Finding scientific information: Apa style

APA Guides (7th ed.)

APA Style In-Text Citations
APA Style References
APA Style Reference Examples

Guides in library's collections

 

 

STUDENT: Check your teacher, what citation style you have to use. If it is APA, clarify which edition (6th or 7th) is used in your unit. ​
Use en dash for numerical ranges in both APA editions.

 

 

Reference list - APA 6

Here are some examples of how to use different types of references in a reference list using the APA 6th (American Psychological Association) citation style in texts written in English. The author must always ensure that the in-text citations and the reference list follow the practice of the community or publication for which the publication is intended. Further information: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). (2010). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association (pp. 193-224).

When you cite a book, the reference list should include the following bibliographic information:

  • Name of author or editor
    • editor's name is followed by (ed.) or corresponding abbreviation
    • organizational authors' names are given in the same form as they appear in the publication, with the main organization listed first and the suborganization after that
    • if there is no personal or organizational author, the reference starts with the title of the publication
  • Year of publication. When no year of publication is indicated, use the copyright year or (n.d.), meaning "no date".
  • Title of the publication
  • Edition information is always included, when the publication is other than first edition
    • in the form it appears in the publication
  • Publication series, if the publication has been published in a series
  • Publisher
  • Place of publication
    • if more than one place of publication is given, include only the first one

Bennett, D. (2005). The art of precast concrete: Colour, texture, expression. Basel: Birkhäuser. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7643-7668-6
Ympäristöministeriö. (2016). Eläköön lähiö! : 22 reseptiä lähiöelämään. Helsinki: Ympäristöministeriö.

Author, A. A. (2017). Title of work. Location: Publisher.
Author, A. A. (2017). Title of work. Retrieved from http://www.xxxxxx
Author, A. A. (2017). Title of work. https://doi.org/xxxxx
Editor, A. A. (Ed.). (2017). Title of work. Location: Publisher.

 

 

 

How to add a chapter from an edited book to Mendeley?

  • Use the book section citation type. Use the title and author of the chapter as the section title. Include the author(s), editors and book title, as well.

Author, A. A. & Author, B. B. (2017). Title of article. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (pp. 111). Location: Publisher.

Merchant, G. (2017). Hands, Fingers and iPads. In C. Burnett, G. Merchant, A. Simpson & M. Walsh (Eds.), The Case of the iPad: Mobile literacies in education (pp. 245256). Singapore: Springer.

There is slight variation in the way articles in journals and edited books are entered.

  • Names of authors (no more than seven authors)
  • Year of publication
  • Publications in print are followed by the text "(in print)" or "(in press)", manuscripts by "(manuscript)"
  • Article title
  • Information about the journal or publication in which the article has been published
    • in the case of an article in a book, include the word "In" before the title of the book
  • For periodicals, include volume and issue number
  • Pages on which the article appears

journal article
Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24(2), 225229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225

eight or more authors
Gilbert, D. G., McClernon, F. J., Rabinovich, N. E., Sugai, C., Plath, L. C., Asgaard, G., . . . Botros, N. (2004). Effects of quitting smoking on EEG activation and attention last for more than 31 days and are more severe with stress, dependence, DRD2 A1 allele, and depressive traits. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 6(2), 249267. https://doi.org/10.1080/14622200410001676305

journal article without DOI
Sillick, T. J., & Schutte, N. S. (2006). Emotional intelligence and self-esteem mediate between perceived early parental love and adult happiness. Sensoria: A Journal of Mind, Brain & Culture, 2(2), 3848. Retrieved from ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap

Light, M. A., & Light, I. H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigration in the United States and its implications for local law enforcement. Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal 8(1), 7382.

in-press
Woods, R. K. (in press). Technique for myocardial protection in pulmonary atresia intact ventricular septum. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

in-preparation
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of manuscript. Manuscript in preparation.

submitted for publication
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of manuscript. Manuscript submitted for publication.

         article in edited book

Merchant, G. (2017). Hands, Fingers and iPads. In C. Burnett, G. Merchant, A. Simpson & M. Walsh (Eds.), The Case of the iPad: Mobile literacies in education (pp. 245256). Singapore: Springer.

 

Conference presentations are often published in books or periodicals. If there are no conference proceedings, include the authors and the title of the presentation, followed by the name and place of the conference.

Katz, I., Gabayan, K., & Aghajan, H. (2007). A multi-touch surface using multiple cameras. In J. Blanc-Talon, W. Philips, D. Popescu, & P.
Scheunders (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Vol. 4678. Advanced Concepts for Intelligent Vision Systems (pp. 97108). https://doi.org /10.1007/978-3-540-74607-2_9

Viitanen, K., & Reiman, T. (2017, June). Building an adaptive safety culture in a nuclear construction project - insights to safety practitioners. Paper presented at the 7th Resilience Engineering International Symposium, Liège, Belgium. Retrieved from http://www.resilience-engineering-association.org/resources/symposium-papers/2017-liege-luik-b/

Include author, time of publication, title and publication channel.

Tiiro, A. (2018). Effect of visual realism on cybersickness in virtual reality (Master's thesis, University of Oulu). Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201802091218

Oikarinen, E. (2018). Perspectives on humor in recruitment advertising on the Internet (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oulu). Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. G, Oeconomica, 97. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526218397

For patents, include the names of the inventor(s), effective year, country and patent number. In text, cite the patent number, not the names of the inventors, e.g. (Finnish patent FI20000522, 2001)

Kinnunen, H. & Nissilä, S. (2001). Finnish patent FI20000522. Helsinki: Finnish patent and registration office.
Kinnunen, H. & Nissilä, S. (2001). U.S. Patent US2001023320. Retrieved from https://fi.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?FT=D&date=20010920&DB=&locale=fi_FI&CC=US&NR=2001023320A1&KC=A1&ND=4

For standards, include the standardizing organization and year, as well as the title and identifier of the standard. An example of an in-text citation: (International Organization for Standardization, 2016).

International Organization for Standardization. (2016). Occupational health and safety management systems—Requirements with guidance for use (ISO/DIS Standard No. 45001). Retrieved from http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=6378 

For maps, include the title of the map and possible map series; if the cartographer's name is given, enter it as the author. If there are user-defined locations in online maps, enter them in square brackets.

Google. (n.d.). [Google Maps directions for driving from Ingolstadt, Germany, to Geneva, Switzerland]. Retrieved August 4, 2015, from 
https://goo.gl/maps/ILt8O

Karttakeskus (2014). Hevonkack ja muita alatyylisiä paikannimiä Suomesta [Map]. Helsinki: Karttakeskus.

In text

When citing an act, use its official abbreviation (you have to specify the act when it appears for the first time in your text), chapter, section and subsection. Example (KPL 3:9.2 §)

You can check the correct spelling of abbreviations of acts and decrees in the Finlex and Edilex databases, or in the printed books Suomen Laki or Suomen säädöskokoelma. For example on https://www.edilex.fi/#toolbar=tab-abbreviations

In reference list

Kirjanpitolaki 30.12.1997/1336.

____________

The APA style has been applied in this example.

When you cite electronic sources, you must indicate how to access them. You may leave links active.
  • Use a permanent link if possible, for example DOI, URN, Handle or so-called permalink. Create a link from a DOI as follows: https://doi.org/[DOI identifier.] Use the Crossref service to find out the DOI of a publication.
  • Reference to a source in an online archive, for example Internet Archive or Memento, either an existing one or one uploaded by you.
  • URL address

Aivelo, T. (2018, January 18). Miksi plagiointi on väärin? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.tiede.fi/blogit/kaiken-takana-loinen/miksi-plagiointi-vaarin

Hakala, J. (2017). E-viittaamisen ihanuus ja kurjuus. Informaatiotutkimus, 36(2), pp. 77–85. https://doi.org/10.23978/inf.65190

Sähkökirjoihin viittaaminen (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kustantajat.fi/sivut/1485/sahkokirjojen-viitausohje

Use hanging indent.

If you are citing more than seven authors: after the sixth author's name, use an ellipsis in place of the author names, then add the final author name. There are no more then seven names.

References

Aliev, M. R., & Watson, J. (1985). Higher-order effects in the vibration-rotation spectra of semirigid molecules. In K. N. Rao (Ed.), Molecular spectroscopy: Modern research (pp. 167). Orlando: Academic Press.

HART Communication Foundation. (2009, December 22). Wireless hart. Retrieved from http://www.hartcomm.org/

Mitra, S. K. (1991). Some unconventional signal processing applications of multirate techniques. Proceedings - IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems 1, 1316.

Paulson, M. (1992). Basement membrane proteins: Structure, assembly, and cellular interactions. Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 27(12), 9327. https://doi.org/10.3109/10409239209082560

Paulsson, M., Saladin, K., & Landwehr, R. (1988). Binding of Ca2+ influences susceptibility of laminin to proteolytic digestion and interactions between domain-specific laminin fragments. European Journal of Biochemistry, 177(3), 477481. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1988.tb14396.x

Royal Mardsen Hospital Bone-Marrow Transplantation Team. (1977). Failure of syngeneic bone-marrow graft without preconditioning in post-hepatitis marrow aplasia. Lancet, 310(8041), 742744. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(77)90241-0

Watson, M. A. J. (1985). Higher-order effects in the vibration-rotation spectra of semirigid molecules. Molecular Spectroscopy: Modern Research, 3, 1.

Yonkers, K. A., Ramin, S. M., Rush, A. J., Navarrete, C. A., Carmody, T., March, D., . . . Leveno, K. J. (2001). Onset  and persistence of postpartum depression in an inner-city maternal health clinic system. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(11), 18561863. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.158.11.1856

Zar, J. H. (1984). Biostatistical Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Reference list - APA 7

Here are some examples of how to use different types of references in a reference list using the APA 7th (American Psychological Association) citation style in texts written in English. The author must always ensure that the in-text citations and the reference list follow the practice of the community or publication for which the publication is intended.

Use hanging indent.

Further information:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (2020). American Psychological Association (7th ed.).

Major differences between APA 6th & 7th

 

When you cite a book, the reference list should include the following bibliographic information:

  • Name of author or editor
    • editor's name is followed by (ed.) or corresponding abbreviation
    • organizational authors' names are given in the same form as they appear in the publication, with the main organization listed first and the suborganization after that
    • if there is no personal or organizational author, the reference starts with the title of the publication
  • Year of publication. When no year of publication is indicated, use the copyright year or (n.d.), meaning "no date".
  • Title of the publication in italics
  • Edition information is always included, when the publication is other than first edition
    • in the form it appears in the publication
  • Publication series, if the publication has been published in a series, e.g. Peltola, M., Keskitalo, P., Äärelä, R., & Aikio, A. (2019). Saamelainen varhaiskasvatus nyt: Arvot, käytänteet ja osallisuus arjessa. (Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. F, Scripta academica nro 13). Oulun yliopisto.
  • Publisher

Bennett, D. (2005). The art of precast concrete: Colour, texture, expression. Birkhäuser. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7643-7668-6
Ympäristöministeriö. (2016). Eläköön lähiö! : 22 reseptiä lähiöelämään. Ympäristöministeriö.

Author, A. A. (2020). Title of work. Publisher.
Author, A. A. (2020). Title of work. Publisher. http://www.xxxxxx
Author, A. A. (2020). Title of work. https://doi.org/xxxxx
Editor, A. A. (Ed.). (2020). Title of work. Publisher.

How to add a chapter from an edited book to Mendeley?

  • Use the book section citation type. Use the title and author of the chapter as the section title. Include the author(s), editors and book title, as well.

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (2017). Title of article. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (pp. 1111). Publisher.

Merchant, G. (2017). Hands, Fingers and iPads. In C. Burnett, G. Merchant, A. Simpson, & M. Walsh (Eds.), The Case of the iPad: Mobile literacies in education (pp. 245256). Springer.

There is slight variation in the way articles in journals and edited books are entered.

  • Names of authors (no more than 20 authors, if more: the first 19 authors, . . . , the final author)
  • Year of publication
  • Publications in print are followed by the text "(in print)" or "(in press)", manuscripts by "(manuscript)"
  • Article title 
  • Information about the journal or publication in which the article has been published in italics, also comma and volume number.
    • in the case of an article in a book, include the word "In" before the title of the book
  • For periodicals, include volume and issue number
  • Pages on which the article appears

journal article

Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24(2), 225229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225

21 or more authors

Wiskunde, B., Arslan, M., Fischer, P., Nowak, L., Van den Berg, O., Coetzee, L., Juárez, U., Riyaziyyat, E., Wang, C., Zhang, I., Li, P., Yang, R., Kumar, B., Xu, A., Martinez, R., McIntosh, V., Ibáñez, L. M., Mäkinen, G., Virtanen, E., . . . Kovács, A. (2019). Indie pop rocks mathematics: Twenty One Pilots, Nicolas Bourbaki, and the empty set. Journal of Improbable Mathematics, 27(1), 19351968. https://doi.org/10.0000/3mp7y-537

journal article without DOI

Sillick, T. J., & Schutte, N. S. (2006). Emotional intelligence and self-esteem mediate between perceived early parental love and adult happiness. Sensoria: A Journal of Mind, Brain & Culture2(2), 3848. Retrieved from ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap

Light, M. A., & Light, I. H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigration in the United States and its implications for local law enforcement. Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal 8(1), 7382.

Woods, R. K. (in press). Technique for myocardial protection in pulmonary atresia intact ventricular septum. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of manuscript [Manuscript in preparation].

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of manuscript [Manuscript submitted for publication].

Merchant, G. (2017). Hands, Fingers and iPads. In C. Burnett, G. Merchant, A. Simpson, & M. Walsh (Eds.), The Case of the iPad: Mobile literacies in education (pp. 245256). Springer.

Conference presentations are often published in books or periodicals. If there are no conference proceedings, include the authors, full dates of the conference, the title of the presentation [describe the presentation in square brackets after the title] followed by the name and place of the conference (instructions).

 

   Conference proceeding:

Fahrenberg, U., Jipsen, P., & Winter, M. (Eds.). (2020). Lecture notes in computer science: Vol. 12062. Relational and Algebraic Methods in Computer Science: 18th International Conference, RAMiCS 2020, Palaiseau, France, April 8–11, 2020, Proceedings. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21070-9

 

As a book chapter:

Katz, I., Gabayan, K., & Aghajan, H. (2007). A multi-touch surface using multiple cameras. In J. Blanc-Talon, W. Philips, D. Popescu, & P. Scheunders (Eds.), Lecture notes in Computer Science: Vol 4678. Advanced concepts for Intelligent Vision Systems (s. 97–108). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74607-2_9

 

In a journal:

Rönkkö, T., Kuuluvainen, H., Karjalainen, P., Keskinen, J., Saukko, E., Järvinen, A., Silvennoinen, H., Rostedt, A., Olin, M., Yli-Ojanperä, J., Dal Maso, M., Hillamo, R., Timonen, H. J., Saarikoski, S., Niemi, J. V., Kousa, A., Pirjola, L., & Nousiainen, P. (2017). Traffic is a major source of atmospheric nanocluster aerosol. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(29), 7549–7554. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1700830114

 

Conference presentation:

Viitanen, K., & Reiman, T. (26–29 June 2017). Building an adaptive safety culture in a nuclear construction project - insights to safety practitioners [Conference presentation]. 7th Resilience Engineering International Symposium, Liège, Belgium. http://www.resilience-engineering-association.org/resources/symposium-papers/2017-liege-luik-b/

Include author, time of publication, title and publication channel. 

Published dissertations and theses

Tiiro, A. (2018). Effect of visual realism on cybersickness in virtual reality [Master's thesis, University of Oulu]. JULTIKA University of Oulu Repository. http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/isbn978-952-62-1839-7

Oikarinen, E. (2018). Perspectives on humor in recruitment advertising on the Internet (Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. G, Oeconomica 97) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Oulu]. JULTIKA University of Oulu Repository. http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/isbn978-952-62-1839-7

Unpublished dissertations and theses

Author, A. A. (year). Title [Unpublished doctoral dissertation/Unpublished master's thesis]. Name of Institution.

For patents, include the names of the inventor(s), effective year, country and patent number. In text, cite the patent number, not the names of the inventors, e.g. (Finnish patent FI20000522, 2001)

Kinnunen, H., & Nissilä, S. (2001). Finnish patent FI20000522. Finnish patent and registration office.

Kinnunen, H., & Nissilä, S. (2001). U.S. Patent US2001023320. https://fi.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?FT=D&date=20010920&DB=&locale=fi_FI&CC=US&NR=2001023320A1&KC=A1&ND=4

For standards, include the standardizing organization and year, as well as the title and identifier of the standard. An example of an in-text citation: 

International Organization for Standardization. (2016). Occupational health and safety management systems—Requirements with guidance for use (ISO/DIS Standard No. 45001). http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=6378 

For maps, include the title of the map and possible map series; if the cartographer's name is given, enter it as the author. If there are user-defined locations in online maps, enter them in square brackets.

Google. (n.d.). [Google Maps directions for driving from Ingolstadt, Germany, to Geneva, Switzerland]. Retrieved August 4, 2015, from 
https://goo.gl/maps/ILt8O

Karttakeskus (2014). Hevonkack ja muita alatyylisiä paikannimiä Suomesta [Map]. Karttakeskus.

In text

When citing an act, use its official abbreviation (you have to specify the act when it appears for the first time in your text), chapter, section and subsection. Example (KPL 3:9.2 §)

You can check the correct spelling of abbreviations of acts and decrees in the Finlex and Edilex databases, or in the printed books Suomen Laki or Suomen säädöskokoelma. For example on https://www.edilex.fi/#toolbar=tab-abbreviations

In reference list

Kirjanpitolaki 30.12.1997/1336.

____________

The APA style has been applied in this example.

When you cite electronic sources, you must indicate how to access them. You may leave links active.

  • Use a permanent link if possible, for example DOI, URN, Handle or so-called permalink. Create a link from a DOI as follows: https://doi.org/[DOI identifier.] Use the Crossref service to find out the DOI of a publication.
  • Reference to a source in an online archive, for example Internet Archive or Memento, either an existing one or one uploaded by you.
  • URL address

 

Aivelo, T. (2020, April 20). Koronavirus leviää superherkästi [Blog post]. Kaiken takana on loinen. https://www.tiede.fi/blogit/kaiken-takana-loinen/koronavirus-superleviaa-herkasti
 

Hakala, J. (2017). E-viittaamisen ihanuus ja kurjuus. Informaatiotutkimus, 36(2), pp. 77–85. https://doi.org/10.23978/inf.65190

 

Bank of Finland. (n.d.). Exchange rates. Retrieved April 27, 2021 from  https://www.suomenpankki.fi/en/Statistics/exchange-rates/ 

  • when pages change over time but are not archived, include a retrieval date in the reference.

 

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

 

Reference examples

Use hanging indent.

Entries starting with "a", "and", "the"

If you are citing more than 20 authors: after the 19th author's name, use an ellipsis in place of the author names, then add the final author name. There are no more then 20 names.

References

Aliev, M. R., & Watson, J. (1985). Higher-order effects in the vibration-rotation spectra of semirigid molecules. In K. N. Rao (Ed.), Molecular spectroscopy: Modern research (pp. 167). Orlando: Academic Press.

HART Communication Foundation. (2009, December 22). Wireless hart. Retrieved from http://www.hartcomm.org/

McDuff, C., Smith, J., Kensington, K., Jones, S., Coughlan, S., Bortolin, L., Witte, M., Scott, A., Newport, A., Jensen, K., Wutzler, J., van Staden, I., McLean, J., Bergsma, G., Dowman, B., Petrie, K., Higgens, D., McCloud, R., Jessop, L., . . . Duncan, P. (2017). An introduction to quantitative analysis in finance. Houghton.

Mitra, S. K. (1991). Some unconventional signal processing applications of multirate techniques. Proceedings - IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems 1, 1316.

Paulson, M. (1992). Basement membrane proteins: Structure, assembly, and cellular interactions. Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 27(12), 93127. https://doi.org/10.3109/10409239209082560

Paulsson, M., Saladin, K., & Landwehr, R. (1988). Binding of Ca2+ influences susceptibility of laminin to proteolytic digestion and interactions between domain-specific laminin fragments. European Journal of Biochemistry, 177(3), 477481. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1988.tb14396.x

Royal Mardsen Hospital Bone-Marrow Transplantation Team. (1977). Failure of syngeneic bone-marrow graft without preconditioning in post-hepatitis marrow aplasia. Lancet, 310(8041), 742744. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(77)90241-0

Watson, M. A. J. (1985). Higher-order effects in the vibration-rotation spectra of semirigid molecules. Molecular Spectroscopy: Modern Research, 3, 1.

Zar, J. H. (1984). Biostatistical Analysis. Prentice-Hall.

APA style in-text citations - 6th & 7th ed.

More information: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed., p. 177 and 7th ed., p. 266.

Citing authors with the same surname

Citations include the author and date, either both inside parentheses or with the author names in running text and the date in parentheses. Use always page numbers with direct quotations

If a direct quotation is longer than 40 words, indent the paragraph: 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. (Author, year, page)

If direct quotation is shorter than 40 words:  "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" (Author, year, page).
In other cases: xxxx (Author, year, pages). 

Separate numbers in the page range using an en dash (–) in both APA editions.

Long paraphrases

If you cite the whole book or article, do not include page numbers.
Page numbers are included when citing an image, table or detailed information. 
APA also encourages authors to include page numbers in other than direct quotations when it helps the reader to locate the relevant passage. If the cited material does not have page numbers, use a paragraph number. More information here.