In this section, we have guidelines and examples on how to reference the more common source types that you may need to reference at Augusta University.
Our guidelines and examples are drawn from chapters 10 and 11 of the APA Manual, 7th edition.
To use this section:
If you are unsure about what source type you have, or how to follow the structure, then contact us - we are happy to help!
Citation generators like the Cite feature in GALILEO and citation management software and applications like EndNote and Zotero are very handy technological aids for creating reference entries (we use them!). But note just that - an aid. They are not always accurate. Sometimes they are -- but not always.
You still need to double-check each citation that you generate or export/import into a citation management application and check it for formatting accuracy against the APA Style Publication Manual or authoritative guides such as this one.
If you suspect that the citation generated is incomplete or inaccurate in content, e.g., the citation appears to be missing a volume or issue number, there is no ending page for a journal article, one of the author's names is not quite right, etc., then cross-reference the citation against the information that is on the full-text of the work. If you are still unsure, then consult an AU librarian.
So many students have lost points, and so many prospective authors have had their manuscripts rejected and had to resubmit, because they relied on the citation generator only and did not make corrections to the reference entries.
In APA Style, the author refers broadly to the person(s) or group(s) responsible for a work. An author may be
This element incorporates not only authors of articles, books, reports, and other works but also others who played a main role in the creation of a work, such as editors of books, directors of films, principal investigators of grants, podcast hosts, and so on.
When you cannot identify who the author is, treat the work as having no author.
| Author type | How you format it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| One author | Author, A. A. | deLara, E. W. (2022). |
| Two authors | Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. | Edmondson, A. C., & Mortensen, M. (2021). |
| Three - 20 authors | Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. | Cruden, G., Crawford, S., & Saldana, L. (2021). |
|
21 or more authors |
Supply the surnames and initials for the first 20 authors, followed by elipses, and then the last author |
Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T., Lewis, F., Lee, L. H., Cox, G., Harris, H. L., Martin, P., Gonzalez, W. L., Hughes, W., Carter, D., Campbell, C., Baker, A. B., Flores, T., Gray, W. E., Green, G., … Nelson, T. P. (2018). |
| Group author |
Group Author as you See it
|
National Institute on Aging. (2022). |
| Author that is an editor |
Editor, E. E. (Ed.). Author, E. E., & Author F. F. (Eds.). |
Akgül, O. (Ed.). (2020). Gaete, A., & Gómez, V. (Eds.). (2019). |
| Author of a chapter in an edited book |
Author, A. A., (YYYY). In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Author, A. A., (YYYY). In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), |
Kirsner, D. (2019). In R. A. Goodrich & A. M. McCulloch (Eds.), |
| Author with a hyphenated first name | Author, A.-B. | Condon, J.-B. (2021). |
| Author with hyphenated or two-part surnames | Write the author's last name as it appears on the published work. |
Juárez-Olguín., H. (2018). Le Menestrel, S. (2020). |
| Author with unconventional capitalization | Retain the author's preferred capitalization. |
hooks, b. van der Waal, P. N. |
| Author chosen to be anonymous |
Anonymous. (YYYY). Only do this for authors that denote themselves as anonymous, not for works that you cannot identify an author. For these situations, treat the author as having no author - see the "Missing Elements" for how. |
Anonymous. (1981). |
If there is no author for a resource or an entry within a resource -- substitute the title in the position of the author.
Title of work. (Year of publication). Rest of reference entry.
Pseudoscientific and unconventional theories. (2006). In J. E. Roeckelein (Ed.). Elsevier's dictionary of psychological theories. Elsevier Science & Technology.
Then, substitute an approximate date in parentheses, placing ca. in front of the year, e.g. (ca. 2019).
Author, A. A. (ca. year). Rest of reference entry.
Author, A. A. (n.d.). Rest of reference entry.
Moore, K. (ca. 2019). Rare bird [Photograph series]. Lensculture. https://www.lensculture.com/2020-lensculture-portrait-award-winners?modal=kevin-moore-the-winner-of-portrait-awards-2020
Browne, J. D. (n.d.). Forensic science as a career. Tower.
When a work stands alone (e.g., a report), the title of that work appears in the title element of the reference. When a work is part of a greater whole (e.g., a journal article -- is part of a journal; an edited book chapter is part of a book; a webpage is part of a website), the title of the article or chapter appears in the title element of the reference, and the title of the greater whole (e.g., the journal, edited book, or website), appears in the source element.
Below is a table of examples of works that stand alone and works that are part of a greater whole. Note that this is not an exhaustive list.
| Examples of works that stand alone | Examples of works part of a greater whole |
|---|---|
|
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When the title of the work cannot be determined, treat the work as having no title.
Follow these guidelines in the table below to format the title element for these common cases. Additional guidelines for less common situations are provided in the Publication Manual.
| Author type | How you format it & Examples |
|---|---|
| For works that are part of a greater whole (e.g., journal articles, edited book chapters) |
Capitalize the title using sentence case. Do not italicize the title or use quotation marks around it. Happy fish in little ponds: Testing a reference group model of achievement and emotion. |
| For works that stand alone (e.g., books, reports, websites) |
Italicize the title, and capitalize it using sentence case. Becoming brilliant: What science tells us about raising successful children. |
|
For works that have extra information, like:
|
Enclose edition information, report numbers, and volume numbers in parentheses after the title. Do not add a period between the title and the parenthetical information. Do not italicize the parenthetical information. If both edition and volume information are included, separate these elements with a comma, placing the edition number first. The psychology of music (3rd ed.). Nursing: A concept-based approach to learning (2nd ed., Vol. 1). |
|
When a numbered volume has its own title |
Include the volume number and title are included as part of the main title, rather than in parentheses. APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology: Vol. 1. Building and developing the organization. |
| When the title ends in a different punctuation mark other than a period |
That punctuation mark replaces the period. Late-onset unexplained epilepsy: What are we missing? |
To help identify works outside the peer-reviewed academic literature (i.e., works other than articles, books, reports, etc.), provide a description of the work in square brackets after the title and before the period. Capitalize the first letter of the description, but do not italicize the description.
Comprehensive meta-analysis (Version 3.3.070) [Computer software].
Examples of works that include bracketed descriptions include:
Bracketed descriptions are also used in social media references to indicate attached links or images.
The examples in the Publication Manual and on the reference examples page include bracketed descriptions where they are needed. When in doubt, include a description. Consistency of wording is helpful, but you may alter the wording shown in the examples to best convey the information readers need to understand the nature of the work.
Sentence case and title case are types of capitalization. Other common types of capitalization you might have heard of include lower case and upper case.
APA Style uses these two types of capitalization for titles of works, such as paper titles, and headings within works.
Knowing when and how to apply sentence case or title case is imperative for following APA Style correctly. Read the tabs to learn about each case and how to implement them.
In sentence case, you capitalize the sentence (i.e., you start with a capital letter) and then have most of the major and minor words in lowercase. Proper nouns are an exception as you always capitalize them. If the sentence includes a subtitle, then you capitalize the subtitle.
Format: Sentence case: More of the sentence case
In sentence case, capitalize the start of the sentence and have the rest of it in lowercase unless you need to capitalize a particular word or few. Keep abbreviations and acronyms as you see them - don't change their case, e.g. write USA, not usa. Capitalize only the following words:
Use sentence case for the particular work itself that you are citing in your reference list entry, even if the title case was used in the original work. For example, the titles of:
Make sure that you are using sentence case for the particular work itself that you are referring to and use title case for the source that the work belongs to (if it belongs to anything).
For example:
Format: Title Case
In title case, major words are capitalized, and most minor words are lowercase.
You capitalize the major words, and use lowercase for most minor words:
This guidance has been expanded from the 6th edition.
In title case, capitalize the following words in a title or heading:
Use lowercase for only minor words that are three letters or fewer in a title or heading (except the first word in a title or subtitle or the first word after a colon, em dash, or end punctuation in a heading):
Use title case for the following when creating your reference entries:
Use title case for the following when writing your paper:
Because so much scholarship is available and/or retrieved online, most reference list entries end with either a DOI (digital object identifier) or a URL (uniform resource locator).
A URL specifies the location of digital information on the internet and can be found in the address bar of your internet browser. URLs in references should link directly to the cited work when possible.
APA Style's first preference is to cite the DOI (digital object identifier). If there is a DOI, then provide that in your reference entry.
General rule of thumb: If the resource does not have a DOI, then only cite the URL if it is freely accessible, i.e. not from a password-protected database.
Include the name of the database and the URL to the work if it is from the following contexts -
DOI: https://doi.org/xxxx
URL: http://xxxx