
APA (American Psychological Association) style is one of the most common citation styles, used not only in Psychology but across all of the social sciences and other disciplines, including: Social Work, Business, Marketing, and more. It uses in-text citations and a includes a References page at the end of the paper.
Contact a librarian if you need help using this or any citation style.
Below are some basic examples of commonly cited material types. Note that formatting can differ even within these categories based on things like the number of authors, missing date information, and more. Refer to a citation guide when you encounter missing information or a unique format like a social media post or online video.
Author, A. A. (date). Title in italics: Use sentence case. Publisher Name. URL (if ebook)
(AuthorLastName, date)
Looser, D. (2025). Wild for Austen: A rebellious, subversive, and untamed Jane. St. Martin's Press.
(Looser, 2025)
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (date). Title of article: Use sentence case. Journal Title, Volume #(issue #), page
numbers. DOI (or URL if no DOI)
(Author A Last Name & Author B Last Name, date)
Huisman, J. L. A., Majid, A. (2018). Psycholinguistic variables matter in odor naming. Memory & Cognition, 46(4), 577-
588. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-017-0785-1
(Huisman & Majid, 2018)
Websites vary widely in format. Sometimes you may not find much information about authors or publication dates, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't still cite it. Refer to a citation guide when you encounter missing information or a unique format like a social media post or online video.
Author, A. A. or Group Name. (Year, Month Day). Page title. Site name (if different from author name). URL
(Author Last Name or Group Name, date)
Land Portal. (2022). Land Portal's Theory of Change 2022-2025. https://landportal.org/toc
(Land Portal, 2022)
Need to cite an interview? A TED Talk? What about a text? Check out the Online Citation Guides in the previous section for more examples and instructions for nearly every type of source!
The Publication Manual is the APA's official style guide.