How to Cite a Survey in APA

Survey results may serve as an important source of data if you conduct research within the social sciences. The sixth edition of the "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association" provides guidelines for properly including a survey on the works cited page of your paper. Place the survey alphabetically within the list of works cited, as you would any other reference.

Step 1

List the name of the organization that conducted the survey followed by a period. For example,

"U.S. Census Bureau."

Step 2

Give the year the survey was conducted within parentheses followed by a period. For example,

"(2000)."

Step 3

List the name of the survey in italics. Capitalize only the first word, proper nouns and any word after a colon. State the form you obtained the survey data in within square brackets after the title and place a period after the second bracket. For example,

"U.S. Census 2000 profiles of general demographic characteristics [Data file]."

Step 4

Give the URL from which you retrieved the data if it is an online source. State the location and name of the publisher for hard copy survey data. For example,

"Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/census2000/demoprofile.html" or "New York, NY: Survey Publisher."