I can't find the example reference I need in the Publication Manual. What should I do?

This page reflects guidance from the sixth edition of the Publication Manual.

For the most current guidelines, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) and our Style and Grammar Guidelines page for the seventh edition.

In general, a reference should contain the author name, date of publication, title of the work, and publication data. When you cannot find the example reference you need in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, choose the example that is most like your source and follow that format. Sometimes you will need to combine elements of more than one reference format.

For examples, see the APA Style blog's series of posts about creating a reference based on the basic building blocks.