Last Updated: 12/26/2004
 

The American Psychological Association system of internal notation does not use either footnotes at the bottom of the page or endnotes. Instead, the author's last name is inserted after the sentence in which their material has been used. At the end of the sentence place a bracket and inside it place the author's last name, year the book or article was published, and the page(s) cited: e.g. (Author, year. page).

1A: Basic rule for using APA citations
Example sentence with citation:
Community correctional programs have expanded to include victim-oriented programs such as community service and restitution (McCarthy and McCarthy, 1982, p. 47).

1B: Note: The only variation on this form occurs whenever the author's name is being used in the sentence itself. In that case place the bracket immediately after the author's name and place inside it only the year and page number(s).

Example sentence when author's name is used in sentence itself:
McCarthy and McCarthy (1982, p. 56) have criticized the use of diversion because it has not resulted in the decline of prison populations.

2: If you have more than one source by the same author published in the same year, designate them by placing a, b, c, etc. after the year in the citation (and also after the year in your listing of the article or book on the reference page).

Examples: (Cohen, 1984a, p. 56) (Cohen, 1984b, p.47)

3: Articles with no author listed can be cited using the name of the publication (e.g. St. Petersburg Times or TIME) or organization (e.g. National Institute of Mental Health) that published the material.

Examples: (TIME, 1990b, p. 35) (NIMH, 1987, p 78)

4: Legal cases are cited using the name of the case and the year the case was decided.
Example: The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of California's 3 strike law (Ewing v. California, 2003, pp. 997-1002).

5: For interviews, list the person's last name inside the citation brackets (unless you have used their name in the sentence itself). For example, an interview with Gov. Lawton Chiles would be cited: (Chiles, 1991).

6: Articles by an author(s) that are part of a larger collection (book or journal) edited by another author(s) should be cited by using the name(s) of the actual writer(s) of the article used, not the editor(s).

Note: Every citation within the body of the paper must have a matching source on the reference page. In addition, all sources listed on the reference page must be cited at least once within the text or they can not be counted as legitimate sources. The reference page is not a reading list of books and articles used as background reading for the paper

Note: Never list a URL within an internal citation. Use author of the Web reference, and if author is not available the Web site's publisher/webmaster. Thus, for the Frederickson on-line article listed in the bibliography below, the internal citation is (Frederickson, 2000) , not the URL.

When should a citation be used?

(1) All direct quotes must be cited. In addition, they must be either placed inside quotations marks, or, if a lengthy quote, indented using single spacing.

(2) Even when you have translated an author's words into your own (which you should make every effort to do), you must still give them credit by including a citation. When an entire paragraph of material is based on one author's ideas, you only need place one citation at the end of the paragraph. Exceptions to this rule follow in (3) and (4).

(3) All statistics that are cited require a citation immediately following the sentence in which they appear.

(4) All historical events and dates mentioned require a citation.

Note: A good rule of thumb to follow is to first assume that each sentence requires a citation. Then go through your rough draft again and decide which sentences don't need citations. For example, there is no need to cite your own thoughts or material that you have found discussed in many sources and is therefore common knowledge. (e.g. George Washington was the first president of the United States.)

What constitutes plagiarism?

Using others words as if they are your own may constitute plagiarism, an unethical and illegal act. The following are clear examples of plagiarism:

(1) Using directly quoted material without placing it within quotations marks (or indenting and single spacing the quote).

(2) Paraphrasing the work of an author and attempting to pass it off as your own by not including a citation.

(3) Submitting the work of another student (including papers purchased from college term paper companies) as if it is your own.

Plagiarism is a serious matter and will not be tolerated. The penalty will be left up the instructor's discretion, but may range from being asked to rewrite the paper (for minor violations) up to and including failure in the course for major plagiarism violations.

The way to avoid plagiarism is to paraphrase material and include a citation. The section below, direct quoted from Indiana University explains how to paraphrase. For more visit:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml#original

How to Recognize Unacceptable and Acceptable Paraphrases

Here’s the ORIGINAL text, from page 1 of Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890s by Joyce Williams et al.:

The rise of industry, the growth of cities, and the expansion of the population were the three great developments of late nineteenth century American history. As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers, and provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants. With industry came urbanization the growth of large cities (like Fall River, Massachusetts, where the Bordens lived) which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade.

Here’s an UNACCEPTABLE paraphrase that is plagiarism:

The increase of industry, the growth of cities, and the explosion of the population were three large factors of nineteenth century America. As steam-driven companies became more visible in the eastern part of the country, they changed farm hands into factory workers and provided jobs for the large wave of immigrants. With industry came the growth of large cities like Fall River where the Bordens lived which turned into centers of commerce and trade as well as production.

What makes this passage plagiarism?

The preceding passage is considered plagiarism for two reasons:

If you do either or both of these things, you are plagiarizing.

NOTE: This paragraph is also problematic because it changes the sense of several sentences (for example, "steam-driven companies" in sentence two misses the original’s emphasis on factories).

Here’s an ACCEPTABLE paraphrase:

Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. Steam-powered production had shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, and as immigrants arrived in the US, they found work in these new factories. As a result, populations grew, and large urban areas arose. Fall River was one of these manufacturing and commercial centers (Williams 1).

Why is this passage acceptable?

This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer:

Here’s an example of quotation and paraphrase used together, which is also ACCEPTABLE:

Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. As steam-powered production shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, the demand for workers "transformed farm hands into industrial laborers," and created jobs for immigrants. In turn, growing populations increased the size of urban areas. Fall River was one of these hubs "which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade" (Williams 1).

Why is this passage acceptable?

This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer:

Note that if the writer had used these phrases or sentences in her own paper without putting quotation marks around them, she would be PLAGIARIZING. Using another person’s phrases or sentences without putting quotation marks around them is considered plagiarism EVEN IF THE WRITER CITES IN HER OWN TEXT THE SOURCE OF THE PHRASES OR SENTENCES SHE HAS QUOTED.

How to write bibliographic citations for the reference page:

1. Books:

Author(s). (Year). Title of book. ** City of Publication: Publisher.

**underlined or in italics**

Note: Only the first word of the title (and subtitle) or articles, book chapters, and books should be capitalized. Also, proper nouns. e.g. United States.

Example:

McCarthy, B., & B. McCarthy. (1982). Community-based corrections in the United States. Los Angeles: Brooks/Cole Publishing.

2. Chapter from an edited book:

Author of chapter. (Year). Title of chapter. In Editor(s) of book (ed.) Title of book (pp. ??-??). City of Publication: Publisher.

Example:

Davis, J. M. (1981). Organic therapies. In H.I. Kaplan,  A.M. Freedman, & B. Sadock (Eds.). Comprehensive handbook of criminal justice (pp. 90-111). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

3. Journal Articles:

Author(s). (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal. vol (no.), page numbers.

Example:

Anderson, K. (1990). Discretion in police work. American Policing. 34(2), 1-10.

Note that journal titles keeps first letter of each important word as a capital. Article title is not italicized, while the journal title is.

4. Newspaper Articles:

Author(s). (Year, Date). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. p. ??.

Example:

Marbin, C. (1990, October 7). Joe Redner's club closed: Out of work dancers become hot dog venders. St. Petersburg Times. p. A3.

5. Legal Cases:

Ewing v. California. (2003). 123 S. Ct. 1179.
Note: Citation itself includes Volume,  Reporter name and page number case starts on.

6. Interviews:

Interviewee. Their Title. (Year). Interviewed by ??. Date. Place.

Example:

Chiles, L. Governor of Florida. (1991). Interviewed by Cecil Greek July 4. Tallahassee.

7. Media Sources: (TV programs, movies, radio broadcasts, etc.)

Basic Format:

Name (Producer), and Name (Director). (Year). Title of film, television program, etc [Type of media]. City: Name of Company that made the program.

Examples:

(1) Movie:

Schwartz, H. (Producer), & Adams, J. (Director). (2003). Friday the thirteenth, part 34: Freddy Kreuger meets Jason [Motion picture]. Hollywood: Columbia Pictures.

Hint: Best place to get this information is the Internet Movie Database at http://www.imdb.com

(2) TV Series

(3) Episode of a TV Series

Note: Each episode of a TV series cited in a paper must be listed separately.

HInt: good place to get this information are on-line TV episode guides such as http://epguides.com/

(4) TV news broadcast.

Jones, B. (Producer), and Flash, S. (Director). (1991). Eyewitness news. August 10. Tampa: TV 10.

8. Electronic Sources (including WWW).

http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

General Form for Electronic References

Note: Some elements of the 5th edition's style guidelines for electronic resources differ from previously published guidelines.

Electronic sources include aggregated databases, online journals, Web sites or Web pages, newsgroups, Web- or e-mail-based discussion groups, and Web- or e-mail-based newsletters.

Online periodical:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (2000). Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx, xxxxxx. Retrieved month day, year, from source. Include URL.

Online document:

Author, A. A. (2000). Title of work. Retrieved month day, year, from source. Include URL

Example:

Bickel, B. (2000). American skin (41 shots): Bruce and Amadou. Retrieved May 22, 2003, from http://crime.about.com/library/weekly/aa061400a.htm

Note: For other Internet resources, see the APA Electronic References page.

Note: Web URLs can never be used as internal citations in APA format.

To answer any other questions concerning citations, bibliography, spelling, punctuation, abbreviations, hyphenation, etc., please see:

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American psychological society. (5th ed.). Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.

Sample Reference Page **

A. Books and Articles

Blomberg, T. (1977). Diversion and accelerated social control. Journal of Criminal Law. 21(4), 37-50.

Cohen, S. (1984a). The future of social control. NY: Oxford University Press.

Cohen, S. (1984b). Folk devils and moral panics: A history of the "mods" and "rockers." London: Palidin Press.

Davis, J. M. (1981). Organic therapies. In H.I. Kaplan, A.M. Freedman, and B. Sadock (Eds.). Comprehensive handbook of criminal justice. (pp. 90-111). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Ewing v. California. (2003). 123 S. Ct. 1179.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2000, March 7). Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and well-being. Prevention & Treatment, 3, Article 0001a. Retrieved November 20, 2000, from http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre0030001a.html

Marbin, C. (1990, October 7). Joe Redner's club closed: Out of work dancers become hot dog venders. St. Petersburg Times. p. A3.

McCarthy, B. & B. McCarthy. (1982). Community-based corrections. Los Angeles: Brooks/Cole Publishing.

St. Petersburg Times. (1990a, March 7). New problems with house arrest. p.C4.

St. Petersburg Times. (1990b, April 7). Diversion is not working. p. A1.

B. Interviews

Chiles, L. Governor of Florida. (1991). Interviewed by Cecil Greek. July 4. Tallahassee.

C. Media Sources

Black, D. (producer). (2001). 100 centre street [Television series]. NY: A&E TV Network.

Jones, B. (Producer), and S. Flash (Director). (1991). Eyewitness news. August 10. Tampa: TV 10.

Schwartz, H. (Producer), and Adams, J. (Director). (2003). Friday the thirteenth, part 34: Freddy Kreuger meets Jason. Hollywood: Columbia Pictures.

** Note: Bibliography must be alphabetized.
 

Second line of each citation should be indented 5 spaces. In Word you can use the "hanging indent" feature to quickly set up the entire references page in  this way.

 

Any other questions concerning style or format should be referred to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th. edition, 2001).) For other Internet resources such as email, chat sessions, inc., see the APA Electronic References page.

Hint: There is software available (EndNote) to automatically construct reference pages in APA (or any other of the commonly used formats.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Protect yourself. Rewrite all material in your own words or put materials in direct quotes.