The essentials
How APA works
Psychology, education, social sciences, business and many health-related courses.
Patel (2025) or (Patel, 2025); add a page for a direct quotation: (Patel, 2025, p. 42).
References
Alphabetical by the first author’s surname; same-author works are then ordered by year.
Include a page number for a direct quotation when one is available. Use a paragraph or section locator when pages are absent.
Copy the pattern, verify the facts
APA reference examples
Patel, S. I., & Khan, A. (2025). Digital research habits among university students. Journal of Learning Practice, 18(2), 44–59. https://doi.org/10.1234/jlp.2025.018
Rahman, L. (2024). Research skills for modern learners. Horizon Academic.
National Research Council. (2026, March 12). Evaluating online evidence. https://example.org/evidence
These examples use invented publication details to demonstrate structure. Replace every element with information from your actual source.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Using title case for an article title instead of sentence case.
- Writing a database name when APA does not require it.
- Leaving a DOI as plain text instead of a URL.
- Missing the year in the in-text citation.
- Failing to match every in-text citation to a reference entry.
Final review
APA checklist
- Author spelling and order match the source.
- Year matches both in-text citation and reference.
- Journal title and volume are italicised where required.
- DOI or stable URL opens correctly.
- References use a hanging indent in the final document.
Course, institution and publisher rules can override general examples.