Glastonbury High School Library Media Center
APA Citation Style
Help in Identifying Database Source Type
Book
The source citation ALWAYS has a city: publisher, year right in a row (Example: New York: Ferguson, 2014)
Journal
The source title is long and contains words like: Journal, Review, Studies, Research, or Quarterly (Examples: Journal of American Medical Association, Review of International Studies)
Articles are scholarly, written for experts or members of the profession
Articles provide an abstract (summary) and list of references
Very few, if any, pictures or ads included
Volume and Issue numbers included in the citation (Example: 20.1)
Often has many authors
Magazine
The source title contains words like: Magazine, Digest, Popular, or Weekly (Examples: People Weekly, Psychology Today, Popular Science)
Articles are of general interest written for non-experts
Short paragraphs with headings, no list of references
Eye-catching photos, colorful ads
Publication dates are provided in the source citation rather than Volume and Issue numbers (Examples: 2 July, 2014, July-August 2013)
Usually only one to two authors
Newspaper
The source title contains words like: Times, Weekly, Herald, Journal, Gazzette, or Inquirer, and often a city name (Examples: The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Wall Street Journal)
Articles focus on daily reporting
Very often pages include a section and/or a page number (Examples: A4, Sports)
Source citations may include edition (Examples: Late Edition, West Coast Edition)
For more assistance on APA format, see the Purdue OWL website.