APA DOCUMENTATION 

Papers in social sciences departments are generally written following American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. Documenting your sources gives credit to previous researchers whose work you are using in your paper. It also allows your readers to go to the source of your information if they wish to do more reading on the topic. You will document your source in two places: immediately after you use borrowed information and in a “References” page at the end of your paper. The following information is from Rules for Writers, by Diana Hacker.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS

For in-text citations, use the author’s last name and the year. Include a page number for direct quotations. Begin an in-text citation with a signal phrase, which uses the author’s name followed by the year in parenthesis. The page number goes in parenthesis at the end of the sentence -- but before the period. If the author’s name is not in the signal phrase, then include all information in parentheses at the end of the quote or paraphrase: (author, year, p. #)

Format for a Quotation:
Humphrey (1959) insisted that “dancers love to suffer, and while they wallow in tragedy, they alienate and bore their audiences” (p. 40). 

Format for a Paraphrase: (page numbers are not necessary but can be used to help the reader locate the passage)
The modern dance pioneer believed that many literary themes were inappropriate for dance because key relationships and ideas could not be succinctly portrayed to the audience (Humphrey, 1959).

A work with two authors:
Use both authors’ last names each time you cite the work. Use “and” in a signal phrase or “&”in parentheses.

Stolerman and O’Connor (1986) argue that it is better for a writer to discuss a narrow aspect of a large topic in detail than to attempt to discuss loose generalizations (p.4).

A work with three to five authors:
Use all authors’ names the first time you cite their work. In following citations, only use the first author’s name followed by the phrase “et al” (Latin for “and others”).

Eggen, Kauchak, and Harder define a hypothesis as “a tentative generalizing inference which is based upon the data available at the moment” (p.27).

Secondary source:

Sometimes your source will quote another source. When this happens, use the full name of the original author in your signal phrase. At the end of the quote or paraphrase, follow this format: (as cited in Myers, 2003, p. 57).

Corporate author/government agency author:
Treat a corporate author (for example: Centers for Disease Control) as you would a human author. If the group has a familiar abbreviation, you can abbreviate by following these guides:  First citation: (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2002)  Subsequent citations: (CDC, 2002)

Source with no author and no date: Use the first few words of the title and a comma in quotations, then the abbreviation n.d. for “no date.” 

One study shows that panda bears are not truly nocturnal creatures at all (“Observing Pandas in China,” n.d.).

REFERENCES

Your references page should have the title “References” centered at the top of the page. References should be double-spaced and alphabetized by last name. If you have two works by the same author, further alphabetize those works by title. Italicize book titles and subtitles, but only capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle. Use p. or pp. to indicate page numbers in newspaper articles and items in edited books, but not for articles in magazines and journals.

Book

Blom, L.& Chaplin, L. (1982). The intimate act of choreography.
     Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Book with editor(s) and no author

Barr, R. & Eversole, J. (Eds.). (2003). The fire chief’s handbook.
     Tulsa, OK: Fire Engineering/PennWell Corp.

Article or chapter in an edited book

Solomon, W. (1995). The site of newsroom labor: The division of editorial
     practices. In H. Hardt & B. Brennen (Eds.), Newsworkers: Toward a
     history of the rank and file (pp. 110-134). Minneapolis: University of
     Minneapolis Press.

Article in a journal paginated by volume (page numbers continue throughout year from issue to issue)

Boivin, J. (2003). A review of psychosocial interventions in infertility.
     Social Science and Medicine, 57, 2325-2343.   (Note: This reference
     includes the volume number (57), but does not need the issue
     number.)

Article in a journal paginated by issue

Heng, G. (1998). Cannibalism, the first crusade, and the genesis of
     medieval romance. Differences-A Journal of Feminist Cultural
     Studies, 10(1), 98-175.  (Note: Volume number comes first and
     is in italics.)

Article from a database

Palmer-Fornarola, J. (2003). Teaching tools: Dance history in the
     classroom. Dance Teacher, 25(1), 93-96. Retrieved November 26,
     2003, from International Index to the Performing Arts database
     (00202087).

Non-periodical Web document

Mikuriya, Tod. (n.d.). Physical, mental, and moral effects of marijuana:
     The Indian hemp drugs commission report. Retrieved November 26,
     2003, from http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/ library/effects.htm

Article from an online periodical

Ratcliffe, H. (2004, January 15). Money troubles. [Electronic version].
     St. Louis Post-Dispatch, pp. A1, A8.

Non-periodical documents on the internet: Stand-alone document, no author identified, no date

Title. (n.d.). Retrieved month day, year, from http://website

Pandamania. (n.d.). Retrieved January 4, 2006, from
     http://www.pandamaniadc.org/home.html

FOR FURTHER GUIDANCE

Obviously there are many more variations, in both print and electronic resources. For further help with electronic sources, see our handout titled “Citing Electronic Resources.” For full documentation guidelines, consult the APA Publication Manual , Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker or visit www.dianahacker.com/rules or http://dianahacker.com/writersref

by Leslie Cantu, February 2004
Updated January 2007