Skip to Main Content

APA Citations: Home

Why use APA?

APA (American Psychological Association) style is preferred by most disciplines in the Behavioral, Nursing and Rehabilitation sciences. AMA (American Medical Association) style is preferred in the fields Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy, and is frequently used for scholarly writing about medicine and health-related topics.

Key APA and AMA differences:

  • APA uses Author/Date citations within the text. The references are then listed in alphabetical order in the reference list.
  • AMA uses superscripted numbers that within the body of the text. The references are listed in numerical order in the reference list.

Should you follow the APA or AMA style guide?

For class assignments, check which your professor prefers. For publishing, look for the author guidelines on a publication’s website.

APA Publications

The following publications are available in print at the Cross River Campus Library:

Using APA Citations

  • If a journal article has a DOI, include it in the reference.
  • Always include the issue number.
  • Do not include database information in the reference unless the journal article comes from a database that publishes works of limited circulation or original, proprietary content, such as UpToDate or Lexicomp.
  • If the journal article does not have a DOI but does have a URL that will resolve for readers (e.g., it is from an online journal that is not part of a database), include the URL of the article at the end of the reference.

If the journal article has an article number instead of a page range, include the word “Article” and then the article number.

Details and examples can be found in the Publication Manual in chapter 3.

  • Provide the author(s) or editor(s), year of publication, title, and publisher of the book. Use the same format for both print books and ebooks.
  • Use the abbreviation “(Ed.)” for one editor and the abbreviation “(Eds.)” for multiple editors after the editor names, followed by a period.  edited book examples 
  • Use the copyright date shown on the book’s copyright page as the year of publication in the reference, even if the copyright date is different than the release date.
  • Include any edition information in parentheses after the title, without italics.
  • If the book includes a DOI, include the DOI in the reference after the publisher name.
  • Do not include the publisher location.
  • If the ebook is from an academic research database and has no DOI or stable URL, end the book reference after the publisher name. Do not include the name of the database in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book.

Book Chapter

  • Do not include the publisher location.
  • If the chapter is from an academic research database and has no DOI or stable URL, end the book reference after the publisher name. Do not include the name of the database in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book chapter.
  • Include edition information in the same parentheses as the page range of the chapter, separated with a comma.

UpToDate

Format UpToDate articles like periodical articles. Italicize the database name in the reference like a periodical title, but do not italicize the database name if it appears in the text.

  • Use the year of last update in the date element.
  • Include a retrieval date because the content is designed to change over time and versions of the page are not archived.

 

Cochrane Review

Cochrane reviews follow the journal article format.

  • Provide the name of the database (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews) in italic title case in the reference, but if you write the name of the database elsewhere in the paper, do not italicize it.
  • Different versions of Cochrane reviews include different information, which means the reference might vary too. Follow the principle of citing what you see.

Lexicomp

Follows the format for an edited book chapter.

  • The company that produces the app is treated as the author.
  • Provide the date year of the app version that you used.
  • Provide the title of the entry.
  • Provide the name of the app in italics, the version of the app used in parentheses, the description “[Mobile app]” and the publisher or app store from which the app was obtained.
  • Provide a URL when possible.

 If you are not sure whether to include database information in a reference, refer to Chapter 10 of the Publication Manual.

The format for drug information is the same as for a webpage.

  • Provide the name of the drug or company that manufactures the drug in the author element of the reference.
  • If a date is not available, substitute “(n.d.).”
  • Provide the title of the drug information (usually the name of the drug) in italic sentence case, followed by the description “[Drug information]” in square brackets (or other wording as appropriate).
  • Provide the name of the website from which the drug information was obtained in the source element of the reference. If the website name is the same as the author, omit the site name to avoid repetition.
  • Provide a URL for the drug information.

All types of visual displays other than tables are considered figures in APA Style. Common types of figures include line graphs, bar graphs, charts (e.g., flowcharts, pie charts), drawings, maps, plots (e.g., scatterplots), photographs, infographics, and other illustrations.

Details and examples can be found in both the Concise Guide and the Publication Manual in chapter 7.

Tables are visual displays composed of columns and rows in which numbers, text, or a combination of numbers and text are presented. There are many common kinds of tables, including demographic characteristics tables, correlation tables, factor analysis tables, analysis of variance tables, and regression tables.

Details and examples can be found in both the Concise Guide and the Publication Manual in chapter 7.

APA In Text Citations

When you paraphrase or directly quote another author’s work in your paper, APA format requires the use of in-text citations, also called parenthetical citations. These citations include the author’s last name and the year of publication for the source, e.g. (Smith, 2008). When using a direct quotation, the page number is also included (preceded by “p.”).

Examples:

  • According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).
  • Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199).
  • APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998).

Any reference with more than three authors can be shortened to the first author followed by et al.

In-text citations are covered in detail in both The Publication Manual and the Concise Guide in Chapter 8.

APA Reference List

APA publications and other publishers and institutions using APA Style generally require reference lists, not bibliographies. A reference list contains works that specifically support the ideas, claims, and concepts in a paper; in contrast, a bibliography provides works for background or further reading and may include descriptive notes.

Each source you cite in your paper must be included in your reference list. The reference list should begin on a new page at the end of your paper and be should labeled “References” in bold and centered at the top of the page.

  • Entries are alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work 
  • Authors’ names are inverted (last name, initials)

Books

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher.

E-Books

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher. http://www.publisherhomepageurl

Scholarly Journal Articles

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), page numbers or Article number. DOI or URL link if available.

Website Pages

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Name of Website. http://Web address

Details and examples can be found in both the Concise Guide and both the Publication Manual and the Concise Guide in chapters 9 and 10.

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine and College of Pharmacy
Harlem Campus 230 West 125th Street New York, NY 10027 (212) 851-1199