PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Drug guide entry

How to Cite a Drug Guide Entry in APA 7

An APA 7 drug guide entry reference lists the guide's authors, the year of the edition or version you used, the drug's name as the entry title, the word In, the guide's title in italics with its edition in parentheses, the publisher, and the URL if you used it online. For Davis's Drug Guide, that's Vallerand and Sanoski, the year, the drug, In Davis's drug guide (20th ed.), and F. A. Davis Company. The in-text citation is the authors and the year: (Vallerand & Sanoski, 2026).

The format

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Drug name. In Title of drug guide (xx ed.). Publisher. https://xxxxx

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the drug's link from DrugGuide.com (or another Davis's Drug Guide page on Unbound Medicine) into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA reads the entry and fills in both authors, the year, the drug's name, Davis's drug guide in sentence case, the edition, F. A. Davis Company, and a clean link, ready for your references page.

Adding one by hand, or citing a print guide? Choose Reference Work, then Entry in a reference work, and pick Entry in a dictionary or thesaurus. Add each Author of the entry, then fill in the drug's name as the Entry Title, the guide's title as the Reference Work Name, the publisher, the Publication Year, and the Edition, and paste the URL. For a print guide, put the entry's pages in Page Number.

Citing a drug in an app like UpToDate Lexidrug? Choose Software, AI, & Mobile Apps, then A reference entry in a mobile app. Add Lexi-Comp as a Group Author (Organization), then fill in the drug's name as the Entry Title, the app's name, the Version Number, the Publication Year, the store in Mobile Platform Store, and the URL.

Look up
Paste a Davis's Drug Guide link, get the reference

https://www.drugguide.com/ddo/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/51497/all/metoprolol

Vallerand, A. H., & Sanoski, C. A. (2026). Metoprolol. In Davis's drug guide (20th ed.). F. A. Davis Company. https://www.drugguide.com/ddo/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/51497/all/metoprolol

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Authors

Davis's Drug Guide is written, not edited, by April Hazard Vallerand and Cynthia A. Sanoski, so they're the authors of every entry. Write each last name, a comma, and the initials, with an ampersand before the second author. Leave off credentials like PhD, RN, and PharmD.

Vallerand, A. H., & Sanoski, C. A.

A drug database from a company, like Lexidrug, takes the company as a group author: Lexi-Comp.

2. Year

Use the year of the edition or version you used, in parentheses. DrugGuide.com is tied to the current print edition, and its entries carry that edition's year. For an app, use the year of the app version on your phone.

(2026).

3. Drug name

The drug's name is the entry title. Use the generic name as the guide gives it, and leave off the trade names the page lists in parentheses. It isn't italicized. The first word is capitalized because it starts the title; elsewhere, generic names are lowercase and brand names (Lopressor) are capitalized.

Metoprolol.

4. In and the guide title

Write In, then the guide's title in italics and sentence case. Use the title of the version you used: the website and app are Davis's drug guide, while the printed book is Davis's drug guide for nurses.

In Davis's drug guide

Davis's Drug Guide has authors, not editors, so no (Ed.) or (Eds.) goes here.

5. Edition, version, or page

Put the edition in parentheses right after the title, not in italics. For the print book, add the entry's page range in the same parentheses: (20th ed., pp. xxx–xxx). For an app, add the version number in parentheses and the label [Mobile app] after the title.

(20th ed.).

6. Publisher

Name the publisher. For Davis's guides, that's F. A. Davis Company, with a space between the initials. For an app downloaded from an app store, give the store, such as App Store or Google Play, instead.

F. A. Davis Company.

7. URL

If you used the guide online, end with the entry's URL, with no period after it. Copy the link to the drug's page itself, without any search terms added to the end. A print guide has no URL.

https://www.drugguide.com/ddo/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/51497/all/metoprolol

APA's own Davis's Drug Guide example has no retrieval date, because the entry belongs to a dated edition. Add "Retrieved Month Day, Year, from" before the URL only for a drug database whose entries change without any edition or version number to point to.

Examples

A Davis's Drug Guide entry on DrugGuide.com

The metoprolol entry in the online Davis's Drug Guide (20th ed., 2026). The page lists the trade names Kapspargo Sprinkle and Lopressor, but the entry title is the generic name. The citation quotes the entry's Patient/Family Teaching section, which has no page numbers online, so it names the section.

  • Parenthetical citation(Vallerand & Sanoski, 2026, Patient/Family Teaching section)
  • Narrative citationVallerand and Sanoski (2026, Patient/Family Teaching section)

A Lexidrug (Lexicomp) entry in the mobile app

The amoxicillin monograph in the UpToDate Lexidrug app (formerly Lexicomp), version 9.6.0, released on the App Store in October 2026 by Lexi-Comp. APA's nursing guidance cites a Lexidrug entry with the app's version and the label [Mobile app] after the title, and the App Store as the source.

  • Parenthetical citation(Lexi-Comp, 2026)
  • Narrative citationLexi-Comp (2026)

In-text citations

A drug guide entry's in-text citation is the guide's authors and the year, the same as any authored source. You don't name the drug in the citation; name it in your sentence.

  • Two authors: both names every time, joined by & in parentheses and by and in your sentence: (Vallerand & Sanoski, 2026) or Vallerand and Sanoski (2026)
  • Group author: (Lexi-Comp, 2026) or Lexi-Comp (2026)
  • A quote from an online entry: name the section, since there are no page numbers: (Vallerand & Sanoski, 2026, Patient/Family Teaching section)
  • A quote from the print book: add p. and the page number after the year, the same way you would for any book.
  • Two drugs from the same guide: each entry gets its own reference, and because they share the authors and year, add a and b after the year in alphabetical order of the drug names: (Vallerand & Sanoski, 2026a, 2026b)

Common mistakes

  • In Davis's Drug Guide (20th ed.).In Davis's drug guide (20th ed.).DrugGuide.com's own Cite button capitalizes every word, but APA puts book and reference work titles in sentence case. Only the first word and proper nouns (Davis's) stay capitalized.
  • Vallerand, A. H., & Sanoski, C. A. (2026). Davis's drug guide for nurses (20th ed.). F. A. Davis Company.Vallerand, A. H., & Sanoski, C. A. (2026). Metoprolol. In Davis's drug guide (20th ed.). F. A. Davis Company. https://www.drugguide.com/...When you used one drug's entry, cite the entry, with the drug's name and In. A reference to the whole book doesn't tell your reader where the information is.
  • Metoprolol (Kapspargo Sprinkle, Lopressor).Metoprolol.The trade names in the page's heading aren't part of the entry title. Mention a brand name in your sentence if it matters.
  • Vallerand, A. H., RN, & Sanoski, C. A., PharmD.Vallerand, A. H., & Sanoski, C. A.APA leaves degrees and credentials out of the author element.
  • (Davis's Drug Guide, 2026)(Vallerand & Sanoski, 2026)The in-text citation uses the authors, who come first in the reference. The guide's title isn't the author.

Quick checklist

  • The guide's authors (or the company, for a database or app)
  • The year of the edition or app version
  • The generic drug name as the entry title, without trade names
  • In and the guide's title in italics and sentence case
  • The edition in parentheses (plus pages for print, version for an app)
  • The publisher, or the app store for an app
  • The entry's URL when you used it online

Questions students ask

How do I cite Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses in print?

List Vallerand and Sanoski, the year of your edition, the drug's name, In, Davis's drug guide for nurses in italics, the edition and the entry's pages in one set of parentheses, and F. A. Davis Company. There's no URL. Check the copyright page for the year and edition, since students often have an older edition than the current one.

How do I cite Lexicomp in APA?

Lexicomp is now called UpToDate Lexidrug. In the app, cite the drug's entry with Lexi-Comp as the author, the year of your app version, the drug's name, In UpToDate Lexidrug, the version number and [Mobile app], and the app store. If you read a Lexidrug monograph inside UpToDate on the web, use the format for an UpToDate article, with Lexicomp as a group author and a retrieval date.

How do I cite Micromedex?

APA hasn't published a Micromedex example, so check whether your instructor has a preferred format. A sensible approach follows the same entry pattern: the company that publishes the database as a group author, the date shown on the monograph (or n.d.), the drug's name, In Micromedex, and the monograph's URL, with a retrieval date because the content changes. If you're using a Drugs.com page that shows Micromedex content, cite it as a webpage on Drugs.com instead.

Do I need a retrieval date for an online drug guide?

Not for Davis's Drug Guide, whose entries belong to a dated edition; APA's own example has none. Add a retrieval date for a drug database that updates its monographs continuously with no edition or version number, so your reader knows when you looked.

Do I cite the drug guide or the package insert?

Cite what you actually read. A drug guide entry is cited as shown here. A package insert or label from DailyMed is cited like a webpage, with the drug's manufacturer as the author and [Drug information] after the title.

Should the drug name be capitalized?

In the reference, the entry title's first word is capitalized: Metoprolol. In your sentences, generic names are lowercase (metoprolol) and brand names are capitalized (Lopressor), because brand names are proper nouns.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.17, 8.28, 9.8, 9.16, 9.26, 10.3, and 10.10, and the APA Style website's nursing student references (medical dictionary, entry in a medical dictionary, and drug information examples). The Davis's Drug Guide entry was checked on DrugGuide.com on October 21, 2026 (authors, 20th edition, 2026, F. A. Davis Company, and the entry's sections), with the authors' full names confirmed on Unbound Medicine's product page; the Lexidrug app's seller, title, version 9.6.0, and October 15, 2026, release were confirmed on its App Store listing.

PERRLA builds a Davis's Drug Guide entry from its link, both authors and the edition included.

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