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Citation and style manuals

List of citation styles, corresponding online and print guides, and links to sites that provide examples.

American Psychological Association (APA) style is a widely accepted style of documentation, particularly in the social sciences. APA style specifies the names and order of headings, formatting, and organization of citations and references, and the arrangement of tables, figures, footnotes, and appendices, as well as other manuscript and documentation features. APA style uses the author-date style of parenthetical referencing, with such source citations keyed to a subsequent list of "References." Also known as the Harvard Style.

Style manuals

Example sites

  • American Psychological Association official site, includes print product information and information on the latest updates to the format.
  • APA Style.org from the American Psychological Association. Excerpts from the APA Style Guide to Electronic References and the 6th edition of the Publication Manual. The material provided covers frequently asked questions regarding how to cite electronic media.
  • ​APA Formatting and Style Guide from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University. A thorough guide on the 6th edition APA style including print and electronic sources.
  • APA Citation Fox from the University at Albany, State University of New York, based on the 6th edition of the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.
  • Flowchart for using DOIs and URLs in citations from APA.org

Citing data sets

Minimum requirements based on instructions and example for dataset reference:

Milberger, S. (2002). Evaluation of violence against women with physical disabilities in Michigan, 2000-2001 (ICPSR version) [data file and codebook]. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03414

With optional elements:

Milberger, S. (2002). Evaluation of violence against women with physical disabilities in Michigan, 2000-2001 (ICPSR version) [data file and codebook]. Detroit: Wayne State University [producer]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03414