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Public and Population Health

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APA Citation Help/Examples (Purdue OWL)

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue has a lot of useful APA information and examples.

Purdue OWL APA Site

Hint: Click on the APA Formatting and Style Guide link

In-Text Citations for APA

When citing in text, provide at least the author’s last name and the date of publication. If available, provide the page number (or specific location if the source is electronic).

  • If citing a whole work: (Hock, 2004)
  • If citing a specific page: (Hock, 2004, p. 49)
  • If citing an online article with no page numbers: (Church, 2006, para. 6)

If the author's name is included in the sentence, add the date and page number:

  • Hock described the challenge as "stressful and yet worth it," (2004).
  • As Smith claimed (2004, p.49) that...

Journal Articles in APA

Format for an Article from a print journal:

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of Article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), pages.

Example:

Moskowitz, D. S., Ho, M. R., & Turcotte-Tremblay, A. (2007). Contextual influences on interpersonal complementarity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(8), 1051-1063.

Note: The APA 7th Edition recommends including a DOI if available, even for a print source. 


Format for an Article from an online journal:

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Vol.(Issue), page numbers. DOI

Examples:

Stultz, J. (2006). Integrating exposure therapy and analytic therapy in trauma treatment. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76, 482–488. doi:10.1037/0002-9432.76.4.482

Note: If a DOI is not available, use a URL. 

Van Wee, B., Geurs, K., & Chorus, C. (2013). Information, communication, travel behavior and accessibility. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 6(3), 1-16. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26202660

Personal Interviews in APA

In APA style, personal interviews, along with emails, text messages, online chats, direct messages, phone conversations, live speeches, nonarchived social media livestreams (Instagram Live, Twitter Spaces), unrecorded webinars or classroom lectures, memos, letters, nonarchived discussion board posts, etc. are all considered "personal communications".

 

In-Text Citation Example:

(M. Davis, personal communication, February 10, 2023)

 

*Because readers can't retrieve these types of personal communications, they are not included in the Reference List/Bibliography at the end of your paper, only within the text of your paper itself.

More information from the APA blog.

Books in APA

Format for a Book in Print:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of book: Subtitle if needed. Publisher.

Example:

Coontz, S. (2005). Marriage, a history: From obedience to intimacy or how love conquered marriage. Viking.


Format for an eBook:

Author, F. M. (Year). Title of book. Publisher. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL

Examples:

Roush, C. (1999). Inside Home Depot: How one company revolutionized an industry through the relentless pursuit of growth. Jossey-Bass.

Speed, H. (2004). The practice and science of drawing. Seeley, Service & Co. Limited. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14264

Rodriguez-Garcia, R., & White, E. M. (2005). Self-assessment in managing for results: Conducting self-assessment for development practitioners. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6148-1.

Web Pages in APA

Format:

Lastname, A. (Date of Publication). Title of web page. Site name. URL

Example:

Levi, M. (2019, December 16). Keeping families together in times of need. Territory. https://territory-mag.com/articles/keeping-families-together-in-times-of-need/


Format:

Note: If the contents on a web page are designed to change over time, then include a retrieval date in your citation.

Lastname, B. (Date of Publication). Title of web page. Site name. Retrieved Date, from URL

Example: 

Agresti, J. D. & McCutcheon, R. (2020, September 2). National debt facts. Just Facts. Retrieved September 8, 2020, from https://www.justfacts.com/nationaldebt.asp

APA Style Guide to Electronic References

APA Citation

Click the link below for a quick PowerPoint on APA citation format.

Copyright Questions

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