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Human Services: APA 7th Edition

Resources for Human Services coursework. Includes information about academic research, sociology & psychology databases, and APA citation style.

APA 7th Edition - NEW

APA citations contain 4 basic parts: Author, Date, Title, Source.

Be sure to consult the Publication Manual of the APA or the "Style & Grammar Guidelines" from the APA Style Blog for detailed standards and procedures.  

1.    Sample Papers from APA Style Blog           2.   Sample Papers from Purdue OWL

APA References Examples

All library databases include a built in citation creator. See "Home" or "Citation Generator" tab for more information. 

APA 7th Edition Sytle Guide

Websites

Quick Guides

APA Tutorials

APA References Page & In-Text Citations

Journal Article References from the APA Style Blog

  • All citations should be in alphabetical order, double-spaced & have a hanging indent. 
  • Only capitalize the first word of the title, the first work of the subtitle (after a colon), and proper nouns.​
  • URLs are no longer preceded by "Retrieved from," unless directed by instructor.
  • In-text citations: Use page number for direct quotation. Summary and paraphrased citations do not require a page number, although it is encouraged for paraphrases. 
    • If there is no page number, such as a website, paragraph number or title of the section can be used.

 

References:

Elbel, B., Tamura, K., McDermott, Z. T., Duncan, D. T., Athens, J. K., Wu, E., Mijanovich, T., & Schwartz, A. E. (2019). Disparities

        in food access around homes and schools for New York City children. PLoS ONE, 14(6), 1–17.

        https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217341

 

In-text Citations:

1 Author (Meyer, 2020, p. 72)
2 Authors (Meyer & Spalding, 2020)
3+ Authors (Elbel et al., 2019, para. 5)
Organization Author

First time spell out & add abbreviation:

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020, Pandemic section)

Then all subsequent citation use abbreviation:  (CDC, 2020)
No Author

Give the title of the work in place of the author. Italicize a book title, and use quotation marks around the title of the source is an article. ("Is Melatonin Safe?," 2018)

Library databases provide citations either at the end of the article or look for a citation icon. Always double check that the citation provided matches the example given by your textbook or instructor. Sometimes capitalization of APA is incorrect. 

Magazine & Trade Publication Article References from the APA Style Blog

  • All citations should be in alphabetical order, double-spaced & have a hanging indent. 
  • Only capitalize the first word of the title, the first work of the subtitle (after a colon), and proper nouns.​
  • URLs are no longer preceded by "Retrieved from," unless directed by instructor.
  • In-text citations: Use page number for direct quotation. Summary and paraphrased citations do not require a page number, although it is encouraged for paraphrases. 
    • If there is no page number, such as a website, paragraph number or title of the section can be used.

References:

Lyons, D. (2009, June 15). Don't ‘iTune’ us: It’s geeks versus writers. Guess who’s winning. Newsweek, 153(24), 27. 

Schaefer, N. K., & Shapiro, B. (2019, September 6). New middle chapter in the story of human evolution. Science, 365(6457), 981–982. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay3550

Schulman, M. (2019, September 9). Superfans: A love story. The New Yorker.  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/16/superfans-a-love-story

 

  • If a magazine article has a DOI, include the DOI in the reference (as in the Schaefer and Shapiro example).
  • If the magazine article does not have a DOI and is from an academic research database, end the reference after the page range (as in the Lyons example). Do not include database information in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print magazine article.
  • If the magazine article does not have a DOI but does have a URL that will resolve for readers (e.g., it is from an online magazine that is not part of a database), include the URL of the article at the end of the reference (as in the Schulman example).
  • If the magazine article does not have volume, issue, and/or page numbers (e.g., because it is from an online magazine), omit the missing elements from the reference (as in the Schulman example).

Newspaper Article References from the APA Style Blog

  • All citations should be in alphabetical order, double-spaced & have a hanging indent. 

  • Only capitalize the first word of the title, the first work of the subtitle (after a colon), and proper nouns.​

  • URLs are no longer preceded by "Retrieved from," unless directed by instructor.

  • In-text citations: Use page number for direct quotation. Summary and paraphrased citations do not require a page number, although it is encouraged for paraphrases. 

    • If there is no page number, such as a website, paragraph number or title of the section can be use​​​​​​d

References:

Carey, B. (2019, March 22). Can we get better at forgetting? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/health/memory-forgetting-psychology.html

Harlan, C. (2013, April 2). North Korea vows to restart shuttered nuclear reactor that can make bomb-grade plutonium. The Washington Post, A1, A4.

Stobbe, M. (2020, January 8). Cancer death rate in U.S. sees largest one-year drop ever. Chicago Tribune.

Book or eBook References from the APA Style Blog

  • All citations should be in alphabetical order, double-spaced & have a hanging indent. 

  • Only capitalize the first word of the title, the first work of the subtitle (after a colon), and proper nouns.​

  • URLs are no longer preceded by "Retrieved from," unless directed by instructor.

  • In-text citations: Use page number for direct quotation. Summary and paraphrased citations do not require a page number, although it is encouraged for paraphrases. 
    • If there is no page number, such as a website, paragraph number or title of the section can be used.

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright Year). Title of the book (7th ed.). Publisher. DOI or URL

Webpage on Website or Whole Website References from the APA Style Blog

  • All citations should be in alphabetical order, double-spaced & have a hanging indent. 

  • Only capitalize the first word of the title, the first work of the subtitle (after a colon), and proper nouns.​

  • URLs are no longer preceded by "Retrieved from," unless directed by instructor.

  • In-text citations: Use page number for direct quotation. Summary and paraphrased citations do not require a page number, although it is encouraged for paraphrases. 
    • If there is no page number, such as a website, paragraph number or title of the section can be used.

  • All citations should be in alphabetical order, double-spaced & have a hanging indent. 
  • Only capitalize the first word of the title, the first work of the subtitle (after a colon), and proper nouns.​
  • URLs are no longer preceded by "Retrieved from," unless directed by instructor.

References:

Host Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. OR Host screen name. (Host). (Year, Month Day {of podcast}). Title of podcast [Audio podcast]. Website. URL of podcast

Vedantam, S. (Host). (2015-present). Hidden brain [Audio podcast]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510308/hidden-brain

Tip: If you accessed the podcast via an app and do not know the URL, omit it.

Tip: If you do not know the host's name, you can list the executive producers instead.

In-Text Citation: 

(Host Surname, Year)

(Vedantam, 2015-present)

 

Single Podcast Episode

Executive Producer, E. P. (Executive Producer). (Date of publication). Title of podcast episode (Episode number) [Audio podcast episode]. In Title of podcast. Production company. URL

 

Ethics Code References from the APA Style Blog

  • All citations should be in alphabetical order, double-spaced & have a hanging indent.
  • When the author and publisher are the same (as in the example), omit the publisher name to avoid repetition.

 

References:

National Association of Social Workers. (2017). NASW code of ethics. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/

       Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

In-text Citations:

1 Author (Meyer, 2020)
2 Authors (Meyer & Spalding, 2020)
3+ Authors (Elbel et al., 2019)
Organization Author

First time spell out & add abbreviation:

(National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2017)

Then all subsequent citation use abbreviation:  (NASW, 2017)

6 Steps to Citation

Green infographic for APA "Six steps to proper citation"