The reference list is found at the end of your paper. It is a complete list of all works that are cited in your paper. The reference list is a place for your readers to be able to find and use the work you have referenced. APA formatting guidelines provides rules and examples for various types of sources. Specifically in this section, you will find basic creating and ordering rules for the reference list, as well as acceptable abbreviations.
Basics
You will need to include each work you have cited in the body of your paper on this reference list.
Both the author and year info from your in-text citations will match with the author and year of the related work on your reference page (recall the “bread crumbs” analogy). Consider the work listed on the reference page to include ALL information about the source, while the citation simply provides author and year.
For each work you list on your reference page, you will want to include (in order): Author/organization name. (Year/Date). Title information. Source of the work.
List the works you have cited alphabetically.
Author/Organization Name
List the last name (surname) of the author(s) first.
Following the authors’ last name, list the initials of their first and middle name. If no middle name or initial is provided, you do not need to include.
Example: Anderson, G.R. or Anderson, G.
If there are two authors, include an ampersand (&) between the authors’ names.
If there are more than two authors, only use an ampersand (&) before the name of the last author listed.
If there is no human author provided, default to using the name of the organization responsible for the work. This is also referred to as a “group author.”
When listing an organization as the author on your reference page, write out the full name of the organization as one normally would. Do not use initials/acronyms as you might a human author. Example: Use “American Nurses Association” instead of “ANA” or “Association, A.N.”
Rarely, if ever, should you rely on work without a human or organization. “Anonymous” or “unknown” authors are often considered an unreliable source.
Year/Date
Always place year/date information inside parentheses and after author/organization name.
For many works you cite (books, websites, journal articles), providing the year will suffice. This is because these tend to be “static,” meaning information does not change frequently.
Some sources may require you to list year AND month. These tend to be sources that are updated or issued frequently, such as blog posts, magazines, and newspapers.
For websites/pages, you may need to search the site to find accurate year info. It may be located at the top of a page near title info, you may also find “last updated” date/year info. Try to locate such a date before deferring to “n.d.” (“no date”).
Use “n.d.” (“no date”) sparingly as sources without accurate year/date information may not be truly reliable sources. If using “n.d” you will still place inside parentheses as you would year info. Example: Johnson, J.R. (n.d.). Title of source. <URL>
Title Information
Title information will always follow year/date information.
When writing out the title of a work, only capitalize the first word of the title, proper nouns, and words following a colon.
When listing the titles of books and websites/pages, you will italicize the full title.
When listing the titles of journal articles or chapters from a book, do not italicize.
For works that are not academic or peer-reviewed, you will include a “bracketed description” of that work. This is often found with film, video, blog posts, social media accounts, etc. to help inform the reader exactly what type of source it is. Do not italicize this bracketed description. Example: The best way to write a paper [YouTube]
Source Information
Source information will always follow title information.
All works you list on your reference page will have source information, either as the name of the publisher (books), periodical information including the name of the journal as well as volume/issue number (journal articles), a DOI (journal articles), and/or a URL (websites).