APA Style Guide

Works Cited or a Bibliography at the end of your paper lets people know where you found your information and allows you to give credit to ideas and quotations you've used in your work. Be sure to check with your teacher/instructor as to which Style Guide to follow.

Citing Print Sources

Format:

Author (Last name, First name). (Year). Title. Place: Publisher.

Examples:

Book

Speck, D.C. (1998). The pleasure of the crown. Burnaby, BC, Canada: Talonbooks.

Book With 2 Or 3 Authors

Foster, B.C., & Tisdell, C.A. (1986). Economics in Canadian society. Toronto, ON, Canada: Wiley.

Book With An Editor

Treat, J.W. (Ed.). (1996). Contemporary Japan and popular culture. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

Essay Or Chapter In A Book

Keating, N.C. (1992). Older rural Canadians. In D.A. Hay (Ed.), Rural sociology in Canada (pp. 134-154). Toronto, ON, Canada: Oxford University Press.

Signed Article Daily Newspaper

Staples, S. (2005, December 8). A 'quantum' leap in communication. Ottawa Citizen, pp. A1, A10.

Citing Electronic Sources

Format:

Author (Date or "n.d" if not dated). Title of document. (if given). Retrieved from <URL>

Examples:

Website

Anderson, D. (2002, May 1). Social constructionism and MOOs. Retrieved from http://sites.unc.edu/~daniel/social_constructionism

Online Book

Shotton, M. A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency. [DX Reader version]. Retrieved from <URL>

Electronic Journal Article (with Digital Object Identifier [DOI])

Herbst-Damm, K. L. & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225

Electronic Journal Article (when DOI is not available)

Wissink, J.A. (2000). Techniques of smoking cessation. Adolescent Medicine, 2, 15-22. Retrieved from <URL>

Online Newspaper

York, G. (2003, June 9). Chinese waters rising higher. Globe and Mail. Retrieved from <URL>

Blogs

P. Z. Myers (2007, January 22). The unfortunate prerequisites and consequences of partioning your mind [Web log post] Retrieved from <URL>

Wikis

Psychometric assessment. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Psychology Wiki: <URL>

Audio Podcast

Van Nuys, D. (Producer). (2006, October 13). Understanding autism [Show 54]. Shrink Rap Radio. Podcast retrieved from <URL>

Video Weblog Post (YouTube)

Norton, R. (2006, November 4). How to train a cat to operate a light switch [Video file]. Retrieved from <URL>

Citing Other Sources

Format

Lecturer, A. (Date). Lecture number: Title of lecture [Format]. Retrieved from <URL>

Examples

Lecture

Etches-Johnson, A. (2007). Lecture 1: Library research for communication studies [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from <http://library.mcmaster.ca/instruction/CMST1B03_Library_Session.pdf>

Music

lang, k. d. (2008). Shadow and the frame. On Watershed [CD]. New York, NY: Nonesuch Records.

Film Or Video Recording

American Psychological Association (Producer). (2000). Responding therapeutically to patient expressions of sexual attraction [DVD]. Available from <URL>

Personal Communication

Cite information from your own personal notes from a lecture as a personal communication and refer to it only in the body of your essay.

Example

(P. Smith, personal communication, November, 16, 2002)

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association This guide is based on the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2010). The examples above are from the APA Style Guide by McMaster University Library and are used with permission.