APA Basic Citation Anatomy

APA citation style is used in nursing, social sciences, education, psychology.

A citation style which uses parentheses in text (author-date) instead of footnotes or endnotes, this format is popular in those disciplines where the date of the work, its currency, is significant to the reading of the text. Sources are listed at the end of the text in a section called References.

Reference List
Includes only those works which were cited in the text. Alphabetical listing. Author’s name is abbreviated, initials are given instead of the first name. The date follows. Source information in included in the citation, as well as the page numbers. For an internet source, add the retrieval date and the URL.

Reference List examples:

Books
Kidner, J. (1972). The Kidner report: A statistical look at bureaucracy at the
            paper clip and stapler level. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books

Articles from a print journal
Heydt-Stevenson, J. (2000). "Slipping into the ha-ha”: Bawdy humor and body
            politics in Jane Austen’s novels. Nineteenth-Century Literature, 55 (3), 309-340.

Journal article from a library database with a DOI
Heydt-Stevenson, J.(2000). "Slipping into the ha-ha:" Bawdy humor and body politics in
         Jane Austen's novels. Nineteenth Century Literature 55 (3),314.
         doi:10.1525/incl.2000.55.3.01pol464 l.2000.55

Journal article from a library database with no DOI
Banoff, S. I. (1994, June). Turkeys and chickens fear IRS audits. Journal of
         Taxation, p.380.Retrieved  from Proquest Research Library database. 

Internet source - APA requires a URL at the end of Internet citations
Avery, S., & Masciadrelli, J. (2003, April) Peep research: A study of small fluffy
            creatures and library usage. April 2003. 
            Retrieved from http://www.millikin.edu/staley/fluff/peep_research.html

A note on DOIs (Digital Object Identifier)
A Digital Object Identifier is a unique code assigned to articles and other documents. APA requires the use of DOIs in citations, if the article has been assigned one. Some databases will have the DOI in the article record, some pdf's may also have the DOI. Go also to the journal website; you may find the DOI for the article there. If your searching results in no DOI, then include at end of the Article citation Retrieved from [source] database (name of database).

The following list of online sources are excellent choices for getting help with citations. The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) site will meet the needs of just about any APA in-text, reference list, or formatting question you have.