APA Updated Guide

Saint Leo University Mission Statement, Core Values, and Catholic Identity

How to cite this page in APA 7th edition:

Saint Leo University. (n.d.) Mission, values, and identity. https://www.saintleo.edu/about/mission-values

Citations should be double-spaced with a hanging indent, which is not displayed here. See an example of a reference page with correct spacing and indenting by downloading and using the template on the welcome page. 

 

Journal article with a DOI 

Format:

Author. (Year of publication). Article title in sentence case. Journal Title in Title Case and Italics. volume(issue), pages. DOI is REQUIRED. 

Example:

Borchert, C. A., & Brooks, L. (2023). Losing your budget without losing your mind: Communicating in a crisis. Journal of Library Administration, 63(2), 213–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2022.2159242 

 

Webpage 

Format:

Author or Corporate Author. (Year of publication). Title of webpage in sentence case and italics. Webpage Title. URL

Example:

Metropolitan Police Department. (n.d.). Careers at DC Metropolitan Police Department. Government of the District of Columbia. https://joinmpd.dc.gov/ 

 

Book or textbook with an author(s) 

Format:

Author. (Year of publication). Book title in sentence case and italics. Publisher. DOI if there is one. 

Example:

Barber, C. R., McCollum, J. K., & Maboudian, W. L. (2020). The new roadmap for creating online courses: An interactive workbook. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108766890 

 

Book or textbook with an editor

Format:

Editors. (Year of publication). Book title in sentence case and italics. Publisher. DOI if there is one

Example:

Staudt, R. J., & Aquila, M. R. S. J. (Eds.). (2020). Renewing Catholic schools: How to regain a Catholic vision for a secular age. Catholic University of America Press.  

 

Chapter in an anthology (every chapter has a different author, and there is an editor) 

Format:

Author of the chapter. (Year of publication). Title of the chapter. In Editor name (Ed.) Title of the book. Publisher. 

Example:

Lanning, S. (2017). Citations made easy. In J. Smith (Ed.), Concise guide to information literacy (2nd ed.). Libraries Unlimited. 

 

YouTube video 

Format:

Author, Director, or Producer. (Date it was uploaded). Title of the video in italics. [Video]. YouTube. URL

Example:

Cannon D. Memorial Library, Saint Leo University (Producer). (2024, August 14). Catalog search peer-reviewed journal articles [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHJYXOB8xmk 

 

Newspaper article from a website 

Format:

Author. (Date of Publication). Title of article in sentence case not italics. Title of Website in Italics. URL

Example:

Reilly, L. (2024, November 26). Majority of social media influencers don’t verify information before sharing it, study finds. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/26/media/social-media-influencers-verify-information-study/index.html 

 

News article from a database 

Format:

Author. (Date of publication). Ariticle title in sentence case not in italics. Title of Newspaper in italics. 

Example: 

Passy, J., & Pohle, A. (2024, November 26). The new pitfalls of Thanksgiving travel this year. Wall Street Journal.  

No Author

Start with the next element of the citation and then place the date after it. Usually, the citation will start with the page title or article title if there is no author. 

2024 best colleges in Virginia. (2023, November 26). US News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/va?schoolType=national-universities&_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

How to cite an image:

Artist, A. (Year of release). Title of artwork [medium]. Name of museum, City, State, Country. URL of museum

Ighalo, E. (2024). To my parents [Painting]. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, United States. https://chrysler.org/exhibition/hampton-roads-student-gallery/

In-text citation (Ighalo, 2024)

When citing a song:

In general, each APA Style reference has an author element, date element, title element, and source element. For a song or track reference, the author of the work is usually the recording artist, which may be an individual or group. If a music artist prefers to use their first name and surname, then follow the APA guideline to invert the author’s name as “Surname, First Initial” in your reference (e.g., “Smith, S.” for singer and songwriter “Sam Smith”).

If the music artist chooses to go by only one name (e.g., “Beyoncé”), a group name (e.g., “Franz Ferdinand”), an inseparable multipart name (e.g., “Lady Gaga”), an initialism (e.g., “MNEK”), or some other name variation, write their name as shown on the work.

Example

Dacus, L. (2018). Night shift [Song]. On Historian [Album]. Matador Records.

In-text citation (Dacus, 2018).

How to cite Spotify song:

Dacus, L. (2018). Night shift [Song]. On Historian [Album]. Matador Records. Spotify. URL

In-text citation (Dacus, 2018).

How to cite YouTube:

Brassee, K. (2014, April 14). Blessed be the name of the Lord. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/vXXKnLehEu8?si=XO1aAX0cn5gXLio7

In text citation (Brassee, 2014). 

Page numbers are required for direct quotes from a source. In place of a page number for audio-visual sources you may put minute and second of the song or video, such as 1:25 which means one minute and 25 seconds into the song. 

SAMPLE In-Text citation (for your paper or online discussions)

Tina Turner was an icon and renowned singer in the 1960s and beyond.  She was sexy, and vibrant, with a memorable voice. She won several awards in her musical career, most notably for her 1985 hit "What's Love Got to do with it?" (Grimes, 2023).

References

Grimes, M. 24 May, 2023. Tina Turner, magnetic singer is dead at 83. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/arts/music/tina-turner-dead.html.  

Citing ChatGPT, Microsoft CoPilot and other AI services is required. 

Example: 

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

Reference

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

The APA Style Blog provided the example above. 

McAdoo, T. (2024 Feb. 23). How to cite ChatGPT. The APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

Cases and court decisions generally include these elements:​

• Title or name of case (Plessy v. Ferguson)​

• Volume of the book where the case is published, jurisdiction of the court, page number of the book where the case is published​. For example, U.S. is the abbreviation for the United States Reports, which is a published compilation of Supreme Court Cases 

• Year or (Court and Year)​

• URL (optional)​

• On the reference page the title of the case is NOT in italics.  ​

• The page number is only the first page. ​

• Go to the in-text citation page of this LibGuide to learn how to format in-text citations for legal materials. 

U.S. Supreme Court Example​:

Name v. Name, Volume# U.S. Page# (Year). 

Miranda v. Ariz., 384 U.S. 436 (1966). ​

U.S. District Courts

• Published in F., F.2d., F.3d., F. Supp.​, F. Supp. 2d., F. Supp. 3d.

• Include the court and the year in parentheses ​

U.S. District Court Example:​

Burriola v. Greater Toledo YMCA, 133 F. Supp. 2d 1034 (N.D. Ohio 2001).​

​State Supreme Courts

• Published in state abbreviation and series such as, Cal.3d​

State Supreme Court Example:​

Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, 17 Cal.3d 425 (1976).​

Federal or State Laws

• A statute is a law or an act passed by federal or state legislation.  ​

• On the reference page the title of the act is NOT in italics.  ​

• § stands for section, used frequently with legal codes ​

• URL is optional​

Federal or State Law Example:

Name of Act, Title Source § Section Number (Year). URL​

Every Student Succeeds Act, 20 U.S.C. § 6301 (2015).​

Law Review Journal Article

Author. (Year of publication). Article title in sentence case. Journal Title in Title Case and Italics. volume(issue), pages. DOI is REQUIRED or URL for open access journals without a DOI. 

Law Review Journal Article Example:

Spedding, M. (2024). The erosion of judicial discretion: Why Congress and the court should curb restrictions for bankruptcy judges. Brigham Young University Law Review, 49(4), 1219-12–48. https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol49/iss4/11/

 

A variety of classroom materials may be used in courses. Be sure to cite the type of source correctly. 

IMPORTANT: If there is a document provided that is the full-text of a journal article or chapter of a book, then you will need to cite the source as a journal article or as a chapter of a book. If the classroom materials are YouTube videos or other videos, refer to the provided examples to cite them as videos.  

Slideshow or Document:

If your professor created the slideshow give them credit as the author. 

If another professor's name is on the title slide as the creator, give that person credit as the author. 

If there is no name listed, which is the most common, start the citation with the title of the slideshow. 

In brackets, list the kind of classroom material, such as a slideshow or a document. 

Example:

Welcome to the doctoral program. (n.d.) [Slideshow]. DBA-701: Doctoral Success Lab. 

https://saintleo.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/171440/viewContent/8763096/View

In-Text Citation: ("Welcome to the Doctoral Program," n.d.)

Religious works such as the Bible , Qur'an, Torah, are cited as books with no author. The year of the published version that is being used should be included. 

Example: The Amplified Bible. (1987). Zondervan. 

In-Text Citation: (The Amplified Bible, 1987, Matt 28:1)

Include the information if there is an editor of an annotated version or a translator. 

Example: The Qur'an. (Abdel Haleem, Trans.). (2004). Oxford University Press. 

A book that has been republished should include the original publication date and the most recent publication date. 

Examples: King James Bible. (1611/2005). Hendrickson Publishers. (Original work published in 1611). 

In-Text Citation: (King James Bible, 1611/2005, John 3:16)

For the online version of the Bible, include the webpage title and website title and the URL. 

The Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. (1993). Philippians 3:14. Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%203%3A14&version=NRSVCE

In-Text Citation (the first time the full title of the Bible must be used after that you may use NRSVCE): (The Bible NRSVCE, 1993, Phil 3:14). 

 

 

How to format author's names

• Always format names last name and then the person's initials only.

• If there are more than two authors, separate them with a comma and an ampersand (&).

• All authors should be listed in the order they appear in the source as part of the reference citation at the end of your paper.

• Corporate authors can be the name of an organization, school, university, business, or government agency.  

• Someone or an entity of some kind should be responsible for the information that you are citing. 

Examples:

One author: Woods, C. E. 

Two authors: Stoupenos, V., & Woods, C. E. 

List up to 20 authors: Baltes, B. B., Briggs, T. E., Huff, J. W., Wright, J. A., & Neuman, G. A. 

Corporate author: Saint Leo University

How to format the date

Books, journal articles, and most webpages only require the year of publication in parentheses immediately following the author's name. 

Example: (2025). 

Blogs, news sources, YouTube videos, and other sources require the year, month, and day of publication in parentheses immediately following the author's name. 

Example: (2025, May 4). 

If there is no date, put (n.d.).

Tips:

Do NOT put retrieved from. That information is no longer required except in rare circumstances. 

 

How to format titles

Sentence case means that every word in the title is NOT capitalized. Sentence case is used when titles stand alone such as the title of a book.  Sentence case is also used when there are two titles in the citation such as the article title and the journal title. Look at the common reference examples for more examples. 

• Capitalize the first word of the title.

• Capitalize the first word after a colon. 

• Capitalize proper nouns, names of countries, businesses, acronyms, etc. 

Example: Women in country music videos.

Example: Supporting adult students in web-based courses: Real examples for serving non-traditional, adult students.

 

Title case means that every word is capitalized in the title except small words such as an, an, of, the. Always capitalize the first word of the title. 

Example: Journal of Business Ethics

Example: The New York Times