Citing Electronic/Online Sources in APA Format

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Video or DVD § Back to Top

Lastname, Firstinitial. (Producer), & Lastname, Firstinitial. (Director). (YYYY). 
     Title of film. [Motion Picture].  Country: Distributor.

Lasseter, J. (Producer), & Stanton, A., & Unkrich, L. (Directors). (2003). Finding
    Nemo [Motion picture]. United States: Walt Disney Pictures.

Smith, L. (2008, February 26). Binary fission Euglena [Video file]. Retrieved from
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fg3Q-hbSsI&feature=fvw

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Television Show § Back to Top

Lastname, Firstinitial. (Producer). (YYYY, Month DD).  Title of show.
      [Television Broadcast].  City of publication: Distributor.

Ingalls, L. (Producer). (2002, August 4). How I finally got Nellie Olsen. 
      [Television broadcast]. Walnut Grove, MN: General Store.

* For a Television series or a single episode from a series, put [Television series] or [Television series episode] instead of [Television broadcast]. In either case, put only (YYYY) for the date. The format for a single episode should include the writer and the name of the episode, like this:

Lastname, Firstinitial. (Writer), & Lastname, Firstinitial (Director). (YYYY).
      Episode title [Television series episode]. In Firstinitial Lastname (Producer),
      Series title. Place of publication: Distributor.

Eisenberg, L. (Writer), & Feig, P. (Director). (2005). Halloween party [Television series
    episode]. In G. Daniels (Producer), Office mates. New York: National Broadcasting
    Company.

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Article from an Online Reference Source § Back to Top

Lastname, Firstinitial (if given). (YYYY). Article title. In Title of encyclopedia.
      Publisher. Retrieved Date, from URL

Clarke, M., & Clarke, D. (Eds.). (n.d.). Cubism. In The concise Oxford dictionary of
    art terms. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordartonline.com

Magnetic mirror. (2009). World book. Retrieved September 24, 2009, from
    http://www.wobo.com/wb/article-9050025

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Websites § Back to Top

LastName, FirstInitial. (Date of publication). Title of web page: Subtitle of web page. Retrieved Month DD, YYYY, from Name of Publisher website: URL

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2009). University Laboratory High
    School: Student profile. Retrieved September 24, 2009, from
    http://www.uni.illinois.edu/about/profile/student_profile

Miltonfest, J. (1998). Judy's home page. Retrieved April 4, 2009, from
    http://www.judymiltonfest.com

Canadian Tourism Department. (2007). Visit Canada today. Retrieved from
    http://www.canadaisprettyawesome.com

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Blogs § Back to Top

LastName, FirstInitial. (YYYY, Month, DD). Title of post [Web log message]. Retrieved from Title of Blog: URL

franceylibrarian. (2009, September 14). Serious about manga [Web log message].
    Retrieved from Gargoyles Loose in the Library:
    http://www.uni.illinois.edu//library/blog/2009/09/serious-about-manga.html

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Articles from online databases (like Academic Search Premier or LexisNexis) § Back to Top

These are usually articles from journals, magazines, or newspapers that can be accessed over the Web using a database such as LexisNexis, Wilson Select Plus, or Academic Search Premier.

Lastname, Firstinital. (Date). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
    (number), page numbers [if available]. Retrieved from database URL [or doi].

Kruesi, L. (2009, November). What do we really know about dark matter? Astronomy,
    37(11), 28-33. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com

Harper, J. (2008, February 22). 'Barack' poised to rise on list of baby names; Obama
    inspires some parents-to-be. The Washington Times, p. A04. Retrieved from
    http://www.lexisnexis.com

Han, Y.-Y., Kano, H., Davis, D. L., Niranjan, A., & Lunsford, L. D. (2009,
    September). Cell phone use and acoustic neuroma: The need for standardized
    questionnaires and access to industry data. Surgical Neurology, 72, 216-222.
    doi:10.1016/j.surneu.2009.01.010

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Articles from online magazines, journals, and newspapers § Back to Top

These are journals, magazines, and newspapers that are published directly on the web. Articles obtained directly from the web site of a magazine, journal, or newspaper are cited differently than articles you find in article databases like EBSCO and Lexis-Nexis (which include articles from many different publications).

Lastname, Firstinitial. (Pub. Date).  Title of article.  Magazine Title, volume,
    pp-pp. Retrieved from URL

Eyre, J. (2005). How to handle an insane mistress. Governess Journal, 2, 120-127.      Retrieved from http://www.alleyreallthetime.com/mistresstips/insanity.htm

Lennox, M. (2006). The social ramifications of gowing up with only an uncle. Children’s      Literature Characters Study Themselves, 9, 15-18. Retrieved from
     http://study.org/children_lit/2000/lennox.html

Harry, D. (2007). Movies I love. Movie Characters Speak. Retrieved from
     http://ejournal.com/2003/movie/harry_movies.html

Grossman, L. (2007, September 8). The quest for cool. Time. Retrieved from
     http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030908/xopener.html

Weintraub, E. (2006, August 22). Adding history to island’s Heritage Trail. Vineyard      Gazette. Retrieved from      http://wwwmvgazette.com/features/index/php?story_20030829_isabel_powell

Cooke, J. (2009, September 16). Almost quarter of Class of 2010 named National Merit
    Semifinalists. The Online Gargoyle. Retrieved from
    http://www.uni.illinois.edu/og/news/2009/09/almost-quarter-class-2010-named-natio

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Letters to the editor from online newspapers § Back to Top

If the name of the letter-writer is given, include it. If not, don't. These are letters written to newspapers by ordinary folks (and sometimes by famous ones) who want to make their opinion heard.

Lastname, FirstInitial. (Date of publication). Title of Letter if available [Letter to the editor]. Periodical Title. Retrieved from URL

Wiggins, E. (2006, September 19). Brotherly rule [Letter to the editor]. Intergalactic Times. Retrieved from http://www.intertimes.com/news/letters.htm

Brotherly rule [Letter to the editor]. (2006, September 19). Intergalactic
     Times. Retrieved from http://www.intertimes.com/news/letters.htm

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Reviews § Back to Top

These can be reviews of books, movies, theater shows, and the like.

Lastname, FirstInitial. (Date of Review). Title of Review if possible. [Review of the ItemType Item Title]. Review Publication's Title. Retrieved from URL

Cantrell, J. (1999, April 2). Watch out for big, toothy dogs [Review of the book Cujo].
     Horror Books Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.horrorbooksgazette.com

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Online books § Back to Top

These are books that either 1) have been published in print and now are on the web, or 2) have only been published on the web. You can also use this format for a part of a book like the introduction or a specific chapter.

Lastname, FirstInitial. (Date of Publication). Title. Retrieved from URL

Grouch, O. (2001). The street. Retrieved from http://www.thestreetbook.com/book.htm

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Web forums and message boards § Back to Top

Lastname, FirstInitial. [Or username.] (Date of post). Title of thread [Online forum message]. Retrieved from Name of Bulletin Board: URL

Mitchell, J. (2004, April 4). Spotted geese are really cool [Online forum
     message]. Retrieved from Goose Fancy: http://www.goosefancyboard.com

Ella. (2009, January 7). Can I view Google Calendar on my mobile phone? [Online forum
     message]. Retrieved from Google Calendar Help Forum:
     http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar?hl=en

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Disclaimer: This handout is only meant as a guide. If we tried to cover all citations you might make, we’d have a book—which is exactly what the American Psychological Association (APA) publishes every couple of years. You should check the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6^th edition, if you have a question that this guide doesn’t answer. See the library for a copy (call number 029 Am4p2010 in the reference section).

Formatting your citations: In making your list of works cited, begin each entry flush with the left margin; if the entry runs more than a line long, the next lines should be indented five spaces, or one default TAB setting if you are using a word processor. On many word processors you can also accomplish this by paragraph formatting for a "hanging indent." (Whichever you choose, be consistent throughout.) Use double spacing for your entire list, both between and within entries.
   If you will be publishing your own bibliography on a web page, it may be difficult to indent properly. To deal with this, it's common to use bullets in front of each citation instead of indenting. We have used bullets on this page to show you what this format should look like.

Special considerations when citing electronic materials: Electronic materials now come in a huge variety of formats. Videos and CD-ROMs are cited much as you would cite a book, but citations for online materials must include the following basic minimal information:

Title. (Date of Internet publication). URL

In many cases you'll have an author and the citation will look like this.

Author. (Date of Internet publication or update). Title. Retrieved date, from URL

When you can find it, it's best to have more than this minimal information. The following formats tell you what to include (if possible) for commonly cited electronic and online resources.

Remember to take your reader as close as possible to the actual document you viewed, and make sure the URL works! If you look up articles in an online database like EBSCO, each article you find will be displayed with a URL, but it will extremely long and will generally not get anyone else back to that article -- it is dynamically (and temporarily) generated by the database in response to your search. Do not use these URLs to cite sources! Instead, use the name of the database as shown in the examples below.

If you need to break a URL to fit it on a line, make the break after a slash or before a period.