APA Boot Camp

References begin on a new page following the text of the document

Center the word "References" in bold font at the top of the page

Spacing: Double-spaced

Special formatting: Use Hanging Indent, 0.5"
How To:  In MS Word for PCs

• Highlight your references.
• Click on the "Home" tab.
• In the "Paragraph" box, click on the down arrow at the bottom right side of the box.
• Click on the down arrow below "Special" and choose "Hanging."
• Click "OK" at the bottom of the paragraph box.

Author      (who)
Date         (when)
Title          (what)
Source     (where) 

Periods used after each section of the Reference.
(after Author, after Date, after Title, after Source)

Do NOT use a period after a DOI or URL

Do use commas within each section as noted by APA.org

• Between author's last name and initials
• Between different author's names
• Between journal title and volume number
• Between journal issue and page numbers

Do NOT use commas between journal volume and issue numbers; use parentheses instead around issue number.

Do italicize punctuation marks that are in an italic reference element (within a book title).

Do NOT italicize punctuation between reference elements (after italic book title).

One author:    Author, A. A.        

Two authors:  Author, A. A., & Author, B.B.        

3-20 authors: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C.C.
   use inverted last names and initials for up to 20 authors

21 or more authors:  include first 19 authors names/initials, insert an ellipsis (three dots separated 
   by spaces. . .), and then the final author's name. No ampersand is used. 

See APA Manual Sections 9.7 - 9.12 for more detailed information on formatting authors, capitalization, editors, group authors, and no authors

•  Comma after author last name

•  One space after each initial

•  Ampersand before the
last author's name for 2-20 authors

Refers to Date of Publication and typically is only the year (noted within parentheses)

Exceptions:
  •  year, month, and day (an exact date, e.g., a blog entry, a newspaper date)
  •  year and month         
  •  year and season        
  •  range of dates (e.g., range of years, range of exact dates)

See APA Manual Sections 9.13 - 9.17 for more detailed information.

(2020).

(2020, March 15)
(2020, March)
(2020, Spring/Summer)
(2019-2020)

General instructions for titles include
  Italicize and use sentence case  (e.g., My book about Africa: Many memories)
     (initial capital letter, capital letter of subtitle, capitalize any proper nouns) for works 
     that stand on their own (are not part of a greater whole or entity)

  Do not italicize (use regular font) for works are part of a greater whole or entity, like

See APA Manual Sections 9.18 - 9.22 for more detailed information on definition of a title, format of title elements, series and multivolume works, bracketed descriptions, and works without titles.         

Source refers to where users can retrieve the noted work.

• Works that stand alone (whole book, report, etc.)
• Works that are part of a greater whole (journal articles, edited book chapters)
• Works associated with a particular location (such as conference presentations)

Book references no longer show the "location" of publication office, but still show the Publisher name.

DOIs and URLs, if applicable, may also be used as part of the source information.
   DOI:   digital object identifier
   URL:  uniform resource locator

• Do not use a period at the end of a DOI or a URL.
• Do not use "Retrieved from" with DOIs. 
• DOIs should be in the format of https://doi.org/____________________
• URLs generally do not use "Retrieved from," but it should be used in some instances. See Retrieval date information in APA Publication Manual, pages 290, 319, 325, 328, 347, 349, 350, and 352.
• Shortened URLs are optional but permissible for references with a long or complex URL. See Section 9.36 for details.

See details and additional information at the APA Publication Manual, Sections 9.23 - 9.37

See APA Manual, Chapter 10 for templates and source component examples.

Certain Latin abbreviations may be commonly used, always appear within parentheses, and may require particular punctuation, such as a period and/or comma (these are highlighted below).
See APA Manual, Section 6.29.