2.4 Reference Rules

The following APA style rules cover some of the more common elements that appear when doing research. It is important to remember that the APA Manual 5th Edition covers 95 specific reference list entries and an additional nine pages of rules, so this list of rules and the examples that follow are not completely comprehensive. The APA Manual 5th Edition also states that, occasionally, a reference example is not covered in the manual. In this case, follow the general forms and rules, choose a reference that is most like your source and follow that format. It is better to provide too much information in a reference than not enough. Remember to refer to the APA Manual 5th Edition or the Helpful APA Websites link if this website cannot answer your question.

The elements of concern listed below have been highlighted in bold red.

Authors

Robinson, D. N., Sun, J., Marks, H. H., & Jones, P. (2002). The implications of gender biased testing on middle school children. Paris: Fictitious Press.

  • Invert all author's names
  • Give surnames and initials
  • Use an ampersand & before the last author listed
  • Spell out the full name of a group author
  • If no author is listed, move the title to the position of the author

Publication Date

Schoepp, K. W. (2000). Web Design: An EFL content course. Journal of Language Learning in the Middle East, 7, 122-134.

  • In parenthesis write the year the work was copyrighted
  • For magazines, newspapers, or newsletters, give the year followed by the exact date of publication (2000, June 23)
  • Write n.d. in parenthesis if no date is given

Title of Article or Chapter

Mayer, R. E. (1999). Designing for constructivist learning. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory (pp. 222-245). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

  • Capitalize only the first word, after a colon, and a proper noun
  • Do not bold or italicize

Title of Work and Publication Information: Periodicals

Liu, M., Jones, C., & Hemstreet, S. (1998). Interactive multimedia design and production processes. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 30(3), 254-280.

  • Capitalize the title in full
  • Italicize the title, volume and number
  • Give the volume followed by number in parenthesis
  • List the page numbers separated by a hyphen -

Title of Work: Books

Kristoferson, R., & Santana, A. B. (1999). Interactivity by design: A guide (Vol. 2). Mountain View, CA: Adobe Press.

  • Capitalize the first word, after a colon, and proper nouns
  • Italicize the complete title
  • Add any additional publication information such as volume or edition after the title inside of parenthesis

Title of Work: Part of a Book

Lewis, C. M., & Smith, J. (1999). Getting to know users and their tasks. In A. F. Booly (Ed.), Human-computer interaction: Towards the year 2000 (pp. 122-127). San Francisco, CA: Morgan-Kaufmann.

  • List the editor after the title using initials followed by surname
  • Identify the editor by Ed. inside of parenthesis
  • Begin the editor entry with In
  • List the page numbers within parenthesis before the publication information

Publication Information: Books

Preece, J., Rogers, Y., & Sharp, H. (2002). Interaction design: Beyond human-computer interaction. Toronto, Canada : John Wiley & Sons.

  • Always give the city of publication and publisher separated by a colon
  • Give the state abbreviation or province and country if the city is not well known.

Electronic Retrieval Information

Nielsen, J. (2000). Why you only need to test with 5 users. Retrieved November 13, 2002, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html.

  • State the complete date the item was retrieved
  • Continue with the location it was taken from, either a complete URL or the name of the database