Formatting Footnotes in APA Style
Footnotes are an important component of APA style referencing. They allow readers to easily identify where information in the text originated from and give credit to authors appropriately. Formatting footnotes correctly is crucial as incorrect footnotes can undermine the validity of research presented. This article will explore how to format footnotes properly according to APA style guidelines.
Placing and Numbering Footnotes
Footnotes should be placed at the bottom of the page they correspond to using Arabic numerals without parentheses or brackets. Footnote numbers should be placed after punctuation marks except for the hyphen. For example, if a citation is at the end of a sentence the footnote number would follow the period. Footnote numbers should be superscripted.
When footnoting a direct quote, the footnote number should be placed after the closing quotation mark and before the page number or any other closing punctuation. For example:
“The study found conflicting results.”1
If multiple sources are cited together, they should be listed with footnote numbers separated by semicolons.
Content of a Footnote
The first footnote for a cited work should include all bibliographic information necessary for a reader to locate the source themselves. This includes the author’s name, the title in italics, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, and page number(s) if it is a print source. URLs or database information should be included for electronic sources.
Subsequent citations of a work in the same paper should be in a shortened form including just the author’s last name, a shortened title if the author’s name is not distinctive, and page number(s). If two sources by the same author are cited consecutively, the name may be omitted from the second footnote.
Books:
John Smith, Example of an APA Book Title (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), 45.
Smith, Example Book Title, 46.
Journal Articles:
Jane Doe, “Article Title,” Journal Name 55, no. 5 (2020): 23, https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy.
Doe, “Article Title,” 24.
Websites:
APA Style, “Sample Paper,” apastyle.org, last modified October 2020, https://apastyle.apa.org/sample-papers/annotated-bibliography-apa-style-sample.pdf.
APA Style, “Sample Paper.”
When citing the same source multiple times consecutively, “Ibid.” should be used in place of the repeated elements. This generally indicates the identical source as the preceding footnote.
Footnotes for Text with Multiple Authors
When citing sources with two or three authors, include all their last names in subsequent footnotes for that source. With four or more authors, use “et al.” after the first author’s name.
Footnotes for Secondary Sources
When citing a source cited in another secondary source, use “qtd. in” followed by the secondary source information in the footnote. For example:
Smith stated that “references are necessary” (qtd. in Doe, 2020).
Doe, Jane. 2020. “Referencing in APA.” Journal of Style 55, no. 1: 34.
Including Images in APA Footnotes
Images, figures, tables, etc. from external sources should be credited in footnotes using “Reprinted from” or “Adapted from” and include creator/owner information, title, and permission information if required. For example: