How to Cite the APA Code of Ethics

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The American Psychological Association (APA) code of ethics (official title: "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct") is a publication of the APA, a professional association. [1] For this reason, most citation styles treat it as a corporate or institutional publication or report, rather than as a type of legal document. If you're citing the APA Code of Ethics, you're most likely using APA citation style. If you happen to be using Modern Language Association (MLA) or Chicago citation style, your format will be slightly different.

Method 1
Method 1 of 3:

APA

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  1. The APA is considered the author of its code of ethics. Write the name out in full – do not include any abbreviations. Place a period at the end of the name.
    • Example: American Psychological Association.
  2. After the name of the organization, type a space and then type the year the code was published that you are looking at. You may find this in the copyright information. If the code includes amendments, the year of the last amendment may also be considered the publication date. Place a period after the closing parenthesis.
    • Example: American Psychological Association. (2017).
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  3. Following the date of publication, type the full title of the code. Use sentence case, capitalizing only the first word and any proper nouns in the title. Place a period at the end of the title.
    • Example: American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct.
  4. Type the word "Retrieved" followed by the date you accessed the webpage for the code in month-day-year format. Do not abbreviate names of months no matter how long they are. Place a comma after the day and year. then type the word "from" followed by the URL. Do not place a period at the end of the URL.
    • Example: American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved May 18, 2019, from https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/

    APA Reference List Format – APA Code of Ethics

    American Psychological Association. (Year). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL.

  5. APA style requires an in-text citation every time you quote or paraphrase from a source. Unless the information is included in your text, place a parenthetical at the end of the sentence with the full name of the organization followed by a comma and the year of publication. Place the sentence's closing punctuation outside the closing parenthesis.
    • In your first citation, you can include the abbreviation "APA" in square brackets after the full name of the organization. For example, you might write "Ethics rules require psychologists to correct the misrepresentation of their work (American Psychological Association [APA], 2017)."
    • In subsequent in-text citations, you would only use "APA" rather than writing out the name of the organization in full. For example, a subsequent citation might be "(APA, 2017)."
  6. When you quote directly from a source, APA style normally requires you to indicate the page number or page range where the quoted material appears in the original source. Since the code is not paginated, use the section numbers instead. [2]
    • For example, you might write: Psychologists are bound by their code of ethics to "take reasonable steps to correct or minimize" misuse of their work if they find out about it (APA, 2017, 1.01).
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Method 2
Method 2 of 3:

MLA

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  1. The APA is credited as the author of its own code. Since the author and the publisher are the same, MLA style leaves out the name of the author to avoid repetition. Instead, type the title using title case, capitalizing all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. Place a period at the end of the title. [3]
    • Example: Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.
  2. After the title, type out the APA's name in full, followed by a comma. Then type the month and year of publication. If no month is available, simply include the year. This will typically be the year after the copyright symbol or the year of the last amendment. Place a comma after the date. [4]
    • Example: Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. American Psychological Association, 2017,
  3. The final element of your Works Cited entry is the URL where your readers can find the code. With MLA style, do not include the "http://" part of the URL. Place a period at the end of the URL to close out your entry. [5]
    • Example: Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. American Psychological Association, 2017, www.apa.org/ethics/code/.

    MLA Works Cited Format – APA Code of Ethics

    Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. American Psychological Association, Year, URL.

  4. Even though the name of the organization isn't listed first in your Works Cited entry, it's still appropriate to use it as the "author" in your parenthetical in-text citation. Use abbreviations to keep the parenthetical from getting too long. You can find a list of acceptable abbreviations in your MLA style guide. Instead of a page number, use the section number where the material you've paraphrased or quoted appears. Place the sentence's closing punctuation outside the closing parenthesis. [6]
    • For example, you might write "Psychologists are bound by their code of ethics to correct any misuse of their work as soon as they learn about it (Amer. Psych. Assoc. 1.01)."
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Method 3
Method 3 of 3:

Chicago

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  1. Since the name of the organization is considered the author, it is listed first in a Chicago-style bibliographic entry. Place a period after the full name. Do not use any abbreviations. [7]
    • Example: American Psychological Association.
  2. After the name of the organization, type the full title using title case. Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs that appear in the title. Place a period at the end of the title. [8]
    • Example: American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.
  3. If you scroll down to the bottom of the webpage where the APA code appears, you'll see that the APA is based in Washington, DC. Use this as your location, followed by a colon. Then list the APA as the publisher. Type the name out in full with no abbreviations. Add a comma, then type the year of publication. This will typically be the copyright year for the code or the year of the last amendment. Place a period after the year. [9]
    • Example: American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2017.
  4. Use the full direct URL where your readers can find the code. No date of access is required by Chicago style. However, check with your instructor or supervisor to see if they want one. Place a period after the URL to close out your bibliographic entry. [10]
    • Example: American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2017. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/.

    Chicago Bibliography Format – APA Code of Ethics

    American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, Year. URL.

  5. Footnotes include the exact same information as the bibliographic entry but are written in sentence style, with commas between the initial elements. The publication information (location, publisher, and year of publication) are enclosed in parentheses. Place a comma outside the closing parentheses, then add the URL. Place a period at the end of the URL. [11]
    • Example: American Psychological Association, Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2017), https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/.
    • For direct quotes, use a comma instead of a period after the URL and add the section number where the quoted material appears.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/
      2. ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/ethics-code-references
      3. ↑ https://style.mla.org/citing-a-company-report/
      4. ↑ https://libguides.up.edu/mla/common/websites
      5. ↑ https://libguides.up.edu/mla/common/websites
      6. ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/ethics-code-references
      7. ↑ https://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/48009
      8. ↑ https://libguides.westsoundacademy.org/c.php?g=457482&p=3136083
      9. ↑ https://libguides.westsoundacademy.org/c.php?g=457482&p=3136083
      1. ↑ https://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/48009
      2. ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/web_sources.html

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