APA Citation Style

APA papers will have these elements:

• Title page

• Abstract (if required by your instructor)

• Body

  • Subsections within the body text, with headings for each section

• References

Your title page should include:

• The title of your paper, your name, the name of your program and school, the name of your class, the name of your professor, and the date 

Other formatting considerations:

• Your paper should have 1" margins on all sides of your paper (top, bottom, left, and right sides)

• Page numbers in the top-right corner of your header. All pages should be numbered

• Your font should be a clean, standard font (Times New Roman or Calibri, for example)

• Double-spaced lines throughout your paper

• Indent the first line of new paragraphs with the tab key 

When quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing a source, you will need to provide an in-text citation. Resources should be cited either within the sentence or at the end of the sentence in parentheses. 

• Citations are put in parentheses when you haven’t mentioned the author or authors’ names within the sentence. 

• The parenthetical citation should include the author or authors’ last name(s), year, and page number or paragraph number if there are no page numbers.

• If citing the authors within the sentence, include the publication year in parentheses immediately after the author name(s). 

Citing a source with one author:

At the end of the sentence in parentheses, put the author's last name, followed by a comma and the publication year of the source.

• Example: Tourism in Maine will be effected by climate change (Daniels, 2021). 

• Example: According to Daniels (2021), tourism in Maine will be effected by climate change. 

Two authors:

When there are two authors of a resource, list both their last names, connected by an ampersand (&), then a comma, then the publication year.

• Example: The largest climate change threats to tourism destinations relate to loss of visitors through disappearing attractions, seasonal inaccessibility, or changes in visitor markets requiring different tourism structures and product offerings (Lew & Cheer, 2018).

• Example: Lew and Cheer (2018) have found that the largest climate change threats to tourism destinations relate to loss of visitors through disappearing attractions. 

Three or more authors:

Sources with three or more authors should have the first author's name listed, followed by "et al." and the publication year. 

• • Example: There are several correlations between increased social media use by teens and the COVID-19 pandemic (Zhang, et al., 2021). 

  • Example: In a study done by Zhang, et al. (2021), there are several correlations between increased social media use by teens and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Organization or group author:

If the author is an organization that typically uses an acronym, use the full name and the abbreviation in the first citation. Then, just the abbreviation in any following citations. If the organization does not use an acronym, list the full name of the organization. 

• Example: The University of Maine at Augusta (UMA, 2023) currently offers 41 degree programs and 15 certificate programs or specialized courses. 

• Example: According to Harvard University (2023), the institution was officially founded by a vote by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 

No author or unknown author:

When no author is listed on a source, use the title of the article instead. If the title is long, it should be shortened for the in-text citation. If the article title will be italicized in the reference list, it should also be italicized in the in-text citation. 

• Example: Some populations will be more susceptible to health impacts of climate change than others ("Climate Change: Health Impacts," 2018). 

• Example: "Climate Change: Health Impacts" (2018) explains the various ways different groups may be more susceptible to negative health impacts related to climate change. 

Short quotations:

Any quotations that are less than 40 words go in quotation marks with the author, date, and page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

• Example: "The two underperformance types are acute/episodic underperformance, such as a mistake or an accident (e.g., medical error, service failure), and chronic task underperformance, such as not achieving the expected work products over time" (Pindek, 2020, para. 3).
   

• Example: Pindek (2020) describes two types of underperformance as "acute/episodic underperformance, such as a mistake or an accident (e.g., medical error, service failure), and chronic task underperformance, such as not achieving the expected work products over time" (para. 3).

If the author's name is mentioned within the sentence, the year should go in parentheses immediately after the author name, and the page number should go at the end of the sentence in parentheses. If there is no page number, include the paragraph number. Sentence punctuation goes at the end of the sentence after the parentheses. 

Block quotations:

If a quotation is longer than 40 words, it should be indented 0.5" on the left side. The block quotation should not have quotes around it, and the parenthetical citation should go at the end of the quote after the sentence punctuation. 

• For an example of an APA block quotation, see our sample APA essay with annotations. 

Your References list should begin on a new page of your paper. 

• Start the page with the word "References" at the top and center of the page in bold

• Keep the same margins as the rest of your paper (1"), page numbers, and continue to use double-spaced format 

• Entries on the list should be in alphabetical order by author's last name (or organization name if no author)

• If an entry is more than one line, each line after the first should have a hanging indent of 0.5" 

Different types of sources will be cited in different ways. See our list below for how to cite common types of resources.

Citation formatting by Source Type