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APA Style 7th Edition

This guide provides information and examples (in-text, references, and formatting) to help you cite sources in APA style. Why cite? Citing sources gives credit to the author(s) whose work you used to support your research.

APA Style

APA Style is the American Psychological Association (APA) citation and format style. It provides guidelines to cite sources and a format for research papers. The examples shown here are based on those in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. 

General Rules

Authors

1 -2 authors

With 1 or 2 authors, list all authors in the full citation on the References page.  

With 1 or 2 authors, follow these examples for in-text citations:

In-Text Citation: Paraphrase

(Segrin & Flora, 2011)


In-Tex Citationt: Direct Quote

(Segrin & Flora, 2011, p. 17)


3-20 authors

With 3-20 authors, list all authors in the full citation on the References page.

With more than 20 authors list the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis (...) (but no ampersand), and then add the final author’s name. Follow these examples for in-text citations:

In-Text Citation: Paraphrase

(Fawcett et al., 2012).


In-Text Citation: Direct Quote

(Fawcett et al., 2012, p. 35)


Citing multiple works with similar groups of authors​:

Avoid ambiguity by writing out more names.   

Example:  

Terracciano, Abdel-Khalek, Adam, Adamovova (2019)

Terracciano, Abdel-Khalek, Ruiz, Stanton (2019)

Terracciano, A., Abdel-Khalek, A. M., Adam, N., Adamovova, L., Ahn, C., Ahn, H., . . . McCrae, R. R. (2019).


In-Text Citation: Paraphrase

(Terracciano, Abdel-Khalek, Adam et al., 2019)
(Terracciano, Abdel-Khalek, Ruiz et al., 2009)


In-Text Citation: Direct Quote

(TerraccianoAbdel-Khalek, Adam et al., 2019, p. 345).
(TerraccianoAbdel-Khalek, Ruiz et al., 2009, p. 345)


Corporate author:

Sometimes a corporate entity is the author of your resource.

Example:

Health Canada. (2019). Eating well with Canada’s food guide. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php


In-Text Citation: Paraphrase

(Health Canada, 2011)


In-Text Citation: Direct Quote

(Health Canada, 2011, para. 8)

 

General Rules - Citations

Direct Quotation

If you quote directly use the exact words from your source, use quotation marks and cite the page in the in-text citation.

Paraphrase

If you paraphrase (use your own words to express the author's ideas), do not use quotation marks.  You are not required to use the page number in the in-text citation.  

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