Guidelines for Building a Citation - APA
Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in the APA 6th Edition manual.
Each entry in your References usually contains the following information, in this order: author(s) or editor(s), date of publication, title of work, and publication data. There are specific rules around the formatting of each part of the citation. The general format is given below; refer to the APA Manual for more information.
Book Example: Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year). Title of the work: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher.
Author or Editor Information
Authors are listed by surname and initial(s). Use only the initial(s) of the author’s given name(s), not the full name (p.184), even when the full name is given.
If there is more than one author, use commas to separate them. For 2 to 7 authors, use an ampersand (&) before the last author. For 8 or more authors, refer to the APA Manual (pp. 174-177).
If there is no author, move the title to the author position, before the date of publication (p. 176).
In a reference to an edited book, place the editor(s) name in the author position, with the abbreviation Ed. or Eds. in parentheses after the last editor's name (p. 184).
Date of Publication
Give the year that the work was published, in parentheses, followed by a period (p. 185).
If no date is available, write n.d. in parentheses, followed by a period (p. 185).
Title of Work
Capitalize only the first word of the title (and subtitle if given) and any proper nouns (p. 185).
Italicize the title of a book or periodical. Do not italicize the title of a chapter within a book or an article within a periodical (p. 185).
Include any additional information needed for identification of the work (e.g. an edition statement) in parentheses immediately after the title (p. 185).
Publication Data
For books, give the location of the publisher, followed by the name of the publisher (pp. 186-187).
Example:
Location: Name of Publisher.
For periodicals, give the volume number after the periodical title. Italicize the volume number, but do not use the abbreviation Vol. before the number. For more information about periodicals (e.g. issue number, page numbers), refer to the APA Manual (p. 186).
