Verify that the thesis has been published. If unsure, search in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database, the major resource for academic papers from U.S. and Canadian universities. Find the publication number, which usually begins with AAT.
Create your citation as follows -- Author's last name, First initial. (year). Title of dissertation in italics (Doctoral dissertation) -- if you accessed a print copy of a dissertation.
Add "Name of database. (publication number)" to the previous format when referring to a dissertation found through a database.
Change the phrase "(Doctoral dissertation)" to "(Master's thesis)" in both cases listed to reflect the category of the selected work.
Begin with the simple print citation as in Step 2 and include the phrase "Retrieved from" and the web address for an academic paper obtained online but not in a database.
Use a different format, however, when referencing an unpublished thesis or dissertation. Write your bibliographic citation as follows: Author's last name, First initial. (year). Title of dissertation in italics (Unpublished doctoral dissertation or master's thesis). Name of Institution, Location.
Include the author's last name and publication year when discussing his ideas or quoting his words in your paper. Place the name and date in parentheses and separate them with a comma, for example (Jones, 2010). APA style requires in-text references.