Skip to Main Content

MVNU Writing Guide: APA Citation Guide

APA In-Text Citation

After a direct quotation or paraphrase you need to include an in-text citation.

  • If your source has a listed author/authors (Example)
    • 1 author: (Smith, 2015, p. 12)
    • 2 authors: (Smith & Jones, 2015, p. 12)
    • 3+ authors: (Smith et al., 2015, p. 12)
  • If your source does not have a listed author
    • Corporation/Institution: (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2010, p. 258)
    • Book/Article/Website: (Beowolf, p. 153)

If you include some of the required citation information in your introduction ("Smith and Jones conducted a study...") then you do NOT need to include that information in the parenthetical citation. In this case, the citation would just be (12). See the APA sample paper for more examples of parenthetical citation. 

If you are citing an entire book or article (through summarization), then you do not need to include a page number in your citation.

APA Reference Page

A "References" page is included at the end of every APA paper. Citations follow this general format:

 

  • Books: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name. DOI (if available).
    • 1 Author: Last Name, First Initial. 
      • Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press.
    • 2 Authors: Last Name 1, First Initial 1., & Last Name 2, First Initial 2
    • 3+ Authors: 3-20 Authors: Last Name 1, First Initial 1., Last Name 2, First Inital 2., ... Last Name X, First Initial X. 

 

  • Journals: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy.
    • 0 Authors: Start citation with the title
    • 1 Author: Last Name, First Initial.
    • 2 Authors: Last Name 1, First Initial 1., & Last Name 2, First Initial 2.
      • Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented digital research with service-learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement, 6(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979.
    • 3-20 Authors: Last Name 1, First Initial 1., Last Name 2, First Inital 2., ... Last Name X, First Initial X.
      • Nguyen, T., Carnevale, J. J., Scholer, A. A., Miele, D. B., & Fujita, K. (2019). Metamotivational knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in goal-relevant task performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(5), 879-899. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000166.