Four Elements of a Reference
According to the APA, a reference (citation) has four elements, which answer four different questions about a source of information:
Author: Who is responsible for this work?
Date: When was this work published?
Title: What is this work called?
Source: Where can I retrieve this work? (APA, 2020, p. 283)
In your reference list entry, they are organized in the following order and format: Author. (Date.) Title. Source.
Basic Formatting Details
Authors are listed by their last names and then first and middle initials, i.e. Author, A. A.
Multiple authors for one work are separated by commas, and then an ampersand for the final name, i.e. Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.
If there is no credited author, move the title of the work to the author position, i.e. Title of article. (2022).
Dates go in parentheses, and are listed in order of year, month, day, i.e. (2022, December 5).
If there is no date on the work, use (n.d.) after the author position, i.e. Author, A. A. (n.d.).
Titles use sentence case. Works part of something else, i.e. journal articles, are not italicized, i.e. Title of article: Continuation of title. Works that stand alone, i.e. books and webpages, are italicized, i.e. Title of book: Continuation of title.
Sources use title case. For works part of something else, that greater whole is the source, and if it is a periodical or a book, it is italicized, i.e. Title of Source.
For works that stand alone, the source is the publisher (for a book), or the website where it was found, followed by the URL (which should be hyperlinked) if applicable. These use title case but are not italicized, i.e. (for a website) Title of Source. https://url.com
If the work is a volume and/or issue of a series, such as a journal, put the volume number in italics and the issue number in parentheses after it with no space, ie. Title of Source, 10(2).
Sample Citations of Common Sources
Database article: Selin, H., & VanDeveer, S. D. (2007). Political science and prediction: What’s next for U.S. climate change policy? The Review of Policy Research, 24(1). Gale in Context: Global Issues. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A163422168/GIC?u=mlin_w_shhs&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=6a10499f
Webpage: Climate change. (2022, December 1). United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/climate-change
News article online: Shao, E. (2022, December 6). Renewables will overtake coal by early 2025, energy agency says. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/climate/iea-renewable-energy-coal.html
Book: Klein, N., & Stefoff, R. (2021). How to change everything: The young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Book chapter: Climate change. (2016). In Today’s Social Issues: Democrats and Republicans (pp. 51–61). ABC-CLIO.
Reference
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.
