APA Referencing Style Guide: Formatting

To cite works of others, APA style uses an author-date citation method. Citations in-text are acknowledged with (Author, Date) or Author (Date).

Direct quotation

Use quotation marks and include page numbers.

A long quotation

A quotation of 40 or more words should be formatted as a freestanding, indented block of text without quotation marks. Note the location of the final full stop.

A quotation with no page numbers

If you quote from online material and there are no page numbers, provide either a section heading, paragraph number (para.), or both.

Indirect Quotation / Paraphrasing

Page numbers are optional when paraphrasing, although authors are encouraged to include them, especially when it assists the reader to locate the reference in long pieces of text.

A citation from a secondary source

A secondary citation is where you cite information or quotes that the author of your reference has taken from a source that you have not read. If you quote or paraphrase these other authors, you must acknowledge everyone - the author(s) of the quote, and the author(s) of the source you are reading.

• Where possible, try and track down the original work and quote from that.

In-text citation

• In-text, name the original work as well as the work you have read.
• Use the phrase 'as cited in' to signify the secondary source.

In reference list

List Claiborne & Drewery in your reference list, not Arnett

A citation from a secondary source in an edited book

Edited books are put together by editors and usually have chapters written by different authors. The authors of these chapters may quote or paraphrase other authors. If you quote or paraphrase these other authors, you must acknowledge everyone - the author(s) of the quote, the author(s) of the chapter in the edited book and the editor(s) of the edited book.

• Where possible, try and track down the original work and quote from that.

In-text citation

In reference list

At the end of your assignment, you are required to provide the full bibliographic information for each source cited in-text. References must be listed in alphabetical order by author, and then chronologically.

Exception: When citing from a secondary source, list only the secondary source in which you found the original information, and do not list the primary source in the reference list.

• Start the list of references on a new page at the end of your assignment.
• Do not use footnotes for referencing.
• References should use the hanging indent format.

Each reference type (e.g. Book, Journal) has a standardised format. See also Format elements section for detailed information on how to format authors, date, title, and source.

Book and book chapter

Each reference should include four elements: (1) Author or Editor (2) Date (3) Title of the work and (4) Source.

A chapter in an edited book

When a book consists of many chapters written by different authors, reference each chapter you used.

A Chapter in a non-edited book with multiple authors

Even though it is not an edited book, when a book is written by multiple authors and has chapters written by some of the authors, individual chapters could be cited.

Periodicals

Items published on a regular basis, such as journals, magazines and newspapers, are known as serials or periodicals. Include the same elements as for a book, but the source information is the volume, issue and page number(s).

Each reference should include the following elements: (1) Author (2) Date (3) Title of article (4) Title of Periodical (5) Volume, Issue, Page numbers and (6) DOI if available or URL.

Online documents / Webpages

Include the same elements as for a book, but the source information is the Website Name and URL.

Each reference should include the following elements: (1) Author (2) Date (3) Title of Webpage (4) Website Name & URL.

Provide the most specific date possible (e.g. 2020, May 2). Use no date (n.d.) if no date of publication is given.

If you feel your webpage is likely to change or be updated, include an access date.

Each element (e.g. Author[s], Date, Title, Source) has a standardised format including punctuation and presentation style (e.g. capital letters and italics etc).

Author(s)

In-text citation

Acknowledge a citation with author's last name and publication year.

• For two or more works within the same in-text parentheses, order the authors alphabetically as they would appear in the reference list. Separate them with semicolons.
• Separate two or more works by the same author with a comma.

• For authors with the same surname, include the author's initials in all in-text citations, even if the year differs.

• For a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus “et al.” in every citation, unless this would create ambiguity.
• et al. is short for et alii - Latin for 'and others'. Do not italicise et al.
• Sometimes multiple works with three or more authors and the same year shorten to the same citation. To avoid confusion when this occurs, write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references.

• In the example above, et al. is used to indicate there are other authors not listed. If, in order to distinguish same authors and same date, one author remains unlisted, you cannot use et al. as this indicates more than one author is not stated. In this instance their name must be included in the in-text citation.

When the author is unknown, the title takes the author position in the reference list. Please see common examples for further information.

In reference list

Invert the author(s) name(s), and use initial(s) of first name(s). Use the ampersand (&) between the last two authors' names (also note the full stop and comma after each author's name).

• Twenty-one or more authors: List the first 19 authors, then insert an ellipsis (...), followed by the last author.
• Group author: i.e. an organisation, association or government department.
• If the author's first name is hyphenated, include the hyphen with a full stop after each initial (e.g. Ku, Y.-C.. for Yi-Cheng Ku). e.g

Date

The year of publication goes in parentheses ( ) after the author(s).

• Provide the most specific date possible (e.g. 2020, May 2). Use no date (n.d.) if no date of publication is given.
• If an author has published more than one item in the same year, add lower case letters a, b, c etc. immediately after the year. The order is arranged alphabetically by title in the references list, but exclude 'A' or 'The' when it is the first word.
• If there are multiple works that have no publication date and they are written by the same author, add a hyphen before lower case letters a, b, c etc.

in-text citation

In reference list

Alphabetise the references by title, disregard the words “A”, “An” and “The” at the beginning of reference title (e.g. “Managerial behaviour” is before “A new perspective”).

Title of the work

Titles of formally published materials (e.g. Books, Journals) are italicised. Most titles use sentence case, where only the first word of a title, first word of a subtitle and proper nouns have capitals. The exception is journal titles (including magazines and newspapers) which use title case (where all key words begin with a capital letter).

Sentence case e.g. Anti-corruption reforms in France: Progress and challenges.

Title case e.g. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth.

• Do not italicise an article title in a journal or chapter title in an edited book.

Additional information (e.g. Editions)

Information such as edition (excluding 1st edition) or report number goes in parentheses ( ) immediately after the title.

e.g. (3rd ed.), (Vol. 2), (No. NZG-1567) etc.

A description of the work goes in square brackets [ ] after the title.

e.g. [Film; DVD], [Database record], [Powerpoint slides], [Letter to the editor] etc.

Source

Publication Place

• NEW: Publisher locations (city/state/country) are no longer required.

Publishers

• NEW: If two or more publishers are listed, include all of them in the order shown on the work or on a database, separated by a semicolon (e.g. Empire Publishing Service; SAGE Publishing).
• NEW: Use the publisher name as shown on the work you use.
• NEW: When the author and the publisher are the same, omit the publisher from the reference.
• Exception: Publishers are not required for journal, magazine or newspaper articles.
• Do not include words like Co., Ltd. or Inc. However, keep words like Books, Press or Publishing.