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APA Citation Style

APA Style is preferred style of documentation for psychology and is frequently used in other social sciences.

Periodicals in the Reference List

Journal Articles

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Year of publication). Title of the article: And also its subtitle. Title of the Journal, volume(issue number), page range. https://doi.org/10.xxxxxxxx

Douglass, A. B., & Stedlay, N. (2006). Memory distortion in eyewitnesses: A meta-analysis of the post-identification feedback effect. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20(7), 859-869. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1237

If the article is from an online journal but has no DOI, you may use a URL of the journal home page instead. If it is a print-only publication, end the citation with the page range. See the DOI flowchart on APA Style Blog.

Journal Article with 21 or More Authors

Matheus, F. C., Rial, D., Real, J. I., Lemos, C., Ben, J., Guaita, G. O., . . . Prediger, R. D. (2016). Decreased synaptic plasticity in the medial prefrontal cortex underlies short-term memory deficits in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 301, 43-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2015.12.011

When there are twenty-one or more authors, list the first nineteen, insert an ellipsis (. . .), then list the last author. If there are fewer than twenty-one authors, list them all! The in-text citation should include the first author followed by et al. (Matheus et al., 2016).

Magazine and Newspaper Articles

Weir, K. (2015, December). Life on the outside. Monitor on Psychology, 46(11), 66-70.  http://www.apa.org/monitor

These are similar to journal article citations, except that the date is more exact: year and month for monthly publications, and exact date for daily publications, such as newspapers. Newspaper article citations put p. or pp. in front of page ranges, while magazine article citations do not.