Citation Guide

Names

• When a name is the first element of a citation, list an author's last name first, followed by first and middle initials
• Separate names with commas; use an ampersand (&) before the last author 
• For more than twenty authors, use ellipses after the twentieth author's name, then ampersand and final author
• If no author is given, list title first, then date
• Use Anonymous only if the work is signed Anonymous

Dates

• Do not abbreviate month names
• Use the year of publication for books
• Format for daily periodicals: (year, month day)
• Format for monthly or quarterly periodicals: (year, month or season)
• Use (n.d.) if no date is provided
• Only include a retrieval date for online resources if the document is likely to change
  • For articles from library databases or simultaneously published in print, do not include the date of retrieval

Titles

• Book titles and subtitles: italicize, and capitalize the first word and proper nouns
• Article titles and subtitles: capitalize the first word and proper nouns
• Periodical titles: italicize, and capitalize all words except articles and prepositions

Page numbers

• Book sections: use p. for one page, pp. for two or more pages
• Newspapers: use p. for one page, pp. for two or more pages
• Magazines and journals: do not use p. or pp.

Library databases

• Do not include a database name unless the work was published by the database and is not available anywhere else

DOIs

• When available, include a DOI (digital object identifier)
  • Look for a DOI at the beginning or end of a book, a book chapter, or an article
  • Many will start with http://dx.doi.org/ or https://doi.org
  • Using https://doi.org is preferred by the APA
• For more information, see doi.org; to see if a book, chapter, article, or other source has a DOI assigned, use www.crossref.org/guestquery

URLs

• Link directly to the item cited
• Use permalinks when available