San Joaquin Delta College Library

 Citing Electronic Resources: APA Style

APA style is the preferred writing style of The American Psychological Association.  It is widely used by scholars, researchers, and students of psychology, sociology, education, history, anthropology, and history, social sciences in researching, recording, documenting, and writing research papers.

The following recommendations for citing electronic resources are based on the 5th edition of Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001) and APA Online on electronic citations.
 

• Center References on the top of a new page at the end of the research paper
• Double-space between References and the first citation
• Flush to the left to type each entry
• Indent five to seven spaces (Tab) after the first line in each entry if the entry runs more than one line
• Double-space all reference entries.
• Double-space lines between and within entries
• Use period at the end of each field (e.g. author, publication year, title, etc.)
• An online periodical citation may include the following:
• Author's name if known
• Date of publication
• Article Title (Capitalize only the first word of the title and of the subtitle and proper nouns)
• Name of the periodical (Italicize the periodical title and capitalize important words)
• Volume number, issue number, and page number if given
• Web address (URL) if applicable
• An online book citation may include the following:
• Author's name if known
• Date of publication
• Book title (Italicize the title)
• Retrieved date
• Web address (URL)

• Internet Article Based on a Print Source:

          Naureckas E. T., Solway J. (2001). Mild asthma [Electronic Version]. New England Journal of

                    Medicine, 345, 1257-1262.
 

• Article in an Internet-Only Journal:

 
Vetter, Rick. (2001). Kissing bugs and the skin. Dermatology Online Journal, 7(1), 6. Retrieved

           November 7, 2001, from

           http://dermatology.cdlib.org/DOJvol7num1/centerfold/triatoma/vetter.html
 

• Journal/Magazine Articles from Online Databases Subscribed by a Library:

 
When searching an online database subscribed by a library, the URL or Web address of an online magazine/journal article can be extremely long and inaccessible directly from the Web and the complete page numbers of an article may not be indicated. In this case, you are advised to cite the author's name (if given), date of publication, article title, magazine or journal title, volume number (if given), the beginning page number (if given) with a plus sign, date of access, and name of the database.

                    1386+. Retrieved November 7, 2001, from Health Reference Center database from

                    InfoTrac SearchBank.
 

         Austen, J. (1996). Pride and prejudice. Retrieved November 7, 2001, from

                    http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pridprej.html

        Shakespeare, W. (1999). Romeo and Juliet. Retrieved November 7, 2001, from

                    http://www.theplays.org/romeo/

• Daily Newspaper Article:

Hatfield, L. D. (2001, November 7). FBI frustrated in pursuit of anthrax perpetrators: Few answers

        found in probe of mail terrorism. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 7, 2001, from

        http://www.sfgate.com

• Newspaper/Newswire Articles Retrieved from a Database Subscribed by a Library:

When searching an online newspaper database subscribed by a library, the Web address of an online newspaper article can be extremely long and inaccessible directly from the Web.  In this case, you are advised to cite the author (if known), date of publication, title of the article, title of the newspaper/newswire, date of retrieval, and name of the database.

Fournier, R. (2000, July 25). Bush to offer job to Cheney. Associated Press News Service. Retrieved

        July 28, 2000, from San Francisco Chronicle database from NewsBank.

Instruction: Provide the initials as well as the surname of the communicator (personal communication, Month, day, year).

J. Wang (personal communication, July 28, 2000)