Disclaimer: This handout is only meant as a guide. If we tried to cover all citations you might make, we’d have a book—which is exactly what the American Psychological Association (APA) publishes every couple of years. You should check the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, if you have a question that this guide doesn’t answer. See the library for a copy (call number 029 Am4p2010 in the reference section).

Formatting your citations: In making your list of works cited, begin each entry flush with the left margin; if the entry runs more than a line long, the next lines should be indented five spaces, or one default TAB setting if you are using a word processor. On many word processors you can also accomplish this by paragraph formatting for a "hanging indent." (Whichever you choose, be consistent throughout.) Use double spacing for your entire list, both between and within entries.

If you will be publishing your own bibliography on a web page, it may be difficult to indent properly. To deal with this, it's common to use bullets in front of each citation instead of indenting.

Video or DVD

• Lastname, Firstinitial. (Producer), & Lastname, Firstinitial. (Director). (YYYY). Title of film. [Motion Picture].  Country: Distributor.

• Lasseter, J. (Producer), & Stanton, A., & Unkrich, L. (Directors). (2003). Finding Nemo [Motion picture]. United States: Walt Disney Pictures.
• Smith, L. (2008, February 26). Binary fission Euglena [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fg3Q-hbSsI&feature=fvw

 

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Television Show

 

• Lastname, Firstinitial. (Producer). (YYYY, Month DD).  Title of show. [Television Broadcast].  City of publication: Distributor.

• Ingalls, L. (Producer). (2002, August 4). How I finally got Nellie Olsen. [Television broadcast]. Walnut Grove, MN: General Store.

* For a Television series or a single episode from a series, put [Television series] or [Television series episode] instead of [Television broadcast]. In either case, put only (YYYY) for the date. The format for a single episode should include the writer and the name of the episode, like this:

 

• Lastname, Firstinitial. (Writer), & Lastname, Firstinitial (Director). (YYYY). Episode title [Television series episode]. In Firstinitial Lastname (Producer), Series title. Place of publication: Distributor.

• Eisenberg, L. (Writer), & Feig, P. (Director). (2005). Halloween party [Television series episode]. In G. Daniels (Producer), Office mates. New York: National Broadcasting Company.

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Online books

 

These are books that either 1) have been published in print and now are on the web, or 2) have only been published on the web. You can also use this format for a part of a book like the introduction or a specific chapter.

• Lastname, FirstInitial. (Date of Publication). Title. Retrieved from URL

• Grouch, O. (2001). The street. Retrieved from http://www.thestreetbook.com/book.htm

 

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Web forums and message boards

 

• Lastname, FirstInitial. [Or username.] (Date of post). Title of thread [Online forum message]. Retrieved from Name of Bulletin Board: URL.

•  Mitchell, J. (2004, April 4). Spotted geese are really cool [Online forum message]. Retrieved from Goose Fancy: http://www.goosefancyboard.com
• Ella. (2009, January 7). Can I view Google Calendar on my mobile phone? [Online forum message]. Retrieved from Google Calendar Help Forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar?hl=en

Work in an Anthology or Collection

• Last name, First initial. (YYYY). Title of article. In Editor’s First initial.      Lastname (Ed.), Title (pp. #-#). City of Publication: Publisher.

• McGovern, G. (2008). This chamber reeks of blood. In M. Polner & T. E. Woods Jr. (Eds.), We who dared to say no to war: American antiwar writing from 1812 to now (pp. 237-239). New York: Basic Books.

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Personal Communication (interview, email, unpublished manuscript, letter, etc.)

Because they do not include "recoverable data," the APA prefers that you refer to personal communications in the body of your paper, rather than in your bibliography. For example, "In a recent interview with Xavier Onassis (personal communication, January 23, 2003), a high-level administration official, we were told that no one within the administration had been charged with any wrongdoing."

If you can't conveniently mention the person's name in the sentence, then include it in the parentheses. For example, "Despite many recent advances in wireless technology, engineers still know little about what makes some antennas work better than others" (N. Ginear, personal communication, September 10, 2003). In general, you must fit the following information in one way or another:

FirstInitial LastName (personal communication, date)

or

(FirstInitial LastName, personal communication, date)

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Brochure or Pamphlet

• Author. (YYYY). Title of document [Brochure or Pamphlet]. Place of Publication: Publisher.

• Council on Green Education. (2003). Environmentally friendly classroom ideas [Pamphlet]. Urbana, IL: Author.