Do you need help with citations? Here are some resources you can use:
Diana Hacker's Research & Documentation Online, 5th ed. (an APA Citation Guide) - Research & Documentation Online, 5th ed., provides a good resource for formating and citing papers using the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010). It offers examples for doing end of text and in text citations as well as providing a sample paper.
What's new with the APA Style - This PDF gives an overview of some of the changes made in the APA style with the new 6th edition.
APA Documentation from University of Wisconsin-Madison - Provides a quick resource for citing references in papers using the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010).
APA Style Manual - This book can be found at the library circulation desk. It must be used in the library. It can help you with more obscure items. We currently have the 5th edition up and the new edition on order.
Ask a Librarian: reference@fitchburgstate.edu or 978-665-3223 or our Chat box located throughout the library's website.
7. If the author is a government agency or another organization, name the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source.
Obesity puts children at risk for a number of medical complications, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, and orthopedic problems (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004, p. 1).
If the organization has a familiar abbreviation, you may include it in brackets the first time you cite the source and use the abbreviation alone in later citations.
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2009)
12. When possible, cite electronic sources, including online sources, as you would any other source, giving the author and the year.
Atkinson (2001) found that children who spent at least four hours a day watching TV were less likely to engage in adequate physical activity during the week.
Electronic sources sometimes lack authors’ names, dates, or page numbers.
If no author is named, mention the title of the source in the signal phrase or give the first word or two of the title in the parentheses (see also item 6). (If an organization serves as the author, see item 7.)
The body’s basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is a measure of its at-rest energy requirement (“Exercise,” 2003).
Unknown date
When the date is unknown, use the abbreviation “n.d.” (for “no date”).
Attempts to establish a definitive link between television programming and children’s eating habits have been problematic (Magnus, n.d.).
No page numbers
APA ordinarily requires page numbers for quotations, and it recommends them for summaries and paraphrases from long sources. When an electronic source lacks stable numbered pages, your citation should include information that will help readers locate the particular passage being cited.
If the source has numbered paragraphs, use the paragraph number preceded by the abbreviation “para.”: (Hall, 2008, para. 5). If the source contains headings, cite the appropriate heading in parentheses; you may also indicate the paragraph under the heading that you are referring to, even if the paragraphs are not numbered.
Hoppin and Taveras (2004) pointed out that several other medications were classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as having the “potential for abuse” (Weight-Loss Drugs section, para. 6).
NOTE: Electronic files in portable document format (PDF) often have stable page numbers. For such sources, give the page number in the parenthetical citation.
If the publisher is not the same as the author, give the publisher’s name as you would for any other source.
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1997). Evolutionary psychology: A primer. Retrieved from University of California, Santa Barbara, Center for
Evolutionary Psychology website: http://www.psych.ucsb.edu /research/cep/primer.html
Archer, D. (n.d.). Exploring nonverbal communication. Retrieved from http://nonverbal.ucsc.edu
