

Author Surname, A. A. & Author Surname, B. B.

Name of Group.

Editor Surname, E. E. (Ed.)

Editor Surname, E. E. & Editor Surname, F. F. (Eds.)

(year).

Title of book: Use sentence case.

Title of book (# ed., Vol. #).

Title of book [Audiobook].

Title of book (E. E. Editor, Ed.).

Title of book (T. Translator, Trans.; N. Narrator, Narr.).

Publisher Name.

First Publisher Name; Second Publisher Name.

https://doi.org/xxxx....

https://xxx....


For Editied Book Chapters and Entries in Reference Works

Author Surname, A. A. & Author Surname, B. B.

Name of Group.

(year).

Title of chapter.

In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. #-#). Publisher Name.

E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (# ed., Vol. #, pp. #-#). Publisher Name.

https://doi.org/xxx.....

https://xxx.....

Formatting Rules

  • Italicize book titles
  • Utilize sentence case for book titles:
    • First word of the title and first word of the subtitle capitalized
    • Capitalize proper nouns
    • Every other word is lower case
  • Shorten long URLs or DOIs: When a DOI or URL is long or complex, you may use shortDOIs or shortened URLs if desired. Use the shortDOI service provided by the International DOI Foundation (https://shortdoi.org/) to create shortDOIs.
  • Reference works includes: dictionaries, encyclopedias, and diagnostic manuals.
  • eBooks do not include platform, format or device
  • Audiobooks include the narrator and audiobook notation.

Examples

Click on the categories below to see reference examples.

Richardson, V. (1999). Teaching gerontological social work: A compendium of model syllabi. Council on Social Work Education.
Shonkoff, J., & Phillips, D. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. National Academy Press.
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
Rappaport, B. A. (1999). On-site school-based mental health clinics: 15 years of experience in Orange County, California. In A.H. Esman, & L. T. Flaherty, (Eds.), Adolescent psychiatry: Development and clinical studies, (pp. 91-100). The Analytic Press.
Merriam-Webster. (2005). Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (11th ed.).
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved March 3, 2020, from https://www.meriam-webster.com
Dictionary.com LLC (n.d.). Hyperboreal. In Thesuaus.com. Retrieved March 10, 2020, from https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/hyperboreal
Wilson, C., Thomas, J., & Abadie, A. (2006). The new encyclopedia of Southern culture (Vols. 1-24). University of North Carolina Press.
Wilson, C., & Mohr, C. (2011). The new encyclopedia of Southern culture (Vol. 17: Education). University of North Carolina Press.
Adams, M. (2013). Readings for diversity and social justice (3rd ed.). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Allen, A. L. (2004). Privacy in health care. In S. G. Post (Ed.), Encyclopedia of bioethics (pp. 111-122). Macmillan-Thomson
Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child (H. Weaver, Trans., 2nd ed.). Basic Books. (Original work published 1966).
Reid, K. (2019). Such a fun age (N. Lewis, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Penguin Audio. https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/such-a-fun-age/381177
Bronk, K. C., & Baumsteiger, R. (2017). The role of purpose among emerging adults. In L. M. Padilla-Walker & L. J. Nelson (Eds.) Flourishing in emerging adulthood: Positive development during the third decade of life. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190260637.003.0004
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi-org.libproxy1.usc.edu/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596

See Ch. 10 pp. 313-352 of APA Manual for more examples and formatting rules