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APA 6th Edition Citation Style: Reference list: Author (s)

Referencing Rules for Authors

  • Last name first, followed by author initials.

 

Example:
Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 7-10.
  • List by their last names and initials. Use the ampersand instead of "and."

 

Example:
Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048.
  • List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, while the last author name is preceded again by ampersand.

 

Example:
Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., Harlow, T., & Bach, J. S. (1993). There's more to self-esteem than whether it is high or low: The importance of stability of self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1190-1204.
  • List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the sixth author's name, use an ellipsis in place of the author names. Then provide the final author name. There should be no more than seven names.

 

Examples:
Miller, F. H., Choi, M. J., Angeli, L. L., Harland, A. A., Stamos, J. A., Thomas, S. T., . . . Rubin, L. H. (2009). Web site usability for the blind and low-vision user. Technical Communication, 57, 323-335.
  • Simply treat the organization the same way you'd treat the author's name and format the rest of the citation as normal.

 

Example:
American Psychological Association. (2009). Blog guidelines. APA Style Blog. Retrieved from https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/blog-guidelines.html

Example:
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

 

NOTE: If you are citing a full dictionary in your reference list, you would place the title of the dictionary in the position where the author’s name would normally go.

When your essay includes parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a

shortened version of the source's title instead of an author's name. Use quotation marks and italics as

appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations of the source above would appear as follows:

 

 

Example:
(Merriam-Webster's, 1993).
  • Use the author's name for all entries and list the entries by the year (earliest comes first).

 

Example:
Berndt, T. J. (1981).
Berndt, T. J. (1999).

 

  • If you are using more than one reference by the same author (or the same group of authors listed in the same order) published in the same year, organize them in the reference list alphabetically by the title of the article or chapter. Then assign letter suffixes to the year. Refer to these sources in your essay as they appear in your reference list, e.g.: "Berdnt (1981a) makes similar claims..."

 

Example:
Berndt, T. J. (1981a). Age changes and changes over time in prosocial intentions and behavior between friends. Developmental Psychology, 17, 408-416.
Berndt, T. J. (1981b). Effects of friendship on prosocial intentions and behavior. Child Development, 52, 636-643.

 

  • Cite the publishing information about a book as usual, but cite Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword (whatever title is applicable) as the chapter of the book.

 

Example :
Funk, R., & Kolln, M. (1998). Introduction. In E. W. Ludlow (Ed.), Understanding English grammar (pp. 1-2). Needham, MA: Allyn and Bacon.