The reference page is always at the end of the paper and contains all the information necessary to identify and retrieve all the outside sources used in one's paper. The works included in your reference list, should be the outside sources that you summarized, paraphrased and quoted.
There are generally four main elements to the citations in a reference page: author, date, title and source. The following sections provide example of APA citations based on what you are citing.
1. After each section of a citation, enter a period. However, do not but a period after a DOI or url.
2. Use punctuation marks (typically commas or parenthesis) as parts of the same element.
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Missing |
Solution |
Template |
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Reference list entry |
In-text citation |
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Nothing—all |
Provide the author, date, title, and source of the work. |
Author. (Date). Title. Source. |
(Author, year) Author (year) |
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Author |
Provide the title, date, and source. |
Title. (Date). Source. |
(Title, year) Title (year) |
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Date |
Provide the author, write “n.d.” for “no date,” and then provide the title and source. |
Author. (n.d.). Title. Source. |
(Author, n.d.) Author (n.d.) |
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Title |
Provide the author and date, describe the work in square brackets, and then provide the source. |
Author. (Date). [Description of work]. Source. |
(Author, year) Author (year) |
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Author and |
Provide the title, write “n.d.” for “no date,” and then provide the source. |
Title. (n.d.). Source. |
(Title, n.d.) Title (n.d.) |
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Author and |
Describe the work in square brackets, and then provide the date and source. |
[Description of work]. (Date). Source. |
([Description of work], year) [Description of work] (year) |
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Date and title |
Provide the author, write “n.d.” for “no date,” describe the work in square brackets, and then provide |
Author. (n.d.). [Description of work]. Source. |
(Author, n.d.) Author (n.d.) |
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Author, date, |
Describe the work in square brackets, write “n.d.” for “no date,” and then provide the source. |
[Description of work]. (n.d.). Source. |
([Description of work], n.d.) [Description of work] (n.d.) |
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Source |
Cite as a personal communication or find another work to cite (see the Publication Manual for more information). |
No reference list entry |
(C. C. Communicator, personal communication, month day, year) C. C. Communicator (personal communication, month day, year) |
Italic formatting within the title or source varies by reference and is not shown in the table. In general, the title is italicized for a work that stands alone (e.g., book, report, webpage on a website), and some part of the source is italicized for a work that is part of a greater whole (e.g., journal article, newspaper article).