How to Footnote in APA

American Psychological Association citation format is most often used in the social sciences. Although APA style does not commonly make use of footnotes, it is permissible to use footnotes either for making explanatory notes on the content of your paper, or for providing copyright permission notes if you quote more than 500 words of a published source. Footnotes should only be used for those two purposes; they should not be used in place of in-text or reference list citations.

Instructions

    • 1

      Insert a number formatted in superscript after the passage that requires explanatory notes or copyright explanation. The number should follow a punctuation mark such as a comma or period. Never place a footnote number after a dash. If the sentence you are footnoting appears within parentheses, the superscripted number should also appear inside the parentheses.

    • 2

      Begin your footnote with a superscripted number that corresponds with the number that appears in the text. The footnote should appear at the bottom of the page.

    • 3

      Be brief if you are using the footnote to provide supplemental information. If you are pointing readers to supplemental information in another source that is included in your reference list, provide them with at least the author's last name and the year of publication. For example: See Brown (1988) for a thorough explanation of animal magnetism theory.

    • 4

      Begin your footnote with the word "Note" in italics if you are providing a copyright permission statement. Also include the publication information from the source, and end your note with the phrase "reprinted with permission." For example: Note. From "Shakespeare's Ghost," by A. Jones and B. Smith, 2011, American Journal of Literature, 7, p. 9. Copyright 2011 by A. Jones. Reprinted with permission.

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