KCSS APA Style Guide

Formatting In-text Citations

When to use: Every time you use a piece of information or an image from a source, even when you put that information into your own words.

Where to place the in-text citation: At the end of the sentence where you stop taking information from a source OR at the end of the paragraph if all the information in the paragraph came from the same source. For images, cite directly underneath the image.

How: Five easy steps:

1. Find the entry for the source in your list of References.
2. Take the first information that the reader sees for that entry (usually the author’s last name OR the title of the article). Place a comma after this information. E.g. Dowling,
3. Add the year of publication E.g. Dowling, 2011.   If there is no publication date, find a more reliable source.
4. If you are quoting your source or using a piece of information that can be found on a specific page in your source, add the page number. E.g. Dowling, 2011, p. 3 If you are using a source with no page numbers (i.e., a web page), then use a paragraph number or another logical indicator (i.e., chapter heading, subheading...) instead. E.g. Smith, 2015, para. 7
5. Put the whole citation between round brackets. E.g. (Dowling, 2011, p. 3) (Smith, 2015, para. 7)

Checklist

• There is a header on every page, starting with the title page. The header only includes a page number and is flush right.
• The references list begins on a new page in your document.
• The title References appears in bold on the first line of this page and is centred.
• Arrange sources in alphabetical order by the surname of the first author or article title when there is no author.
• When using the title to alphabetize entries, ignore the words “A”, “An” & “The” if they are the first words in the title. Treat numbers like they were spelled out when trying to alphabetize them eg. 3 = three.
• Use hanging indentation:  Start the first line of each entry at the left margin. Indent by five spaces each subsequent line.
• Double-space the entire list (no extra space between entries).
• Titles for stand-alone publications (e.g. books, webpages, data sets, reports) are always in italics.
• Titles of resources that are part of a greater whole (periodicals, book chapters) are not italicized.
• Use (n.d.) if there is no identifiable date of publication.
• All references end with a full stop (period) expect when the entry ends with a DOI or URL.

APA 7 Format for In-text Citations and List of References

Use the tabs below to find examples for the types of resource you need to cite