This information follows the 7th edition of the APA (American Psychological Association) format. Articles, books, and other supporting documents are cited in the reference list at the end of an APA style paper and in the text of the paper itself whenever information or ideas from the supporting documents are used. The author’s last name and the date of publication are used in the text to refer readers back to the correct supporting document in the reference list.

Example with One Author

Giovanni (2015) found that rates of depression have increased.

OR

Rates of depression have increased (Giovanni, 2015).

If not used in the text, add the author’s name to a set of parentheses at the end of the sentence and separate the name and the year with a comma. You may mix these methods throughout your paper, but do not use both in the same sentence unless your meaning is unclear.

Example with Two Authors

Lee and Holder (2013) showed an increase in well-being. . .

OR

. . . an increase in well-being occurred (Lee & Holder, 2013).

Link the authors with an “and” in the text and an ampersand “&” in the parentheses.

Example with Three or More Authors

Always use the first author’s name followed by “et al.” even for the first mention. Garza et al. (2017) OR (Garza et al., 2017)

Using a Direct Quotation

If you are directly quoting from the source, make sure to include a page number.

“I am the greatest” (Ali, 1963, p. 193) OR According to Ali (1963), “I am the greatest” (p. 193).

Citation Information for a Book

APA (American Psychological Association) format is frequently used for research in the social, health, and physical sciences. This information follows the 7th edition of the APA format.
To create a citation for a book in APA format, first locate the title page of the book. The book title, the author, and the publisher are found here (left image.)
The copyright page (right image) is on the back of the title page. You will find the year of publication here and the place of publication if it is not on the title page itself.

Use the author’s full last name and first and middle initials if given. Titles are italicized with only the first letter of the main title, the first letter of the subtitle if there is one, and any proper nouns capitalized.
The publisher name can be shortened, but make sure to keep the words “Books” or “Press” if included in the publisher name.
Citation Information for a Journal Article
This information follows the 7th edition of the APA format. To create an APA citation for a journal article, locate the first page of the article.

• Authors: Put the last name first and use initials for first and middle names if given. Include all authors if fewer than 21 authors are listed.
• Article Title: Capitalize all proper nouns and the first letter of the title and the subtitle.
• Journal Title: Italicize and capitalize each word.
• Journal Volume: Italicize
• Journal Issue Number: Include in parentheses if given.
• Pages: Include the pages for the entire article.
• DOI: A digital object identifier (DOI) should be included instead of a URL if the DOI is given. Copy and paste this exactly as listed on the journal page. If a DOI is not given, do not use a URL if you retrieved the article from a library database. Do not include a period after the URL or DOI.

Citation Information for a Government Webpage
This information follows the 7th edition of the APA format. To create an APA citation for a page on a government website, look for the information on the top of the page. If you do not find what you need, check the bottom of the page as well.

• Author: Use a person if given. Otherwise, use the most specific agency as the author.
• Page Title: Capitalize all proper nouns and the first letter of the title and the subtitle. Italicize the whole title.
• Website Source: The parent agencies not listed as the author go here. Federal agencies are set up like family trees. The main parent agency (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) has many smaller agencies under it, such as the National Institutes of Health. The author agency is one of the many smaller agencies that make up the National Institutes of Health.
• URL: Copy the URL exactly. To make your citation neater, you can break it wherever it makes

sense to go to the next line. Do not include a period after the URL.

Tarrant County College Libraries How to Document Sources in APA Style, 7th Edition

Printable Documents

The following printable resources (Word and PDF) offer examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.

Print Book
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the official APA style guide.