Color-Coded APA

New April 11, 2008! Radford University students, staff, and faculty can download a copy of the APA Style Guide to Electronic Resources. The library also has a copy of the APA 5th and the 2007 Guide to Electronic Resources next to the reference desk.

Here are some quick links to the most common questions about APA.

General APA Guidelines (format of your paper)

In-Text Citation: Background and Examples

Works Cited: Online sources

• Articles from online library databases (such as InfoTrac) (New in 2008!)
• Articles from Websites (such as a publisher's site) (New in 2008!)
• Websites(with an author)
• Websites (without an author or without a date)
• YouTube & Online Videos
• Wikipedia (and other Wiki articles)
• Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and otherreference books
• Blogs

Works Cited: Print sources

• Books
• Journal articles
• Newspaper articles

More Examples of APA

The Library Survivor series offers APA workshops to help you practice.

Article from an Online Library Database

Journal Article:
Burriss, T., & Benjes-Small, C. M. (2007). APA the easy way. Journal of Applied

          Language Arts, 73(2), 50-56. doi:10.1037/002-9467.76a.492

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Retain author order as listed in article- even if it's not alphabetical.
• Journal name is italicized.
• Volume number is italicized; the issue number (in parentheses) is not.
• Always include available issue number.
• Put a period between the page numbers and the DOI. (What's a DOI?)
• There is no period after the DOI.
• If there is no DOI, stop after the page numbers, ending with a period.
• Do not include retrieval date or database name.

Magazine and Newspaper Articles:
Kuchment, A., & Gillham, C. (2008, February 18). Kids: To TV or not TV. Newsweek, 60.

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Retain author order as listed in article- even if it's not alphabetical.
• Include month and, if available, day in date. Note that the format is year, month day.
• Magazine or newspaper name is italicized.
• Popular articles do not have DOIs, so end with the page number.
• Put a period after the page number.

Articles from Websites

Journal Article with a DOI (What's a DOI?):
Burriss, T., & Benjes-Small, C. M. (2007). APA the easy way. Journal of Applied

          Language Arts, 73(2), 50-56. doi:10.1037/002-9467.76a.492

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Retain author order as listed in article- even if it's not alphabetical.
• Journal name is italicized.
• Volume number is italicized; the issue number (in parentheses) is not.
• Always include available issue number.
• Put a period between the page numbers and the DOI.
• There is no period after the DOI.
• Do not include retrieval date.

Journal Article without a DOI:
Burriss, T., & Benjes-Small, C. M. (2007). APA the easy way. Journal of Applied

          Language Arts, 73(2), 50-56. Retrieved from http://www.haworth.com/japl/57.htm

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Retain author order as listed in article- even if it's not alphabetical.
• Journal name is italicized.
• Volume number is italicized; the issue number (in parentheses) is not.
• Include available issue number.
• If no DOI is available, provide a URL.
• There is no period after the URL.
• Do not include retrieval date.

Magazine or Newspaper Article:
Kuchment, A., & Gillham, C. (2008, February 18). Kids: To TV or not TV. Newsweek.

         Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Retain author order as listed in article- even if it's not alphabetical.
• Magazine or newspaper name is italicized.
• Include month and, if available, day in date. Note that the format is year, month day.
• Do not include retrieval date.
• Provide the URL for the homepage of the magazine or newspaper.
• There is no period after the URL.

Website

Author(s)	Year of Publication	Web Page Title
Date Retrieved	Sponsoring Web site	URL

Part of a larger site:
Leake, J. (2001). Electric towers are cancer risk. Retrieved February 1, 2007, from The Best

        Natural  Health Information and Newsletter Web site: http://www.mercola.com/2001/

          mar/10/cancer_high_voltage.htm

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• If the Web page is part of a larger Website, identify the host organization before giving the URL of the document itself.
• Put a colon before the URL if there is a host organization.
• There is no period at the end of the URL.

Stand-alone page:
Grow, G. (1988). Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Retrieved December 7, 2007, from

        http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow/Hate/HateIndex.html

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• If there is no host organization, put the URL after the word "from", and do not include a colon.
• There is no period at the end of the URL.

Websites (Without an Author or Without a Date)

No Date:
Brainard, B. (n.d.). Puns to make a macho man cry. Retrieved February 5, 2007, from

          http://www.brainard.com/puns.html

No Author:
Ryan Seacrest nervous about how audiences will respond to slightly shorter haircut. (2007).

          Retrieved February 7, 2007, from The Onion Web site:http://www.theonion.com/content/

          news_briefs/ryan_seacrest_nervous_about

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• The Web page (or video) title should be italicized.
• If the Web page is part of a larger Website, identify the host organization before giving the URL of the document itself.
• Put a colon before the URL.
• There is no period at the end of the URL.
• For videos, provide the author only if you sure that person created the video. Do not list the person posting the video online as the author. If you are unsure, treat the citation as having no author.

YouTube and Online Vidoes

Has An Author:
Takayma-Ogawa, J., & Willette, J. (2007). What is information literacy [Video]? Retrieved

          December 12, 2007, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeopJX5jJV8

No Author:
Slingshot fun [Video]. (2007). Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www.youtube.com/

          watch?v=CCmZYce0J2E

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Video title should be italicized.
• Before the punctuation mark after the video title, include the word Video in square brackets.
• No colon before the URL.
• There is no period at the end of the URL.
• For videos, provide the author only if you sure that person created the video. Do not list the person posting the video online as the author. If you are unsure, treat the citation as having no author.

Wikipedia (and other Wikis)

Video game. (n.d.) Retrieved October 4, 2007, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/

         wiki/Video_game

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Identify the host Wiki before giving the URL of the document itself.
• Put a colon before the URL.
• There is no period at the end of the URL.

Electronic Reference Books

Online Encyclopedia (no author):

Afghanistan. (2007). In J. Maher (Ed.), Europa world plus. Retrieved October 4, 2007,

         from http://www.europaworld.com

Online Encyclopedia (no date):

Bailey, R., & Lane, M. (n.d.). Campbell soup company. In Encyclopedia of major

         marketing campaigns. Retrieved October 5, 2007, from http://findgalegroup.com

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Retain author order as listed- even if it's not alphabetical.
• If there is no author, use the reference chapter or entry title in the first slot, and put the date in the second slot.
• The editor's name comes after the word In, before the book title.
• The title of the book is italicized.
• The date of the most recent change may not be clear or available, so include the retrieved date.
• Give the home page URL for reference works.
• There is no period after the URL.

Blog posts

ScuttleMonkey. (2007, October 5). What is the best way to start a paid GPL Project?

          Message posted to http://slashdot.org/

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Use the author's spacing and capitalization as it appears on the blog.
• Use the full date (including month and day) for publication date. The year is listed first, followed by month and day.
• Include the information "Message posted to" followed by the URL.
• There is no period after the URL.

Books

Hyde, W. E., & Ackermann, E. G. (2006). Sharing an office: Adventures in co-existence.

          New York: Vegetarian Press.

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Retain author order as listed on the title page- even if it's not alphabetical.
• The title of the book is italicized.

Journal Article

Burriss, T., & Benjes-Small, C. M. (2007). APA the easy way. Journal of Applied Language

          Arts, 73(2), 50-56.

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Retain author order as listed in article- even if it's not alphabetical.
• Journal title is italicized.
• Volume number is italicized; the issue number (in parantheses) is not.
• If the journal uses page numbering that continues from issue to issue, you list the volume but not the issue number.

Newspaper Article

Vassady, L. (2003, July 17). Buying a house: What every potential homeowner should

          know. San Franscisco Chronicle, p. A23.

• Citations should be double-spaced and use hanging indents.
• Include the month and day as well as year.
• Newspaper title should be italicized.
• For newspaper articles, page numbers are preceded with "p." Yes, we know that's different from all other articles and we agree, it's crazy.

Students, if you need further help you may set up an appointment with the Learning Assistance and Resource Center (LARC), Walker 125, by calling (540) 831-7704.

Questions and corrections to this page should be sent to libinstr@radford.edu