English 4 Refencing Guide

APA Citation Style

APA citation style refers to the rules and conventions established by the American Psychological Association for documenting sources used in a research paper. APA style requires both in-text citations and a reference list. For every in-text citation there should be a full citation in the reference list and vice versa.

Reference Citations in Text

In APA style, in-text citations are placed within sentences and paragraphs so that it is clear what information is being quoted or paraphrased and whose information is being cited.

Examples:

Works by a single author

The last name of the author and the year of publication are inserted in the text at the appropriate point.

from theory on bounded rationality (Simon, 1945)

If the name of the author or the date appear as part of the narrative, cite only missing information in parentheses.

Simon (1945) posited that

 Works by multiple authors

When a work has two authors, always cite both names every time the reference occurs in the text. In parenthetical material join the names with an ampersand (&).

as has been shown (Leiter & Maslach, 1998)

In the narrative text, join the names with the word "and."

as Leiter and Maslach (1998) demonstrated

When a work has three, four, or five authors, cite all authors the first time the reference occurs.

Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler (1991) found

In all subsequent citations per paragraph, include only the surname of the first author followed by "et al." (Latin for "and others") and the year of publication.

Kahneman et al. (1991) found

Works by associations, corporations, government agencies, etc.

The names of groups that serve as authors (corporate authors) are usually written out each time they appear in a text reference.

(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2007)

When appropriate, the names of some corporate authors are spelled out in the first reference and abbreviated in all subsequent citations. The general rule for abbreviating...