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APA Style

Citing with APA Basics Tutorial

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In this self-paced online tutorial, learn how to use and format a citation in APA style.

Group Author Citation

An example of how to cite a group author, for the DSM and an entry within the manual.

1.  Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

Citation for the DSM 5 online from Temple Libraries' PsychiatryOnline Premium Package database:

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787

(For the list of references, use hanging indents and double-spacing)

Parenthetical citations: (American Psychiatric Association, 2022).

Narrative citations: American Psychiatric Association (2022)

2. Entry in the DSM

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Anxiety disorders. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787

Learn more resources:

Managing Citations

A citation manager is a program used to store, organize, share, and output citations. Some citation managers have the added functionality of an academic social network. Once the citation information is stored in the citation manager, it can be output in many different styles, like MLA, APA, Chicago, or others. It saves the writer/researcher from having to type out the same citation and bibliography over and over again by hand.

Citation managers make it easy to:

  • Gather citations from databases and websites
  • Edit, organize, and search citations
  • Output citations in many formats (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.)

Citation managers integrate with word-processing programs for inputting in-text citations and generating the corresponding bibliographies.

A citation manager is a valuable time-saving tool for researchers and anyone writing a paper with cited references/bibliographies.

Temple supports EndNote/EndNote Web, Mendeley, and Zotero. In addition to these, there are many other citation managers available for free or for purchase.

Annotated Bibliographies in APA 7

According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2019, p. 307), Section 9.51 Annotated Bibliographies:

  • Format annotated bibliographies like an APA paper 

  • Order citations as on an APA paper Reference page: alphabetically with hanging indents   

  • Annotations should appear in a new paragraph the citation, indented 0.5 inches from the left margin

  • Annotations with multiple paragraphs: indent the first line of the second and any subsequent paragraphs an additional 0.5 in., the same as you would a block quotation with multiple paragraphs.

APA Government and Legal Sources

Citing a federal bill that has not been enacted

Title [if there is one], H.R. or S. bill number number, xxx Cong. (year). URL

The number should be preceded by H.R or S. depending on the source of  the bill.  Use the congress term year for xxx.

For example, for the House bill number 525

Mentoring to Succeed Act, H.R. 525, 118th Congress (2023).  https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/525

Narrative citation:  Mentoring to Succeed Act (2023)

Parenthetical citation: (Mentoring to Succeed Act, 2023)

Reference:  APA 7th edition, chapter 11, section 16.

Notes:  congress (i.e., 2-year time-frame)

The 118th Congress convened on January 3, 2023 and will end January 3, 2025.  Congress is the national legislature in office for approximately two years.  Any bill that is not enacted before the end of the term will be considered dead and must be reintroduced in the new congress to be considered.

More legal citation resources

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