MLA & APA Citation Guide 

About APA Style

APA (American Psychological Association) Style is a set of guidelines for formatting academic manuscripts and citing work by other writers. It is most commonly used by scholars in the social sciences.

Formatting Your Paper in APA Style

In general, your paper should include at least the following elements:

• Title page (example)
• Text of paper (example)
• References list (example)

Your instructor may require additional elements consistent with APA Style, including an abstract or introduction, sections detailing research method, results, and discussion, and appendices. Check with your instructor for details about these requirements. More information about formatting these sections can be found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition.

Citing Sources in APA Style

Citing sources you've consulted gives your paper credibility, and adhering to APA's citation guidelines protects you from unintentional plagiarism.

The Reference List

Your reference list should begin on a new page following the text of your paper. Here, you will include complete citations for the resources you've used in your writing. 

Tips for formatting your reference list:

• Begin the list on a new page with the title "References" centered at the top.
• The entire list should be double-space (both within each entry and between entires).
• Authors are listed with the last name first followed by the first and middle initials. (E.g.: Skinner, B.F.)
• The list should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each citation.
• When citing books, Web pages, and periodicals, capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle as well as proper nouns.
• When citing academic journal articles, capitalize all major words in the journal title.
• Don't use quotation marks around titles of journal or periodical articles.

In-Text Citations

In addition to the Reference list, sources are also cited using the parenthetical author-date system in the ext of your manuscript. Find more information about in-text citation here.

Citing Specific Sources

• Books
• Scholarly Journals
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Web Sites

Check out the APA's online tutorial, "The Basics of APA Style," for detailed information about manuscript formatting, citations, and other APA Style guidelines.

You can find detailed information about APA Style in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, available at all PSTCC libraries.

Additional APA Style guides on the Web:

- The OWL at Purdue APA Style Guide

- University of Wisconson-Madison APA Style Guide

Updates & Info from APA:

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Check out NoodleTools to help you perform smart research.

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4. Format a bibliography in MLA or APA style