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American Psychological Association (APA) Citation Style Guide

The purpose of this guide is to instruct users on some of the rules of the American Psychological Association (APA) Citation Style.

APA Formatting Rules

APA Formatting Rules

  • Entries should be organized alphabetically by the first author.
  • The second line of each entry should be indented, and you do this by using hanging indentation. To learn how to do this, click on the video below.
  • An author's name should include their last name and first and middle initial. 
  • For volumes where every issue begins with page one, make sure you include the issue number in parentheses. Ex: 44(6)
  • For volumes where issues continue the numeration from the previous issue (ex. issue 1 contains pages 1-150, issue 2 contains pages 151-300), you do not have to include the issue.
  • When there are multiple works by the same author, you organize entries chronologically with the earliest entry first. 
  • The journal or book title needs to be italicized. 
  • Only the first word of the title and subtitle should be capitalized, the rest should be lower case.
  • APA uses full journal titles, not title abbreviations used in other citation styles like AMA.

How to Create a Hanging Indent

Example Reference List