References

All academic papers must include a references, bibliography or works cited page in APA format. You must provide information on all the sources you have used in your paper including books, journals, statutes, legal cases, Web sites and anything else. The information you provide should allow your reader to find all the sources you list. Even though APA says to double space this list, most CLS profs prefer it to be single-spaced.

One approach is to break your references up using headings for Books and Journals, Legal Cases and Statues, and Websites.

Book format

Author(s) — Last name first (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Journal format

Author(s) — Last name first (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.

Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55: 893-896.

While you may use databases to find articles, never include information that looks like this:

http://mutex.gmu.edu:2112/stable/3053531?&Search=yes&term=death& term=penalty&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3F Query%3Ddeath%2Bpenalty%26wc%3Don%26x%3D11%26y%3D5 &item=2&ttl=30393&returnArticleService=showArticle

Legal Cases and Statutes

Dist. of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 290 (2008)

Virginia Criminal Code (VCC) § 18.2-279 (2009)

For more legal citation in APA format see the Cisco Junior College library's APA Legal Citation Style Guide.

Websites

Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Strategies available at http://www.cops.usdoj.gov and last retrieved on March 9, 2009.

Example of a Bibliography

Books and Journals

Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, pp. 893-896.

Legal Cases and Statutes

Dist. of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 290 (2008)

U. S. Constitution, Art. I, § 9, cl. 2.

Virginia Criminal Code (VCC) § 18.2-279 (2009)

Websites

Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Strategies available at http://www.cops.usdoj.gov and last retrieved on March 9, 2009.

Still confused? See the Reference List: Basic Rules page at Purdue's OWL.

For more on APA format see Long Island University Library's APA Citation Style page.