The use of author–date text citations, rather than footnotes, is part of the essence of APA Style. What if I formatted the footnotes exactly like APA Style references, but put them at the bottom of the page? That would still be in APA Style, right? Endnotes are never used in APA Style, but you’ll find more about content footnotes in section 2.12 of the APA Publication Manual.Īuthor–date citations don’t give the reader enough information-I really prefer to give the source up front. The only use for footnotes in APA Style is to provide additional content that supplements the text (e.g., to briefly acknowledge a tangential idea that is nevertheless important to the discussion or to note copyright permission for reprinting a lengthy quote). This differs from other source documentation styles that use a combination of footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography for that purpose. APA Style uses text citations, not footnotes or endnotes, to direct the reader to a source in the reference list. There are a number of very good style manuals that use the footnote–bibliography method of citation, but the APA Publication Manual is not among them. All I see in the manual is examples of references. I have the sixth edition of the Publication Manual, but I’ve been unable to find instructions for how to format my citations in footnote form.

Using endnotes for citations