How to Cite a Bibliography in APA Style

The American Psychological Association (APA), has created a standard for writing --- especially in peer-reviewed publications --- that is read by students and professionals all over the world. The APA's publication manual provides instructions for editorial style, research and all aspects of writing. A bibliography is inserted at the end of a paper to cite the references that support facts throughout a document. The APA has specified formatting rules for creating a bibliography.

Things You'll Need

  • Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed.
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Instructions

    • 1

      Collect and organize all of your research data.

    • 2

      Find the 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual and use it to reference your bibliography formatting.

    • 3

      Set up your bibliography by starting a new page with the word "References" (do not use quotation marks) centered at the top. List each reference alphabetically by the last name of the author.

    • 4

      Format each reference according to APA rules for indentation, capitalization, abbreviation, punctuation, etc. The rule of thumb is that all individual references begin flush left and are hanging-indented by three to five spaces. References that end with a website address do not have closing punctuation. Here are some examples:

      Books (italicize book title): Austin, J. H. (1998). Zen and the brain: Toward an understanding of meditation and consciousness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

      Newspaper Article (italicize name of newspaper): Young, J. (2003, February 14). Prozac campus: More students seek counseling and take psychiatric medication. The Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. A37-38.

      Website: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009). 2009 H1N1 Flu ("Swine Flu") and You. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm

      Blog Post: McAdoo, T. (2009, September 10). Retrieved from http://blog.apastyle.org/

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