American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines

The following information has been selected from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). The full reference is given at the bottom of this page. See OWL for more APA information.

APA uses author-date method of citation; the last name of the author and the year of publication are inserted in the body of the text at the appropriate point.

        example: Smith (1993) described the recreation program as well developed.

        example: In a recent study on aging skiers, Smith (1993) organized participant needs.

References

Journal

Author last name, first initial, second initial . year of publication. name of article . name of journal (underlined or italicized), volume number (underlined) number (in parentheses) , page numbers. The first line is indented five spaces.

            example:      Becker, L. A. ( 1993). The Complex and Dynamic Nature of Leisure Experience. Journal of Leisure Research, 26 (3), 1-7 .

            example:      Winston, D. E. & Post, I. R. (1994). Leisure Events Planning. Leisure Today, 12(4), 44-57.

Magazine

            example:      Gardner, H. (1981, December) . Risk Management and Liability. Parks and Recreation, 70-76.

Book

            example: Ree, I. J. (1994). Recreation Cost and Benefits. New York: McMillan Co.

On-line

            example:      Author, first initial, (date). Title of article. Name of periodical Retrieved  (today's date) from Specify web path (URL)

                                Smith, R. R. (1988). Recreation and Tourism Trends. Retrieved October 1, 2001 from http://www.worldtour/recreation.html

        Note: use n.d. if no date is available.

Quotations

Double quotations marks are used for all material quoted directly from a source.

example: Smith's (1993) article stated, "Recreation professionals must have outstanding communication skills" (p.34).

example: She stated, "Writing skills are essential to good communication" (Jones, 1992, p. 22), but she did not describe how to acquire these skills.

On-line Sources

Many electronic sources do not provide page numbers (unless they are PDF reproductions of printed material). If paragraph numbers are visible, use them in place of page numbers. Use the ¶ symbol or the abbreviation para.

      As Myers (2000, ¶ 5) aptly phrased it, "positive emotions are both an end-better to live fulfilled, with."

If there are headings in the document and neither paragraph nor page numbers are visible, cite the heading and the number of the ¶ following it to direct the reader to the location of the quoted material.

     "The current system of managed care and the current approach to defining empirically supported treatments are shortsighted"      (Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, ¶ 1)

Personal Communication

These may be letters, e-mail, or telephone conversations. These forms of communication are not included in the reference list. Cite personal communications in the body of the text only. Give the Initials and Surname and an exact date of the communication.

                example: J. O. Smith (personal communication, Oct. 1, 1995)

                example: (J. O. Smith, personal communication, Oct. 1, 1995)

Source: American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
(ISBN: 1-55798-791-2 pbk)

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