APA Citation Style

Follow these examples of APA Style by type of source:

• Basic Web Page
• Corporate/Government Report (Group Author) - Online
• Blog Post
• Wikipedia Entry
• Online News Article
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter)
• Online Video (YouTube, Streaming Video)

APA 7th edition rules: Basic Web Page

• Use retrieval dates in the source element only if the resource is highly liable to be updated or changed as seen in the example below
• If the author's name and the site name are the same, omit the site's name in the source element
• Italicize the title of the webpage/website that's being cited 
• Do not use the copyright date at the bottom of the webpage as the reference date 
  • Use the specific date of the content from the webpage being cited 
  • if the content you are citing has an "updated" time, use this for the reference date 
• Most websites/webpages will not have page numbers. Use section titles and paragraph numbers, when directly quoting or paraphrasing

Reference page:

Medicine Hat College. (2010). Our mandate. Retrieved May 5, 2021, from https://www.mhc.ab.ca/AboutMHC/CollegeProfile/Mandate

In-text:

Medicine Hat College (2010) lists . . . . (Mandate section, para. 2).    OR    . . . . (Medicine Hat College, 2010, Mandate section, para. 2).

See pp. 273, 350-352 in the APA Publication Manual

APA 7th edition rules: Corporate/Government Report (Group Author) - Online

• If present, include the report number in parentheses after the title in the title element
• If the report is gray literature, include a description in brackets after the title in the title element

Reference page:

In-text:

The Health Canada (2006) report noted that . . . . (p. 2).   OR    . . . . (Health Canada, 2006, p. 2).

See p. 329 in the APA Publication Manual

APA 7th edition rules: Blog Post

• Blogs follow the same rules as journal articles
• Italicize the name of the blog in the source element

Reference page:

In-text:

Schroeder (2009) reported that . . . . (para. 1).    OR    . . . (Schroeder, 2009, para. 1).

See p. 320 in the APA Publication Manual

See also American Psychological Association's examples here

APA 7th edition rules: Wikipedia Entry

• Cite the archived version of the Wikipedia page 
  • Find the archived version by selecting "View History" on the Wikipedia entry
• Use the permalink for the Wikipedia's archived page in the source element
• If no permalink, use the URL for the entry and add retrieval dates to the source element

Reference page:

In-text:

The “History of Immigration” (2021) article states that . . . . (para. 1).   OR    . . . . (“History of Immigration,” 2021, para. 1).

See p. 329 in the APA Publication Manual 

APA 7th edition rules: Online News Article

• Determine whether the article being cited is from an online news website or if it's an article from an online magazine or newspaper
  • Online news sources are different than online newspapers
• For online news sources italicize the title element
• Retrieval dates vary. Use retrieval dates when webpages from online news sources are susceptible to updates or any type of modifications

Reference page:

In-text:

• For short articles, no page number is necessary. For longer articles without page numbers, include the section and paragraph number. 

According to Morton and Faulkner (2021, para. 3). . . .    OR    . . . . (Morton & Faulkner, 2021, para. 3).

See pp. 320, 351 in the APA Publication Manual

APA 7th edition rules

• If real name is known, place this in the first position of the citation followed by screen name in brackets. If the user's real name is not known, use only the screen name without brackets.
  • If the username is in brackets following the author's name, include the "@" symbol before the username
• Retain hashtags, emojis, and links 
  • If you cannot recreate the emoji, where the emoji appears in the post/comment put a description of the emoji in brackets
  • For videos and links in posts, record in brackets the description of the content included in the post 
• Put a description in brackets after the title of the resource being cited (see the example below with [Tweet] after the title)
• Provide retrieval dates when citing social media profiles/accounts
• Italicize the title element
  • the title element is the content of the social media post up to 20 words

Twitter -- Tweet

Reference page:

In-text:

According to Redford (2013) . . . .   OR   . . . . (Redford, 2013).

See pp. 348-349 in the APA Publication Manual

APA 7th edition rules

• Use the screen name that the author/poster has adopted. 
• If the video file is from YouTube, put YouTube at the beginning of the source element followed by a period
• Italicize the title element

Reference page:

myredroom. (2007, June 10). Paul sings Nessun Dorma [Video]. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

In-text:

Simon Cowell, a notoriously difficult judge, said that Paul Potts' performance on Britain's Got Talent, “was a complete breath of fresh air” (myredroom, 2007).

OR

According to myredroom (2007) Cowell went on to say that, “I thought you were absolutely fantastic.”

See p. 215 in the APA Publication Manual

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/000165-000