Social Work: APA References

Use the following examples to help you create your own references:

Basic Format for Books

Elswick, S. (2017). Informatics in social work practice: Technology within the field. New York, NY: Nova Science.

Edition Other Than the First

Weisman, D., & Zornado, J. L. (2018). Professional writing for social work practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

Solomon, M. (1998). Herbert Aptheker’s contributions to African American history. In H. Shapiro (Ed.), African American history and radical historiography (pp. 3-18). Minneapolis, MN: MEP Publications.

Webpage or Piece of Online Content

If the page's author is not listed, start with the title instead. If the date of publication is not listed, use the abbreviation (n.d.).
You only need to include a date of access when the page's content is likely to change over time.

Tracking Chicago homicide victims. (2019, Apr. 15). Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 16, 2019, from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-homicides-data-tracker-htmlstory.html

Article From an Online Periodical

Singer, J. B. (2018). Suicide risk in schools: What social workers need to know. The New Social Workers. Retrieved from https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/practice/suicide-risk-in-schools-what-social-workers-need-to-know/

Article From an Online Periodical with DOI Assigned

Murphy, A. N., Radley, K. C., & Helbig, K. A. (2018). Use of superheroes social skills with middle school‐age students with autism spectrum disorder. Psychology in the Schools, 55(3), 323-335. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22104

Article From an Online Periodical with no DOI Assigned

Online scholarly journal articles without a DOI require the URL of the journal home page.

Reus, E. J., & Mosley, I. T. (2018). The health and development correlates of screen media exposure in children 0-5yrs: an integrative literature review. Australian Journal of Child & Family Health Nursing, 15(2), 12–21. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=134666099&site=eds-live&scope=site

Newspaper Article

Note that the APA recommends using the homepage address for the online newspaper, rather than the full URL for the article itself.

Williams, M. J. (2019, Feb. 12). 6 ways parents can help kids strike a balance between screen time and the real world. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Streaming Video (e.g., YouTube Video)

If the real name and user name of the person who posted the video are both available, provide the real name in the format Author, A. A., followed by the user name inside [brackets].

TEDx Talks. (2015, Apr. 10). Social workers as super-heroes | Anna Scheyett | TEDxColumbiaSC [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A27QjpQ_Ieo

Follow the author-date method of in-text citation.
The author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text: (Jones, 1998).
If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and (if available) page number for the reference (preceded by "p."): (Jones, 1998, p. 199).

Use the following examples to help you with your in-text citations:

. . . (Elswick, 2017).

Solomon (1998) found . . .

. . . (Tracking Chicago homicide victims, 2019).

Singer (2018) has found . . .

. . . (Williams, 2019).

Anna Scheyett talks about . . . (TEDx Talks, 2015).

Research by Reus and Mosley (2018) supports . . . (p. 15).

. . . (Weisman & Zornado, 2018).

Three to five authors: List all the authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses the first time you cite the source. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the text and use the ampersand in parentheses.
In subsequent citations, only use the first author's last name followed by "et al." in the signal phrase or in parentheses.

First Citation: According to Murphy, Radley, and Helbig (2018), . . . (p. 325).
Second Citation: . . . (Murphy et al., 2018, p. 330).