Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
The Psychologist's Companion by 
Undergraduate Writing in Psychology by 
APA Made Easy by "This guide uses a simplified version of APA 6th designed for undergraduates. There are some differences from the manual (see the Frequently Asked Questions for exact details.) Graduate students should use the APA 6th for Graduate Students."
Help is available:
The APA basics document (below) presents the:
Examples, part 1 will show you how to cite for your reference page and within the text:
Examples, part 2 will show:
Most databases will generate citations in a variety of styles including APA, MLA, Chicago / Turbian, etc. While seldom correct, it is quicker to fix them than to create your own citation from scratch.
Example of an APA citation created by an EBSCO database:
Juchniewicz, J. (2010). The Influence of Social Intelligence on Effective Music Teaching. Journal Of Research In Music Education, 58(3), 276-293.
Corrected citation: (Should be double-spaced and have a hanging indent) (No database reference is necessary even if found through OneSearch or an individual database search)
Juchniewicz, J. (2010). The influence of social Intelligence on effective music teaching.
Journal of Research In Music Education, 58(3), 276-293.
Retrieved from http://www.jrm.sagepub.com/ - Optional, depending on the professor
*Use a DOI if at all possible within the citation to give a more specific reference link function. If no DOI, the APA Style Manual indicates that one should cite the URL of the homepage of the electronic journal from where the article was published. (See pages 180-215 in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition 2010)
APA says that is no longer necessary to provide a url since the reader may not have access to the database. Nevertheless, your instructor will have access to all the library's databases and would probably appreciate its inclusion.
MS Word has a built in citation generator that handles several citation styles.
Click on References, the select the appropriate Style:, then click on Insert Caption.
WARNING! - Just as with other computer-generated citations, you should always check and correct your results - particuarly for online resources.
Many citation styles have begun using Digital Object Identifiers at the end of the citation - when available.
DOIs are unique codes that identify an electronic document, much like a social security number identifies a person. Additionally, DOIs can be used to find the document on the internet - usually at the publisher's web site.
For more information on DOIs, check out our DOI page.
See the Purdue OWL APA Style Guide for quick answers!
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