Creating Bibliographies using APA Style, 6th Edition

A brief guide to creating a bibliography using the APA 6th Edition (American Psychological Association) style. For further help consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition), or The Little, Brown Handbook - ask for these publications at the Reference Desk.

As with making any bibliography, arrange the entries alphabetically by the author's last name. Remember to double-space and indent after the first line.

Books
Journals
Websites

General Book Format

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Use capital letter also for first word of subtitle.

Location: Publisher.

Location should always include city, but include the state if city is well-known or could be confused with one of the same name in another state.

One author

Evans, P. M. (2001). Controlling people: How to recognize, understand, and deal with people who try to

control you. Avon, MA: Adams Media.

Two to six authors

White, R.W., & Watt, N. F. (1973). The abnormal personality (4th ed.). New York: Ronald Press.

Two or more books by the same author

To cite two or more books by the same author, give the author's name in all references, and arrange by year of publication, the earliest first.

Jacobs, J. B. (1977). Stateville: The penitentiary in mass society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Jacobs, J. B. (1989). Drunk driving: An American dilemma. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Group author

U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1988). Report to the nation on crime and justice.

Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Unknown author

The Times Atlas of the World (9th ed.). (1992). New York: Times Books.

Editors

Fox, R. W., & Lears, T. J. J. (Eds.). (1993). The power of culture: Critical essays in American history.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Chapter in an edited book

Wirth, W., & Kolb, S. (2004). Designs and methods of comparative political communication research.

In F. Esser & B. Pfetsch (Eds.), Comparing political communication: theories, cases, and challenges

(pp. 87-111). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Entry in an encyclopedia

Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508).

Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

General periodical (journal) format

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (1994). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
(issue), page number-page number.

Journal article

If the journal is paginated separately by issue (each issue starts with page 1), include both the volume number and the issue number.

Christia, F., & Semple, M. (2009). Flipping the Taliban: How to win in Afghanistan. Foreign Affairs, 88(4), 34-45.

If the journal has continuous pagination (only issue 1 begins on page 1; further issues continue numbering sequence), issue number does not need to be included.

Armour, M. P. (2002). Alternative routes to professional status: Social work and the new careers program

under the office of economic opportunity. Social Service Review, 76, 229-255.

Journal article - Two to six authors

Carey, M., Walther, S., & Russell, S. (2009). The absent but implicit: A map to support therapeutic enquiry. Family

Process, 48, 319-331.

Journal article - More than six authors

List the first six authors, and then "et al."

Murray, G., Judd, F., Jackson, H., Fraser, C., Komiti, A., Pattison, P., et al. (2009). Personality for free: Psychometric properties of a public domain

Australian measure of the five-factor model. Australian Journal of Psychology, 61(3), 167-174.

Electronic versions of journal articles

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (1994). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
(issue), page number-page number. Date and location retrieved.

Article from a periodical published online

Amey, F. K. (2002). Polygyny and child survival in West Africa. Social Biology, 49(1-2), Retrieved August 28, 2009, from

http://www.soc.duke.edu/~socbio/images/Amey.pdf

Journal articles published online now include a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which is more stable than a URL. If a journal article you find online includes a DOI, include it in your citation. Do not include a period after the DOI. The DOI is usually located on the first page of the article. If there is no DOI provided, provide the url of the article (previous example), or the database in which you found the article (next example).

O'Brien, B., & Carroll, W. (2009). The evolution of cardiovascular stent materials and surfaces in response to clinical drivers: A review.

Acta Biomaterialia, 5(4), 945-958. doi:10.1016/j.act.bio.2008.11.012

Journal article from a database

Crystal, J. (2001). Criminal justice in the Middle East. Journal of Criminal Justice, 29(6), 469-483. Retrieved June 4, 2009.

General website format

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work. Date retrieved, name of website, and permanent url of web document

From Website

Meyer, P. (1995). Public Journalism and the Problem of Objectivity. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Mass Communication Web site: http://www.unc.edu/~pmeyer/ire95pj.htm

Stand-alone document, no author identified, no date

A science odyssey: People and discoveries: Sigmund Freud. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13, 2009, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhfreu.html

For further help

Go to APA Style's homepage, or ask at the Circulation Desk for:

the APA Style Guide: Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition, Call Number: R 808.06615 P976 2010 6th ed.
or The Little, Brown Handbook, Call Number: R 808.042 F786li