Updated: Dec. 18, 2019
To ensure consistency for students, modifications to citation examples are made
only between semesters.
This guide is representative of the 6th edition Publication Manual of APA.
APA examples are not exhaustive and focus on referencing and citations. Assistance from your professor and/or Writing Centre is suggested for clarification.
Users are responsible for interpretation of APA style guidelines and to seek further assistance when necessary.
Effective October 1, 2019.
Georgian will be adopting the 7th edition Publication Manual of APA in September 2020. (posted February 24, 2020)
See "where do I find" section for how to find the author, date, title and publication information
What to do if information (such as date or author) is missing for your APA citation.
Learn how to find the author, date, title and publication information.
Reference page entry:
Walters, G., & Contri, D. (1998, December). Outcome expectancies for gambling: Empirical modeling of a memory network in federal prison inmates. Journal of Gambling Studies, 14(2), 173 -191.
In-text citation:
(Walters & Contri, 1998)
Reference page entry:
Badelt, B. (2014, January/February). A neighborhood remembered. Canadian Geographic, 134 (1), 26.
In-text citation:
(Badelt, 2014)
Reference page entry:
Matys, F. (2014, April 10). Bid for higher library fees a mistake: Spears. Orillia Today, p. 10.
In-text citation:
(Matys, 2014)
When a source has only one author, prepare your reference list entry by typing the author's name in the format Lastname, Initials.
In this example, your reference page entry would start with the author's names in this format:
Schneider-Mayerson, M.
Your in-text citation for one author is quite simple:
(Schneider-Mayerson, 2013)
If your source has two authors, format the authors' names (Lastname, Initials) and include with an & in between.
Your reference page entry will start with:
Schöpfel, J. & Leduc, C.
In-text citation:
(Schöpfel & Leduc, 2012)
If your source has 3 to 5 authors, format the authors' names as shown (Lastname, Initials), and insert all authors' names before the date, including an "&" before the last author:
In this example, your reference page entry would start with the authors' names in this format:
Bush, A.A., Nipperess, D.A., Duursma, D.E., Theischinger, G., Turak, E. & Hughes, L.
If you have 3-5 authors: the first time you use an in-text citation, include all authors' last names.
(Bush, Nipperess, Duursma, Theischinger, Turak & Hughes, 2014)
In the next or any other instances, use only the first author's last name and add "et al.", with the date:
(Bush et al., 2014)
If you have 6 or more authors, use only the first author's last name and add "et al." with the date when writing your in-text ctiation:
(Bush et al., 2014)
If your source has more than 8 authors, include the first six authors' names in the correct format (Lastname, Initials), then add a ... and include the last author's name.
In this example, the reference page entry authors' names would look like this:
Ngongo, P.B., Priddy, F., Park, H., Becker, J. Bender, B., Fast, P., ... Mebrahtu, T.
TIP: You may need to click on the article title (as above) to see all authors' names and retrieve the last author for your reference page entry.
In-text citation:
(Ngongo et al., 2012)
