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Social Sciences: APA Style

This guide is intended for all those studying social science and related disciplines.

APA 7th Edition Citation Basics

Book:

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication). Title italicized and lowercase after the first word: Except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings. Publisher Name.

Book Chapter:

Chapter Author, F.I. (Year of Publication). Title of chapter lowercase after the first word: Except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings. In Book Editor's Name (Ed.), Book title italicized and lowercase after the first word: Except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings (page numbers of chapter). Publisher Name.

Audiobook:

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr) [Audiobook]. Publisher. URL (if applicable)

Note: It is not necessary to specify an ebook or audiobook version if the content is the same as in print. However, citing an audiobook as such does give you the opportunity to acknowledge the narrator.

Academic Article:

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication). Article title: Lowercase after the first word except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings. Journal Name Capitalized and Italicized, Volume number(issue number), first page-last page.

Newspaper Article:

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication, Month and date of publication). Title: Lowercase after the first word except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings. Newspaper Name Capitalized and Italicized, section number, first page.

Magazine Article:

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication, Month and date of publication or season of publication). Title: Lowercase after the first word except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings. Magazine Name Capitalized and Italicized, Volume number italicized(Issue number), first page-last page.

Online/Electronic Articles:

The format is the same as shown above except for the addition of the DOI after the page numbers. If the article is not assigned a DOI, include the web address (URL). In the APA 7th edition it is no longer required to include "Retrieved from" before the URL unless you are including a retrieval date.

Online Academic Article Without Retrieval Date

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication). Article title: Lowercase after the first word except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings. Journal Name Capitalized and ItalicizedVolume number(issue number), first page-last page. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Online Academic Article With Retrieval Date

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication). Article title: Lowercase after the first word except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings. Journal Name Capitalized and ItalicizedVolume number(issue number), first page-last page. Retrieved Month Day, Year from https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Web Site/Page:

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication, Month Date). Title of webpage: Lowercase after the first word except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings. Site name. URL

Film/Movie:

Director, F.I. (Director). (Year of publication). Title: Lowercase after the first word except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings [Type of media]. Production company.

Streaming Video:

Author, F.I. [username if applicable]. (Year, Month Day). Title: Lowercase after the first word except for proper nouns and adjectives and the first word of subheadings [Type of media]. Website. URL

Social Media

Author, F.I. [@username]. Content of post up to the first 20 words [Description of audiovisual material or links in the post if applicable] [Type of post]. Name of social media site. URL

Technical Report:

If the organization publishing the report is the only listed author

Organization Name. (Year of Publication). Title of report. URL

If the report has individual authors listed in addition to the organization

Author, F.I., & Author, F.I. (Year of Publication). Title of report. Organization Name. URL

Nevada State Statute

Name of law, Nev. Rev. Stat. § Number.ofStatute (Year of the edition of the law you are referring to, usually the latest edition). URL

Maps

Author, F.I. (Year of Publication). Title of map [Map]. Publisher Name. URL

Note: It is now common to cite Google maps, which do not have titles or years of publication. See the Example tab of this page for how to cite a Google Map with a description of the map in brackets rather than the title and then [Map] and a retrieved date included.

APA Citation Examples

Book:

Shotten, M. A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency. Taylor & Francis.

Book chapter:

Haybron, D.M. (2008). Philosophy and the science of subjective well-being.  In M. Eid & R.J. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being (pp. 17-43). Guilford Press.

Journal article with DOI:

Herbst-Damm, K.L., & Kulik, J.A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225

Journal article without DOI (when DOI is not available):

Sillick, T.J., & Schutte, N.S. (2006).  Emotional intelligence and self-esteem mediate between perceived early parental love and adult happiness.  E-journal of Applied Psychology, 2(2), 38-48. http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap

Web page:

Nevada State College (2020). About Nevada State Collegehttps://nsc.edu/about/

Note: If the author and site name are the same (as in the above example) you can omit the site name. Otherwise, list the author first and the name of the site after the title of the page.

Film/Movie:

Tarantino, Q. (Director). (1994). Pulp fiction [Film]. Miramax.

YouTube Video:

Stevens, M. D. [Vsauce]. (2021, January 8). Illusions of time [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/zHL9GP_B30E

Tweet:

Nevada State College [@NevadaState]. (2020, December 4). Be #StateSafe & download the app today! Now available on the App Store & Google Play. To learn more please [Image attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/NevadaState/status/1335004560503545856

Nevada State Statute:

Discrimination in admission prohibited, Nev. Rev. Stat. § 396.530 (2017). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-396.html#NRS396Sec530

Google Map:

Google. (n.d.) [Google Maps directions for driving from the Las Vegas airport to Nevada State campus]. Retrieved December 4, 2020, from https://goo.gl/maps/cWDqdhEiKifFNZ9z7

Additional Resources

APA Manual

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