diff --git a/doc/source/development/contributing.rst b/doc/source/development/contributing.rst
@@
-* Our API documentation in ``doc/source/api.rst`` houses the auto-generated
+* Our API documentation files in ``doc/source/reference`` house the auto-generated
   documentation from the docstrings. For classes, there are a few subtleties around
   controlling which methods and attributes have pages auto-generated.
@@
-Every method should be included in a ``toctree`` in ``api.rst``, else Sphinx will
+Every method should be included in a ``toctree`` in one of the documentation files in
+``doc/source/reference``, else Sphinx will
   emit a warning.
@@
-The summary also compares the list of methods documented in ``doc/source/api.rst``
-(which is used to generate the `API Reference <https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/api.html>`_ page)
-and the actual public methods. This will identify methods documented in ``doc/source/api.rst``
-that are not actually class methods, and existing methods that are not documented in ``doc/source/api.rst``.
+The summary also compares the list of methods documented in the files in ``doc/source/reference``
+(which is used to generate the `API Reference <https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/api.html>`_ page)
+and the actual public methods. This will identify methods documented in ``doc/source/reference``
+that are not actually class methods, and existing methods that are not documented in ``doc/source/reference``.