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APA style uses a reference list at the end of the paper to provide the full details of the sources cited. Everything cited in the paper must appear in the reference list. Look at the following APA citations from Mizuki's psychology paper on the effects of media on body image and note the elements usually required when writing complete citations.
- Book with One Author
Format:
Author's Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. [Year]. Title of book. Place of Publication: Publisher.
Citation:Wegenstein, B. [2006]. Getting under the skin: The body and media theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Chapter from Edited Book
Format:
Chapter Author's Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. [Year]. Title of essay. In Editor First Initial. Middle Initial. Last Name [Ed.], Title of edited book [pp. Page Numbers of Chapter]. Place of Publication: Publisher.
Tiggemann, M. [2002]. Media influences on body image development. In T. F. Cash & T. Pruzinsky [Eds.], Body image: A handbook of theory, research, and clinical practice [pp. 91-98]. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
- Journal Article
- Magazine Articles
Format:
Author's Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. [Year, Month Day]. Article title. Magazine Title, Volume Number, Page Numbers.
Citation:Underwood, N. [2001 August 14]. Body envy. Maclean's, 113, 36-40.
- Web Sites
Format: Varies depending on what type document it is. The basic citation format includes:
Organization or Author's Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. [Publication Year, Month Day] Title of document. Print Publication Information. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL
- If the source does not have a date of publication, use [n.d.].
- If the publication has no author, begin with the title and then the date.
Format:
Author's Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. [Year]. Article title. Journal Title, Volume Number [Issue Number], Page Numbers. DOI
Citations:Schooler, D. [2008]. Real women have curves: A longitudinal investigation of TV and the body image development of Latina adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23, 132-153. doi:10.1177/0743558407310712
Grabe, S., Ward, L. M., & Hyde, J. S. [2008]. The role of the media in body image concerns among women: A meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 460-476. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.134.3.460
American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. [2007]. Report of the Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved April 12, 2008, from // www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualizationrep.pdf
You can list up to seven authors in the Reference list citation. Always invert every author name to position the surname first and any initials second. See examples above.
If you have more than seven authors, list the first six authors followed by an ellipsis and ending with the last author listed. Example: Johnson, M. C., Carlson, M., Hanover, L. E., Chan, X. H., Smith, J. N. H., Kim, H. B., ... Watson, J. M.
No Author:
Sometimes you will not know the author's exact name. If a source claims the author is "anonymous," then state the author as Anonymous.
If a source has no specific author but is the work of a larger group or organization, please follow the example below for group authors.
If a source provides Editor information instead of Author information, see the example below for editors.
If a source has no author listed, whether an individual or a group, do not include any author information, i.e. do not mark it as Anonymous. Instead list the source's Title first followed by the Date. In this case you are marking the Title as the citation's main identifying component, which is usually the Author. To cite this source in-text, provide the Title with the Date instead of the Author with the Date. See the for more information.
Group Author:
If an organization, institution, corporation, and/or agency is the author, provide the full name of the group, not its initials or acronym.
Order of Authors:
List authors according to the order they appear on the source. Do not alphabetize the names.
Similar Author Information:
If you are citing multiple items by the same author that were created the same year [e.g. multiple webpages on the same website], distinguish the sources by including letters in the Date information. See the for more information.
If you have different authors with the same last name and initials, include their given names in brackets. Example:
Jackson, S. [Samual].
Jackson, S. [Samantha].
Editors:
If a source [usually a book] provides only Editor information, list the editors in place of the author. You must include in parentheses Ed. or Eds. to distinguish the names as editors. Example: Marquez, J. C., & Henderson, H. [Eds.].
If you are citing an edited book [i.e. a book that includes multiple chapters by different authors], leave the Author information as the citation's main identifying component as described above. You should include the Editor information after the Title, but do not invert the editor's name. Example: Asher, J. W. [2003]. The rise to prominence: Educational psyhocology 1920-1960. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk [Eds.], Education psychology: A century of contributions, [pp. 189-205]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Punctuation:
If an author has a hyphen in his or her first name, use initials and maintain the hyphen in your citation. Example: Larson, J.-P. [for John-Paul Larson]