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APA Citation Style

This guide provides basic instruction about the APA Citation Style.

Date

In APA style, the date refers to the date of publication. The date may take one of the following forms:

  • year only
  • year, month, and day
  • year and month
  • year and season
  • range of dates (range of years or exact dates)

There are various guidelines for formatting the date. The main guidelines are listed below:

  • the date appears after the author's information
  • is placed in parentheses with a period following it
  • for books, the date of publication is the copyright date shown on the copyright page
  • for journal articles, use the year of the volume

From APA Publication Manual, 7th, ed., Ch. 9.13 Definition of Date & 9.14 Format of the Date Element

Examples

Date for an article or book:

Burgess, R. (2019). Rethinking global health: Frameworks of power. Routledge.

Date for an article in a newspaper:

Hess, A. (2019, January 3). Cats who take direction. The New York Times, C1

No date:

Census Bureau. (n.d.). U.S. and world population clock. U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved January 9, 2020, from https://www.census.gov/popclock/