How to Cite Electronic Sources in APA Format Within Text

Digital Object Identifiers

• 1

  Cite sources in the text as you are writing. Insert the author's surname and the year of publication for sources from a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Cite the source in one of these ways:

  In 2007, Babcock found...

  Babcock (2007) found...

  One psychologist (Babcock, 2007) found...

• 2

  Insert web citations with two or more authors from a DOI source in one of the following ways:

  In 2007, Markle, Masters, and Jones found...

  Markle, Masters, and Jones (2007) found...

  The psychologists (Markle, Masters & Jones, 2007) found...

• 3

  List a number of authors who have similar opinions in alphabetical order by the last name of the first or sole author. For example, Psychologists (Bledsoe, 2009; Porter, Collins & James, 2007; Rogers & Flat, 2006) agree...

• 4

  Include the names of all authors the first time you cite a source. For example, (Mills, Cartwright, Hardin & Godfrey, 2003)... Use the name of the first author followed by et al. in subsequent citations (Mills et al., 2003).

Non-DOI Websites

• 5

  Cite websites in the text as you are writing. For example, APA provides information about style on www.apastyle.org.

• 6

  Insert the author's last name, year, month and day of publication for journals published only on the Internet. For example, (Cronkite, 2009, May 3).

• 7

  Insert the website, year, month and day you retrieved information from websites not part of DOI. For example, The American Psychological Association provides a tutorial on how to cite in APA style (www.apastyle.org, 2010, May 12).

Quotations

• 8

  Use quotation marks to designate material taken directly from a source.

• 9

  Insert the page number from which the quotation is taken, as well as the author's last name and the date. Page numbers on DOIs are the same as the printed version.

• 10

  Insert quotations in one of the following ways for sources from DOIs:

  In 2007, Markle identified "learned helplessness" (p. 243)...

  Markle identified "learned helplessness" (2007, p. 243)...

  One psychologist identified "learned helplessness" (Markle, 2007, p. 243)

• 11

  Add the month and day you retrieved the information when citing quotations from non-DOI sources. For example,

  Smith discussed "learned helplessness" (2007, May 12)...

  One psychologist identified "learned helplessness" (Smith, 2007, May 12)