APA Citation Guide

Format:

Author's Last Name, First initial. (Year). Title of Book. Publisher.

Example - One Author:

Derrida, J. (1987) The Truth in Painting (J. Bennington & I McLeod, trans*). University of Chicago Press.

*When a book is translated, add the names of the translator(s) after the book title

Example - Two Authors:

Morris, T. & Morris, M. (2005) Superheros and Philosophy. Open Court.

Example - Three or More Authors:

Burtenshaw, Ken, et al.* (2006) Fundamentals of Creative Advertising: An Introduction to Branding. AVA Publishing.

*If there are three or more authors, list only the first author followed by the phrase “et al.” in place of the subsequent authors' names.

Example - A Book Prepared By an Editor:

Blanc-Hoàng, Henri S., et al. (2013) Comics as History, Comics as Literature: Roles of the Comic Book in Scholarship, Society, and Entertainment. Edited* by Annessa Ann Babic, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 

   *If there is an editor, cite the book as you normally would, but add the editor after the title with the label, "Edited by".

Format:

Author's Last Name, First initial. (Year) Title of Book. Publisher. URL/DOI. 

Note: If the eBook you accessed has a URL or DOI, cite the book just like you would if it were in print. Then add the DOI (preferred) or URL or another location indicator at the end of the citation. 

Example - eBook with URL/DOI:

Hervouet-Farrar, I., & Vega-Ritter, M. (Eds.). (2014). The Grotesque in the Fiction of Charles Dickens and other 19th-century European Novelists. Cambridge Scholars Publisher. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.wv-o-ursus-proxy06.ursus.maine.edu 

Example - eBook with No URL/Kindle edition:

Dunn, B. (2015). More Than a Song: Exploring the Healing Art of Music Therapy. [eBook 5th edition]. 

Format:

Author's Last Name, First initial. (Year). Title of Article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), pages. 

Example:

Solomon, J.D. (2010). Learning from Louis Vuitton. Journal of Architectural Education, 63(2), 67-70.

Format:

Author's Last Name, First initial. (Year). Title of Article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), pages. DOI

Example:

Meade, M. E., Wammes, J. D., & Fernandes, M. A. (2019). Comparing the influence of doodling, drawing, and writing at encoding on memory. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(1), 28-36. doi: 10.1037/cep0000170 

Format:

Author or Editor’s Last name, First intial. (Pub date) Title of Article or page. Site name. URL

Example - Article or Page On a Website with a Known Author:

Parker, A. (24 June 2021) How to Introduce Lessons on Disability. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-introduce-lessons-disability

Example - Article or Page on a Website with a Corporate Author:

US Department of Education. (August 2021). U.S. Department of Education Releases “Return to School Roadmap” to Support Students, Schools, Educators, and Communities in Preparing for the 2021-2022 School Year. United States Government. https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-releases-%E2%80%9Creturn-school-roadmap%E2%80%9D-support-students-schools-educators-and-communities-preparing-2021-2022-school-year

Format:

Artist’s Last Name, First initial. (Date). Title of Artwork [Medium]. Museum or database name, Location. URL 

Example - Image from a museum page or creative commons site:

van Gogh, V. (1889). The starry night [Painting]. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, United States. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889/ 

Format:

Director Last Name, First initial. (Director). (Year released). Title of Film [medium]. Film Studio or Distributor.

Example - Film, Video, DVD, VHS, etc.:

Capra, F. (Director). (1946). It's a Wonderful Life [Film]. RKO.

Example - YouTube, Vimeo*, etc:

University of Maine Presque Isle. (2019, July 10). Zillman Family Greenhouse Construction [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qDhPikJETE

*In the case of a streaming video platform, use the channel name in place of the director

Example - TED Talk*:

Cuddy, A. (2012, June). Your body language may shape who you are [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are 

*In the case of a TED Talk or other academic venue talk, use the speaker name, and list the hosting/publishing organization as the distributor

Format:

Instructor Last Name, First initial. (Date*). The title of the lesson page/presentation [type of content]. Platform published on (or college name, if citing handouts from class). URL or course. 

Example - Instructor content page in a course:

Smith, J. (2020, July 6). Introduction to Week 3 [Recorded lecture]. Brightspace. https://courses.maine.edu/d2l/le/content/37201/viewContent/5411342/View.

Example - Supplemental materials or handouts created for the class (ie: maps, charts, infographics, etc):

Smith, J. (n.d.) How to Read Stats [class handout]. UMPI, MAT 208 

 *Many stand-alone course materials will have an 'n.d.' for 'no date'.  Include a date when referencing a live lecture or recorded and posted lecture

WARNING!: AI-generated content is not like other sources you might cite. ChatGPT, DALL-E, and similar AI tools generate text, images, and other outputs based on the common patterns they learned from millions of other sources — the documents, images, or other data the AI tools trained on. It is usually impossible to trace AI-generated content back to the training sources it is based on or to know how the AI tool itself works. The work generated by AI tools replicates and often amplifies, the biases that exist in the training sources. Always check with your professor before using AI tools like ChatGPT, Dall-E, Midjourney, etc--many instructors do not allow these tools, or only allow them under certain circumstances! Copy and pasting content directly from AI sources, without explicit permission from your instructor is plagiarism.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has released official style rules for citing generative AI content. Recommended:

Name of AI Publisher. (Year you generated the content). AI Tool (Version)[AI-generated text/image/video, etc.]. URL to chat.

Example - AI content you revised, or content you referenced:

OpenAI. (2024). Chat GPT [Large Language Model]. https://chat.openai.com/share/a024f209-a3cf-404b-b996-895f54b9562b

General Format for In-Text Citations  

For in-text citations in APA style, include the name of the AI tool and the year in parentheses. If you edited or revised the content, also include your last name as a co-author. If you use a direct quotation, give the paragraph number that the quote comes from (count the paragraphs to determine the paragraph number). 

Examples: 

To make fluffy basmati rice, “rinse the rice twice in cold water” (ChatGPT, 2023, para. 3).  AI image generators can create unlikely compositions, such as a stained glass window of a robot (DALL-E & Mamak, 2023). The year included in the in-text citation must be the same as it appears in your References. If you have citations in your References that have years followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.,), include that letter in the intext citation also. Example: To make fluffy basmati rice, “rinse the rice twice in cold water” (ChatGPT, 2023a, para. 3). A second recipe suggested adding a tablespoon of oil to the rice (ChatGPT, 2023b).

 *This guidance was adapted from  https://www.normandale.edu/library/ai-apa under Creative Commons 4.0 licencing.