John S. Bailey Library: APA Style: Elements

Elements of references

An APA reference consists of four elements:

the author,
the publication date,
the title, and
the location of the source.

There are variations in the presentation of these elements depending on the type of source you are citing.

Click on the collapsible panel to see variations.

Author

The author is the person(s) or corporate entity responsible for producing a work. The term is used in a broader sense to include editor, compiler, composer, creator, etc. Include the author in references to give credit to those to whom the work belongs and to help the audience check their credentials.

The table that follows presents author variations. The information applies to all kinds of sources including books, articles, websites, films, videos, etc.

Author variation	Action	Example
One author	Invert individual authors' names. Provide the last name and initials.	Bowlby, J.
Two to twenty authors	Invert all individual authors' names. Provide the last name and initials for sources written by up to and including 20 authors. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author's name in sources by 2 to 20 authors.	El-Sheikh, M., & Moore, G. A.
Twenty one or more authors	Provide the first 19 authors, then insert three ellipses points (. . .), and add the last author's name.	D'alessandro, M., Bennett, D., Montagnani, F., Cameli, P., Perrone, A., Bergantini, L., Franchi, F., Scolletta, S., Mazzei, M. A., Volterrani, L., Valente, S., Zanelli, G., Migliorini, L., Rossetti, B., Fabbiani, M., Vagaggini, C., Lanzarone, N., Capecchi, P. L., Cusi, M. G., . . . Siena COVID Unit.
Group author	Provide the full name of the study group, association, government agency, or corporation. Do not include abbreviations.	National Institute of Mental Health.
Two group authors	Use only the ampersand (&) to separate two group authors, do not use a comma.	National Institute of Mental Health & U.S. Department of Health.
No author	Move the title to the author's position before the date.	Bipolar disorders. (Non-stand-alone source) OR Coronavirus: impact on the sports industry worldwide. (Stand-alone source)
Anonymous work	Use the word "Anonymous" when a work is signed as such.	Anonymous.
Author with suffixes	Retain suffixes in names. Use comma to separate initials and suffixes.	Bourne, J. K., Jr. Portwood, C. R., II
Author with hyphenated name	Retain the hyphen and add a period, but no space after each initial, for hyphenated author's names.	Xu, A.-J. (for Ai-Jun Xu)
Role other than author's	Include an author's role in parentheses after the name, if necessary. Do not include titles, positions, ranks, or academic achievements.	Fink, G. (Ed.). OR Spielberg, S. (Producer & Director).

Date

This is the date, on which copies of a creative work like a book, an article, a report, a web source, etc. are officially made available to the public. Include the publication date in references to indicate how recent the information is.

The table that follows presents date variations. The information applies to all kinds of sources including books, articles, websites, films, videos, etc.

Source	Date variation	Example
Books \| Journal articles Reports \| Dissertations	Year	(2015).
Magazines \| Newspapers \| Blog posts \| Papers or Posters in meetings	Exact date	(2015, May). (2016, May/June). (2016, Spring). (2018, May 2).
Articles accepted but not yet published	In press	(in press).
All types of sources	No date	(n.d.).
Several volumes or letters from the same collection	Range of years	(2001–2006).
Archival sources	Estimated date	(ca. 1937). [ca. is the abbeviation of the Latin word "circa" meaning "around", "about"].

Title

A word, phrase, sentence, single character, or sequence of characters that appears on an item, naming the work(s) contained in it. In citations, titles are included for purposes of identification and reference. Titles also indicate how relevant the information is.

The table that follows presents title variations. The information applies to all kinds of sources including books, articles, websites, films, videos, etc.

Stand-alone source	Action	Example
Book \| Report \| Webpage	Provide the title in italics. Capitalize the first word of the title, and the subtitle as well as proper nouns. Present any additional information such as edition, report no., and volume no. in parentheses immediately after the title. Do not italicize the parenthetical information.	The course of life: Middle and late childhood (2nd. ed.). OR Political-military trends in Italy, Greece, and Spain (CMI D0012974.A2/Final).
Film \| Video \| Photograph \| Press release \| Software \| Mobile app \| Data set \| Dissertation \| Thesis \| Social medium post \| Unpublished manuscript	Provide the title in italics, followed by a bracketed description. Finish the element with a period outside the brackets. Capitalize the first letter of the description, but do not italicize it.	The impact of information literacy instruction on the library anxiety and information competency of graduate students [Unpublished doctoral dissertation].
Source as part of a greater whole	Action	Example
Article \| Chapter	Provide the title. Capitalize the first word of the title, and the subtitle as well as proper nouns.	Negotiating blame as a fat child's parent: A case study.
No title	Provide a description of the work in square brackets.	[Map showing the population distribution of Canada as of July 1, 2014].
Comment on a periodical article	Provide the first 20 words of a comment or post followed by a bracketed description. Finish the element with a period outside the brackets. Capitalize the first letter of the description, but do not italicize it.	News outlets illustrated pandemic articles with (often distorted) photos of beaches, even though open-air spaces offer low-risk ways for people [Comment on the article "America is trapped in a pandemic spiral"].

Location

DOIs and URLs , publisher names, page numbers, and places provide location information for the sources. Include these elements in references to lead the audience to the actual source and check the publisher's credibility.

The table that follows presents location information variations depending on the type of source you want to cite in your references.

Source	Location variation	Example
Book \| Report with DOI	Publisher + DOI	American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10828-007
Book \| Report with URL (not from a database)	Publisher + URL	Parlor Press. https://writingspaces.org/sites/default/files/writing-spaces-readings-on-writing-vol-1.pdf
Book \| Repot without DOI or URL	Publisher	Routledge.
Article with DOI	Journal info + DOI	Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 6(2), 84-92. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027857
Article with URL (not from a database)	Journal \| Magazine \| Newspaper info + URL	Psychology Today, 43(3), 86-91. http://www.psychologytoday.com
Article without DOI or URL	Journal \| Magazine \| Newspaper info	Modern English Teacher, 29(4), 38.
Webpage	Website name + URL	World Health Organization. https://www.who.int
Conference session	Conference name + Place + DOI OR URL	Amical 11th Annual Meeting & Conference. Athens, Greece. OR ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition. Washington, DC, United States. OR Fifth International Conference on Image Processing and its Applications, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1049/cp:19950755

Notes!

DOIs & URLs

Provide both DOIs & URLs hyperlinked. This will allow your audience to link directly to the actual source.
Format DOIs following the guidelines of the International DOI Foundation as follows: https://doi.org/xxxxx
Do not add a period after a DOI or a URL as it may interfere with the link's functionality.
If you cite a work with a long DOI or URL , then you might prefer to shorten it. To shorten a DOI, go to the shortDOI Service . To shorten URLs you can visit any independent shortening service or use shortened URLs provided by the website you are using. Just check if the shortened link leads to the correct location.

Publisher

The organization which is primarily responsible for producing the source is the publisher. Check the table below to clarify details about how to cite publisher information properly.

Citing publishers	Skipping publishers
Co-publishers: Cite two or more publishers that equally share the responsibility of a work. Separate publisher names with semicolons (;) (e.g., ACPA College Student Educators International; Stylus).	Database vendors: Do not cite as publishers, database vendors like Ebsco that are not involved in producing the works that they make available.
Publisher's division/imprint: Cite the division/imprint (brand name) instead of the parent company.	Website publisher: Do not cite the publisher of a website when its name is the same as the name of the website.
Organization as publisher & author: Cite the organization only in the author position.	Person as publisher & author: Do not cite the person in the publisher's position in publications that have been published by their author or editor.
Publisher as part of an organizational unit: Cite the names of parent agencies in the publisher position, when the most specific agency’s name appears in the author position.	Periodical publisher: Do not cite the publisher for publications such as journals, magazines, newspapers. Provide the periodical's information including the periodical's name, volume, issue, and page numbers.
Standardization of publisher names: Write the name of the publisher as it appears on the work you used, even if it varies over the years and across works. You do not have to standardize the names. Always add a period (.) after publisher names.	Business structure designations in publisher names: Omit designations such as “Co.”, “Inc.”, “Ltd.”, “Corp.”, from publisher names (e.g., cite Westburn Publishers Ltd. as Westburn Publishers).

Places & Pages

In case of works that are associated with a specific location like a conference presentation, include the place in the location information. Abbreviate names of U.S. states and Canadian provinces and Australian states and territories . When you cite locations outside of the United States, provide the name of the city and country in full (e.g., Washington, DC, but Athens, Greece).
Always include the page number, if available, when you cite an article from a periodical or a chapter of an edited work.

Missing Elements

Sometimes information sources do not have all the necessary elements. The table below shows how to create a citation in the reference list and in the text when one or more elements are missing.

The table does not include information on italicization of titles and only includes basic punctuation. Consult the author, date, title, and location elements sections above to find such information.

Missing elements	Action	Reference structure	In-text structure
None-All elements are available	Provide the author, date, title, and location of the work.	Author. (Date). Title. Location.	(Author, Year) OR Author (Year)
Author	Provide the title, date, and location of the work.	Title. (Date). Location.	(Title, Year) OR Title (Year)
Date	Provide the author, write "n.d." to indicate that there is "no date", and continue with the title and location of the work.	Author. (n.d.). Title. Location.	(Author, n.d.) OR Author (n.d.)
Title	Provide the author, date, a description for the work in square brackets, and location of the work.	Author. (Date). [Description of work]. Location.	(Author, Year) OR Author (Year)
Author & date	Provide the title, write "n.d." to indicate that there is "no date", and continue with the location of the work.	Title. (n.d.). Location.	(Title, n.d.) OR Title (n.d.)
Author & title	Provide the description for the work in square brackets, the date, and the location of the work.	[Description of work]. (Date). Location.	([Description of work], Year.) OR [Description of work] (Year)
Date & title	Provide the author, write "n.d." to indicate that there is "no date", and continue with the description for the work in square brackets and the location of the work.	Author. (n.d.). [Description of work]. Location.	(Author, n.d.) OR Author (n.d.)
Author, date & title	Provide the description for the work in square brackets, write "n.d." to indicate that there is "no date", and continue with the location of the work.	[Description of work]. (n.d.). Location.	([Description of work], n.d.) OR [Description of work] (n.d.)
Location	Cite as personal communication.	No reference list entry	(C.C. Communicator, personal communication, Month Day, Year) OR C.C. Communicator (personal communication, Month Day, Year)