header Renew I-Share Books Lake Forest College Donnelley and Lee Library Ask Librarian Hours Suggest a book Interlibrary Loan
library picture
APA Citation Style

General Guidelines for APA citation style of online sources
based on the 5th edtion of the Hacker Pocket Style Manual, which is based on the 5th edition of the APA Publication Manual and the 2007 update: APA Style Guide to Electronic References. Some notes about the 6th edition are included.
From the APA Style Guide to Electronic References:
"Follow the general formats for placement of data, and use common sense to decide which data are necessary to allow readers to access the sources you used."
What is a DOI?

CITATION EXAMPLES FOR ONLINE SOURCES Other Citation Guides
for both books and articles
Database articles
EBSCO
magazine
popular journal
journal paginated by volume
ERIC documents
Gale
6 authors
JSTOR
journal
LexisNexis
newspaper
PsycINFO
7 or more authors
PDF
Full text with no PDF or DOI
 Other sources
A journal's website
PDF article
HTML text article (without page numbers)
Google books
Wikis
Online encyclopedias
Online periodicals
a review
Websites
Images

Annotated Bibliography
from Lesley U.
from U. of New Brunswick
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Government documents  (U of Memphis)
Legal documents  (Cornell)
APA website

In-text citations
for online sources
for multiple authors
Duke University
Owl at Purdue
   multiple authors
The Everyday Writer
EBSCO databases (Academic Search Premier, Communication & Mass Media Complete, etc.):
    This example shows a magazine article citation:

    Rozen, L. (2003, November 10). Strange bedfellows. Nation, 277, 6-7. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database (11200746).

    This example shows a citation for an article from a journal paginated by issue:

    Gibbs, W. W. (2005). Nanobodies. Scientific American, 293(2), 75-83. Retrieved from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database (17566681).

    This example shows a citation for an article from a journal paginated by volume:

    Stanley, M. A. (2002). Imiquimod and the imidazoquinolones: Mechanism of action and therapeutic potential. Clinical & Experimental Dermatology, 27, 571-576. Retrieved from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database (8608219).

    This example shows a citation for the same article with a DOI:

    Stanley, M. A. (2002). Imiquimod and the imidazoquinolones: Mechanism of action and therapeutic potential. Clinical & Experimental Dermatology, 27, 571-576. doi: 10.1046/j.1365‑2230.2002​.01151.x.



ERIC Documents (not for a journal cited in the ERIC database)
Compare the citation below with the actual document, viewable via http://tinyurl.com/ED429045

    Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., & Clark, L. A. (1999, February). Preparing educators for school-family-community partnerships. Results of a national survey of colleges and universities (Report No. CRESPAR-R-34). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, Center for Social Organization of Schools. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED429045)

    See more examples at: APA Reference Style: ERIC Documents  (Brigham Young U)


Gale databases (available at Northwestern University and other libraries):
    This example shows a citation for an article from a journal paginated by volume with 6 authors: :

    Burri, C., Nkunku, S., Merolle, A., Smith, T., Blum, J., & Brun, R. (2000). Efficacy of new, concise schedule for melarsoprol in treatment of sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense: A randomised trial. Lancet, 355, 1419-1425. Retrieved from Expanded Academic Index ASAP database.



JSTOR database:
    This example shows a citation for an article from a journal paginated by volume:

    Pearson, G. A. (1920). Factors controlling the distribution of forest types. Part II. Ecology, 1, 139-159. Retrieved from JSTOR database.



LexisNexis database:
    This example shows a newspaper article citation:

    Smith, R. (2000, June 8). A new dog in town, steel and sprouting. New York Times, p. E1. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database.



PsycINFO
    This example shows an article citation from a journal paginated by volume with 7 or more authors:

    Hoza, B., Mrug, S., Gerdes, A. C., Hinshaw, S. P., Bukowski, W. M., Gold, J. A., et al. (2005). What aspects of peer relationships are impaired in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 411-423. doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.73.3.411

    This example shows the same article retrieved as a PDF.
    It isn't necessary to give the database or DOI because the PDF is identical to the print version.

    Hoza, B., Mrug, S., Gerdes, A. C., Hinshaw, S. P., Bukowski, W. M., Gold, J. A., et al. (2005). What aspects of peer relationships are impaired in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 411-423.

    Here is an example of an HTML version of a journal article that is not available as a PDF and does not have a DOI:

    Kruger, S., & Kennedy, S. H. (2000). Psychopharmacotherapy of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 25, 497-501. Retrieved from PyscINFO database (2000-16809-006).



Article from a Journal's website:
    This example shows a citation for a PDF version of an article:

    Mellars, P. (2004). Neanderthals and the modern human colonization of Europe. Nature, 432, 461-465.

    This example shows a citation for the HTML version of the article with a DOI —see the note below on in-text citatons for articles without permanent page numbers:

    Mellars, P. (2004). Neanderthals and the modern human colonization of Europe. Nature, 432, 461-465. doi:10.1038/nature03103

    This example shows a citation for a PDF version of an article from a journal with 5 authors:

    Solvason, H. B., Harris, B., Zeifert, P., Flores, B. H., & Hayward, C. (2002). Psychological versus biological clinical interpretation: A patient with prion disease. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 528-537.


Google books

Wiki

    Electronic music. (October 19, 2009). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 23, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_music



Online Encyclopedia

    Buck, P. O. & Toro, P. A. (2004). Images of homelessness in the media. In D. Levinson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Homelessness. Retrieved August 12, 2009, from http://www.sage‑ereference.com​/homelessness/Article_n83.html



Online periodicals — Articles from online journals that do NOT have a print equivalent (Salon, Slate, Chicago Wilderness, etc.)


Websites and web pages

Images
(See also: Additional examples.)

    Images used in professional journals are typically the work of the authors, and so need no citation.
    Directly below is an example of a References list citation for an image found online and used in a student's research paper or presentation.
    Figure 1. B. pertussis¹ by
    J. L. Carson, 2003.
    Used with permission.

    Carson, J. L. (c. 2003). "B. pertussis." [Online image] In Three genomes and whooping cough, Genome News Network. Rockville Maryland: J. Craig Venter Institute. Retrieved from http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/09_03/ whooping_cough.php
    • Giving the address of the image without the address of the page on which it appeared is usually insufficient information.






    A footnote could be used to cite the same image:

    ¹ "B. Pertussis" [Online photograph], by J. L. Carson (c. 2003). Retrieved from http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/09_03/whooping_cough.php



    Frequently the figure caption includes all the necessary data:

    Figure 2. "Water lily [Nymphaeaceae] blooming in Saint Petersburg's Botanical Gardens, September 2005," by A. L. Olsen. Click image for larger version. Retrieved from the NBII (National Biological Information Infrastructure) Digital Image Library website, maintained by the Center for Biological Informatics of the U.S. Geological Survey, http://images.nbii​.gov/details.php?id=55510&cat=search%20results





Include the following information when citing a website in APA style:
  1. Author's last name and any initials (if available)
  2. Date of Internet publication or last revision, in parentheses, or put (n.d.).
  3. Title of document
  4. Title of complete work (if relevant), in italics or underlined
  5. Other relevant information (volume number, page numbers, etc.)
  6. Retrieval date if content is likely to change, e.g., a wiki
  7. URL; do not follow url with a period

A website without an author or date:

Title of the web page. (n.d.). Retrieved Month d, yyyy, from http://website.address.net

A website with a corporate author:

Name of Organization. (yyyy, Month d). Title of web page. Retrieved Month d, yyyy, from http://website.address.org

Special consideration when using APA style to cite web pages:
When citing an entire website, and not a specific document on that site, no Reference List entry is required if the address for the site is cited in the text of your paper.
Example:

The Association for Women in Mathematics site offers information on professional organizations and conferences (http://www.awm-math.org).




The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent alphanumeric reference assigned to the final, archived version of a journal article. When preceded by "http://dx.doi.org/" it becomes a permanent address to the article. When used in a reference and preceded by "doi:" this number takes the place of both the "Retrieved on" date and the database name. However, the Internet page linked to the DOI may not give access to the full text of the article, whereas the full text may be available via a subscription database. Therefore, you should follow the citation convention preferred by your instructor.

DOI look-up from crossref.org.


Full-text databases reproduce articles that orginally appeared in print elsewhere.
To cite such articles, the 5th edition of the Hacker guide says to include the following:
  1. Author's last name and any initials (if available)
  2. Date of article, in parentheses
  3. Title of article (only capitalize the first letter of the first word, proper nouns, and the first word of the subtitle after a colon)
  4. Title of journal/publication in which the article originally appeared, in italics or underlined
  5. Volume number (in italics)
  6. Issue number, (in parentheses) -- for journals paginated by issue
  7. Page number(s) of original article (if available)
  8. The phrase "Retrieved from" followed by the name of database (e.g., Academic Universe) and the number assigned to the article by the database
    or:
    Digital object identifier (DOI) statement

An article from a journal, paginated by issue, volume 3, issue 12, pages 9-29:

Author_last_name, F. M. (yyyy). Document title: Subtitle. Title of Journal, 3 (12), 9-29. Retrieved from Database Name database (123456789).

Or, using a digital object identifier number in place of the retrieval information:

Author_last_name, F. M. (yyyy). Document title: Subtitle. Title of Journal, 3 (12), 9-29. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2230.2002.01151.x



Page numbers for online articles
Use only fixed page numbers from a PDF; do not cite page numbers of an HTML printout.
If you cannot determine the number of the page on which your cited text appeared, you may designate the heading of the section and the number of the paragraph instead.

Use the abbreviation para.

Example for a reference to an online article titled Reading, writing, and numeracy — for which the PDF version is not available.
(This example is for the second through the seventh paragraphs of the a section, "Numeracy in everyday events"):
Numeracy is required to understand daily news reports such as the stock market, the weather, medical risk factors, sports scores, and statistical data related to politics, law, and society (Steen, 2005, Numeracy in everyday events, paras. 2 - 7) .

Multiple Authors
If there are 6 or more authors for a source, use the first author's name followed by "et al." for the in-text citation.
However, in the References list, only use et al. if there are 7 or more authors.


   For example, in the body of the paper:
Cukrowicz et al. (2006) found a tendency toward suicidal ideation among those who experienced nightmares or other disturbing dreams.

   But then in the Reference list:

Cukrowicz, K. C., Otamendi, A., Pinto, J. V., Bernert, R. A., Krakow, B., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. The impact of insomnia and sleep disturbances on depression and suicidality. Dreaming, 16, 1-10.


Read more about in-text citations:
      Duke University, Owl at Purdue, Owl: about multiple authors, and The Everyday Writer


Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2001.
Available at the Library Reference Desk (Rdy.Ref. BF 76.7 .P82 2001)

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. (6th ed.). (2010). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2010.
Available at the Library Reference Desk (Rdy.Ref. BF 76.7 .P83 2010)

Hacker, Diana. A pocket style manual. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2009.
Available at the Library Reference Desk (Rdy.Ref. PE 1408.H26 2009)



All examples are intended only to supplement Hacker's guide, A Pocket Style Manual, which is available at the Book Store and in the Library.
The reference librarians and the Writing Center (x5233)can help with citing sources.