Citing Electronic Resources

Citing Electronic Sources: APA Style of Citation

PLEASE NOTE: Follow recommended patterns given in the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, 4th edition, for indentation of items in a "Reference List."

Individual Works
Parts of Works
Journal Articles
Magazine Articles
Newspaper Articles
Discussion List Messages
Personal Electronic Communications (E-mail)
Reference Citations in Text

Individual Works

Basic forms, commercial supplier, and using an Internet protocol:

Author/editor. (Year). Title (edition), [Type of medium]. Producer (optional). Available:
Supplier/Database identifier or number [Access date].

Author/editor. (Year). Title (edition), [Type of medium]. Producer (optional). Available
Protocol (if applicable): Site/Path/File [Access date].

Examples:

Oxford English dictionary computer file: On compact disc (2nd ed.), [CD-ROM]. (1992). Available: Oxford UP [1995, May 27].
Pritzker, T. J. (No date). An Early fragment from central Nepal [Online]. Available: http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritzker/pritzker.html [1995, June 8].

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Parts of Works

Basic forms, commercial supplier, and using an Internet protocol:

Author/editor. (Year). Title. In Source (edition), [Type of medium]. Producer (optional).
Available: Supplier/Database identifier or number [Access date].

Author/editor. (Year). Title. In Source (edition), [Type of medium]. Producer (optional).
Available Protocol (if applicable): Site/Path/File [Access date].

Examples:

Bosnia and Hercegovina. (1995). In Academic American Encyclopedia [Online]. Available: Dow Jones News Retrieval Service/ENCYC [1995, June 5].

Daniel, R. T. (1995). The history of Western music. In Britannica online: Macropaedia [Online]. Available: http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g:DocF=macro/5004/45/0.html [1995, June 14].

* When citing information retrieved on the World Wide Web, it is not necessary to repeat the protocol (HTTP) after "Available" since that is stated in the URL.

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Journal Articles

Basic forms, commercial supplier, and using an Internet protocol:

     Author. (Year). Title. Journal Title [Type of medium], volume(issue), paging or indicator of
     length. Available: Supplier/Database name (Database identifier or number, if available)/Item or
     accession number [Access date].

Author. (Year). Title. Journal Title [Type of medium], volume(issue), paging or indicator of
length. Available Protocol (if applicable): Site/Path/File [Access date].

Examples:

Clark, J. K. (1993). Complications in academia: Sexual harassment and the law. Siecus Report [CD-ROM], 21(6), 6-10. Available: 1994 SIRS/SIRS 1993 School/Volume 4/Article 93A [1995, June 13].
Carriveau, K. L., Jr. (1995). [Review of the book Environmental hazards: Marine pollution]. Electronic Green Journal [Online], 2(1), 3 paragraphs. Available: gopher://gopher.uidaho.edu/11/UI_gopher/library/egj03/carriv01.html [1995, June 21].

* This is a reference for a book review; brackets indicate title is supplied.
* When citing information retrieved on the World Wide Web, it is not necessary to repeat the protocol (Gopher) after "Available" since that is stated in the URL.

Inada, K. (1995). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of Buddhist Ethics [Online], 2, 9 paragraphs. Available: http://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html [1995, June 21].

* When citing information retrieved on the World Wide Web, it is not necessary to repeat the protocol (HTTP) after "Available" since that is stated in the URL.

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Magazine Articles

Basic forms, commercial supplier, and using an Internet protocol:

     Author. (Year, month day). Title. Magazine Title [Type of medium], volume (if given),
     paging or indicator of length. Available: Supplier/Database name (Database identifier or
     number, if available)/Item or accession number [Access date].

Author. (Year, month day). Title. Magazine Title [Type of medium], volume (if given),
paging or indicator of length. Available Protocol (if applicable): Site/Path/File [Access date].

Examples:

Goodstein, C. (1991, September). Healers from the deep. American Health [CD-ROM], 60-64. Available: 1994 SIRS/SIRS 1992 Life Science/Article 08A [1995, June 13].

Viviano, F. (1995, May/June). The new Mafia order. Mother Jones Magazine [Online], 72 paragraphs. Available: http://www.mojones.com/MOTHER_JONES/MJ95/viviano.html [1995, July 17].

* When citing information retrieved on the World Wide Web, it is not necessary to repeat the protocol (HTTP) after "Available" since that is stated in the URL.

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Newspaper Articles

Basic forms, commercial supplier, and using an Internet protocol:

     Author. (Year, month day). Title. Newspaper Title [Type of medium], paging or indicator of
     length. Available: Supplier/Database name (Database identifier or number, if available)/Item or
     accession number [Access date].

Author. (Year, month day). Title. Newspaper Title [Type of medium], paging or indicator of
length. Available Protocol (if applicable): Site/Path/File [Access date].

Examples:

Howell, V., & Carlton, B. (1993, August 29). Growing up tough: New generation fights for its life: Inner-city youths live by rule of vengeance. Birmingham News [CD-ROM], p. 1A

Johnson, T. (1994, December 5). Indigenous people are now more combative, organized. Miami Herald [Online], p. 29SA(22 paragraphs).Available: gopher://summit.fiu.edu/Miami Herald--Summit-Related Articles/12/05/95--Indigenous People Now More Combative, Organized [1995, July 16].

* This reference gives beginning page and the number of paragraphs; this information is useful if one wishes to refer to material in text references.

* When citing information retrieved on the World Wide Web, it is not necessary to repeat the protocol (HTTP) after "Available" since that is stated in the URL.

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Discussion List Messages

Basic forms:

Author. (Year, Month day). Subject of message. Discussion List [Type of medium].
Available E-mail: DISCUSSION LIST@e-mail address [Access date].

Author. (Year, Month day). Subject of message. Discussion List [Type of medium].
Available E-mail: LISTSERV@e-mail address/Get [Access date].

Examples:

RRECOME. (1995, April 1). Top ten rules of film criticism. Discussions on All Forms of Cinema [Online]. Available E-mail: CINEMA-L@american.edu [1995, April 1].

* Author's login name, in uppercase, is given as the first element.

Discussions on All Forms of Cinema [Online]. Available E-mail: LISTSERV@american.edu/Get cinema-l log9504A [1995, August 1].

* Reference is obtained by searching the list's archive.

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Personal Electronic Communications (E-mail)

Basic forms:

Sender (Sender's E-mail address). (Year, Month day). Subject of Message. E-mail to
recipient (Recipient's E-mail address)

Examples:

Day, Martha (MDAY@sage.uvm.edu). (1995, July 30). Review of film -- Bad Lieutenant. E-mail to Xia Li (XLI@moose.uvm.edu).

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Reference Citations in Text

The approach to documentation recommended by the American Psychological Association is called
the author-date system. Citations in the text refer the reader to the "Reference List" at the end of the
book, chapter, article or paper. Below are a few examples where the reader is guided to a specific
paragraph in the electronic document.

Native peoples have little to lose by adopting these practices (Johnson, 1994, paragraph 10).
Viviano sees advantages in this line of defense (1995, paragraph 3).
Buddhist organizations have taken a somewhat different approach ... (Inada, 1995,

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