- 2-minute read
- 8th November 2020
How to Cite a Review in APA Referencing
Reviews of books, films, and other media can be great sources in academic writing. But how do you cite a review using APA referencing? In this post, we explain the basics of citations and the reference list entry.
In-Text Citations for a Review in APA Style
Citations for a review in APA referencing are similar to those for other sources. This means you cite the reviewer’s surname and year of publication:
One review was especially scathing (Smith, 2001).
In addition, if you quote a print source, make sure to cite a page number:
Smith (2001) dismisses the argument as ‘puerile’ (p. 16).
For more on APA citations, see our blog post on the topic.
Reviews in an APA Reference List
The format for a review in an APA reference list will depend on where it was published. For instance, for a review published in a newspaper, you would cite it as a newspaper article. But for a review published on a blog or website, you would cite it as a blog post or website instead.
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In all cases, though, you will need to adapt the format by adding details of the thing being reviewed in square brackets after the review title.
You can see APA-style references for reviews from an academic journal and a website below, complete with this extra information:
Smith, G. (2001). A backward step for applied ethics [Review of the book Righteous Thought, Righteous Action, by X. Morrison]. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 18(1), 16–24.
Bert, E. (2018). Neil Breen outdoes himself again [Review of the film Twisted Pair, by N. Breen, Dir.]. BadMovieCentral. http://www.badmoviecentral.com/reviews/twisted-pair/
This ensures the reader can identify both the review you’re citing and the thing being reviewed from the reference list entry alone.
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