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Citation Style Guides

A guide covering information regarding citation styles and where to find more information on them.

What is APA?

APA Style originated in 1929, when a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers convened and sought to establish a simple set of procedures, or style guidelines, that would codify the many components of scientific writing to increase the ease of reading comprehension. They published their guidelines as a seven-page article in Psychological Bulletin describing a “standard of procedure, to which exceptions would doubtless be necessary, but to which reference might be made in cases of doubt” (Bentley et al., 1929, p. 57). (Source: APA Style Website)

APA Citation Examples

Various examples of resource citations using APA

Resource Type

In-text Citation

Bibliography/ Works Cited

Book (Jackson, 2019; Sapolsky, 2017; Svendsen & Løber, 2020)

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000

Chapter in an edited book

(If the chapter is from an authored book, use the book citation)

(Aron et al., 2019; Dillard, 2020; Thestrup, 2010) Aron, L., Botella, M., & Lubart, T. (2019). Culinary arts: Talent and their development. In R. F. Subotnik, P. Olszewski-Kubilius, & F. C. Worrell (Eds.), The psychology of high performance: Developing human potential into domain-specific talent (pp. 345–359). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000120-016
Article in a print journal (Grady et al., 2019) Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture8(3), 207–217.
Article in an electronic journal (Grady et al., 2019) Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
Website (Bologna, 2019; Roberts, 2020; Toner, 2020) Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e

APA Citation Resources

APA Style Official Website

An American Psychology Association hosted website with information on APA citation and related resources.

APA Style Official Reference Examples

Examples of the most common works that writers cite.

O.W.L. at Purdue Writing Lab

Online writing lab with formatting tips and sample papers. The "Cite your source automatically" feature on Purdue Owl pages is part of another website, and not recommended.

Excelsior Online Writing Lab

Citation examples, videos, and formatting guides for MLA, APA, and Chicago styles.