APA is the most commonly required citation style for annotated bibliographies in psychology, education, nursing, social work, and the social sciences. If your professor said "APA format," this is the guide you need.
This guide covers APA 7th edition — the current standard. If you're not sure whether you need 6th or 7th edition, you almost certainly need 7th (it's been the standard since 2019).
For a general overview of annotated bibliographies, see our main guide. For examples in other styles, see our MLA guide or Chicago guide.
APA Annotated Bibliography Format at a Glance
Here's the basic structure. The citation comes first, formatted exactly like an APA reference list entry. The annotation follows as a new indented paragraph.
Page setup:
- Title: "Annotated Bibliography" centered at the top (bold)
- Font: 12-point Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial
- Margins: 1 inch on all sides
- Spacing: Double-spaced throughout
- Hanging indent: 0.5 inch for the citation
- Annotation: Indented 0.5 inch from the left margin (same level as the hanging indent text)
What each entry looks like:
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal
attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3),
497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497
Baumeister and Leary argue that the need to belong is a fundamental human
motivation. The authors review evidence from social psychology, clinical psychology,
and evolutionary biology to show that humans have a pervasive drive to form lasting
relationships. This article is relevant to my research on social media and loneliness...
APA Citation Format Rules
Before you can write your annotation, you need to get the citation right. Here are the formatting rules for the most common source types.
Journal Article
The most common source in APA annotated bibliographies. Format:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Periodical in Title Case, Volume(Issue), Page–Page. https://doi.org/xxxxx
Example:
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2018). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive Medicine Reports, 12, 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.003
Key rules:
- Article title: sentence case (only capitalize the first word, proper nouns, and first word after a colon)
- Journal title: title case and italicized
- Volume: italicized
- Issue number: in parentheses, not italicized
- Always include the DOI if available
Book
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case (Edition if not first). Publisher.
Example:
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Key rules:
- Book title: sentence case, italicized
- Include edition only if it's not the first (e.g., "2nd ed.")
- Do not include the publisher's location (changed in APA 7th)
- Do not include "Inc.," "Co.," or "Publishing" in the publisher name
Edited Book Chapter
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.
Example:
Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of personality. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 154–196). Guilford Press.
Website
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL
Example:
World Health Organization. (2024, March 15). Mental health: Strengthening our response. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response
Key rules:
- If the author is the same as the site name, omit the site name
- Include the specific date if available; use just the year if not
- Do not include a period after URLs
Complete APA Annotated Bibliography Examples
Example 1: Psychology Research Paper
Topic: The relationship between social media use and self-esteem in adolescents
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2018). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive Medicine Reports, 12, 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.003
Twenge and Campbell analyzed survey data from over 40,000 U.S. children and adolescents aged 2–17, finding that higher screen time was associated with lower psychological well-being, including less curiosity, lower self-control, more distractibility, and greater difficulty making friends. The associations were stronger for adolescents than younger children. The study's large sample size is a significant strength, but the cross-sectional design means it cannot establish causation — it's possible that adolescents with lower well-being are drawn to screens rather than screens causing lower well-being. This source provides strong correlational evidence for my paper's argument that excessive social media use is linked to psychological harm in teens, though I'll need to pair it with longitudinal studies to address the causation question.
Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., & Walther, J. B. (2016). Media effects: Theory and research. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 315–338. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033608
Valkenburg, Peter, and Walther provide a comprehensive review of media effects research from the past 60 years, organizing the field around five core theoretical traditions: social cognitive theory, priming, framing, uses and gratifications, and the reinforcing spirals model. The authors argue that the field has matured from a focus on direct effects to a more nuanced understanding of conditional effects — media doesn't affect everyone the same way, and individual differences in personality, developmental stage, and social context moderate outcomes. This review is useful for my literature review because it provides theoretical grounding for why social media might affect some adolescents' self-esteem more than others, supporting my argument for a moderated effects framework rather than a blanket "social media is harmful" narrative.
Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(2), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0506-1
Orben and Przybylski analyzed three large-scale datasets totaling over 350,000 adolescents and found that while technology use is statistically associated with lower well-being, the effect size is extremely small — comparable to the negative association between well-being and wearing glasses, and much smaller than the positive association between well-being and eating breakfast regularly. The authors used specification curve analysis, a method that tests all possible analytical choices simultaneously, to demonstrate that previous studies may have inflated effect sizes through selective reporting of results. This is perhaps the most important source for my paper because it directly challenges the alarmist narrative about social media and adolescent mental health, forcing a more nuanced argument.
Example 2: Education Course Assignment
Topic: The effectiveness of formative assessment in K-12 classrooms
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969595980050102
Black and Wiliam review over 250 studies to examine the relationship between formative assessment and student achievement. They find strong evidence that formative assessment — the process of gathering information about student learning during instruction to adjust teaching — raises academic standards, with effect sizes between 0.4 and 0.7. The review also identifies specific formative assessment practices that are most effective, including questioning techniques, descriptive feedback (as opposed to grades), and peer and self-assessment. While the breadth of the review is impressive, the authors acknowledge that many of the included studies were small-scale and lacked rigorous experimental designs. This article is foundational to my paper and provides the primary evidence for my argument that schools should prioritize formative over summative assessment.
Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78(1), 153–189. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307313795
Shute examines the characteristics of effective feedback in educational settings, distinguishing between formative feedback (information communicated to the learner to modify thinking or behavior) and other types of feedback. The review finds that the most effective feedback is specific, timely, and focused on the task rather than the learner — for example, "Your thesis statement needs a clearer counterargument" is more effective than "Good job" or a letter grade. Shute also finds that too much feedback can be counterproductive, as it can overwhelm learners or reduce their motivation to think independently. This source complements Black and Wiliam's broader findings by providing specific, actionable guidelines for implementing formative feedback in the classroom.
Common APA Formatting Mistakes
Using APA 6th edition rules. The 7th edition (2019) made several changes: no more publisher locations, bold headings, different rules for DOIs, and "et al." used from the first citation for works with three or more authors. Make sure you're using 7th edition.
Title case in article titles. Article titles use sentence case in APA. Book and journal titles use title case. This is the single most common formatting error.
Missing DOIs. APA 7th edition requires a DOI for any source that has one. Use doi.org format: https://doi.org/10.xxxx
Incorrect hanging indents. The entire reference should have a hanging indent (first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inch). The annotation follows, indented at the same 0.5-inch level.
Forgetting to double-space. Everything in APA is double-spaced — including between the citation and annotation, and between entries. No extra spacing between entries.
Finding Sources for Your APA Annotated Bibliography
Need to find peer-reviewed journal articles for your annotated bibliography? Sourcely searches across 200+ million academic papers and generates properly formatted APA 7th edition citations automatically. Paste your research topic, select the most relevant results, and copy the formatted citations directly into your bibliography.
More Annotated Bibliography Guides
- What Is an Annotated Bibliography? — Types, structure, and when to use each
- Annotated Bibliography Examples — Complete examples in APA, MLA, and Chicago
- Annotated Bibliography in MLA — MLA 9th edition formatting guide
- Annotated Bibliography in Chicago — Chicago style formatting guide
- How to Write an Annotated Bibliography — Step-by-step writing process
