Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
6th Edition
808.02/Am35p6 (copy on permanent reserve and copy at ready reference desk)
Links to guides based on the latest edition (6th) of the APA Publications Manual
APA Style: the official APA website
APA Style Tutorial: the Basics of APA in a tutorial format
APA Style Blog: The official blog of the APA style. A great, searchable resource for anything APA that stumps you.
Purdue OWL APA Website: tips on using APA from the Purdue University writing center
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association has been around in some version since 1929. The Manual sets out the format for writing and citing of research. According to the APA web site "The rules of APA Style®, detailed in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, offer sound guidance for writing with simplicity, power, and concision. APA Style has been adapted by many disciplines and is used by writers around the world."
The library has a copy of the APA Manual on permanent reserve at the Circulation Desk and we keep another copy at the Ready Reference Desk.
While earlier editions of the manual may be helpful you will want to consult the most recent edition for the most accurate and up-to-date information
Most of our databases provide assistance with using the various citation styles ( for example: APA, Chicago, MLA, etc). When you are viewing individual items after a search you can click on the "cite" icon to view a formatted citation for that article. You can also email, print or save a list of references in a particular citation style.
Be aware that formatting of electronic citations is not standardized so the information provided is just a guide. It may not be complete or entirely accurate. We suggest that you check each citation for accuracy and completeness and also check it against the APA Manual.
Bibliographic Management Tools help researchers organize and manage their research. They may be able to help you format papers and create footnotes and bibliographies.
The University has loaded the EndNote bibliographic management software on all general access computer labs on campus. You can use this software to save sources and create bibliographies in the various standard formats like MLA and APA.
There are also many citation building tools available on the web. These tools can be useful but you should always check your citations against the appropriate style guide to be sure the all the information is included and formatted correctly for that style.
Zotero: a Firefox web browser extension
Mendeley: free social software that allows you to manage and share research papers
BibMe: web-based tool for generating bibliographies in APA, MLA, Turabian and Chicago style
EasyBib: automatic works cited and bibliography formatting in APA, MLA, Turabian and Chicago styles
CiteULike: a free service for discovering and managing scholarly research
Son of Citation Machine: an interactive tool to help create reference citations