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Referencing guide: APA 7th

APA 7th edition

 

What is APA style?

APA style is a referencing method developed by the American Psychological Association and is a version of the commonly used Author-Date system. 

This guide is based on the official APA website and the following text:

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Which style does my School use? 

Some Schools or individual units require a different style from the one outlined here. Always use the citation style required by your lecturer. If in doubt, check your unit outline, in MyLO, or ask your lecturer or tutor.

In-text citations

In-text citations direct the reader to the Reference List to view the full details of the source.

When paraphrasing, In-text citations can be included as:

1. Parenthetical citations - by inserting the author and date in parentheses, usually at the end of a sentence, e.g....opportunity and economy are two factors that may have influenced changes in parental roles (Bomar, 2004).

or,

2. Narrative citations - by incorporating the name of the author, followed by the date enclose in parentheses into the text of the paper, e.g. Sternberg (1993) suggests results should be carefully analysed...

Multiple authors

In-text formatting for author names
One author (Smith, 2020)
Two authors (Smith & Jones, 2020)
Three or more authors (Williams et al., 2023)

Multiple works

When citing multiple works in parentheses, arrange the citations in alphabetical order and separate them with semicolons, e.g.

(Citizen, 2019; Jones, 1999; Smith, 2001)

Multiple works can be arranged in any order when they are incorporated into the text of the paper (narrative citation).

  • Page numbers are always included for direct quotations e.g. (Hiebert, 2009, p. 69).
  • When the quote is 40 words or less direct quotations should be placed within the text and surrounded by double quotation marks, e.g.  "we cannot possibly know and understand the culture of every individual and community we might encounter throughout the course of our careers" (Mkandawire-Valhmu, 2018, p. 24).
  • When the quote is more than 40 words, direct quotations should be started on a new line and indented from the left margin, without quotation marks, e.g.

In an era of globalization, a healthcare provider needs to be prepared for encounters for people of diverse backgrounds and experiences. The culturally safe healthcare provider needs to have a deep understanding of where people have been and what they have experienced in their countries of origin. (Mkandawire-Valhmu, 2018, p. 73)

Reference Lists

 

A reference list is placed at the end of your paper. It contains the full details of all the references cited in the text of your paper. These details should be sufficient for the reader to be able to identify and locate the sources.  The reference list should be organised in alphabetical order by the author's family name.

Fundamentals of APA

This brief video conveys the simplicity of using APA 7th for citations and referencing, outlining a few fundamental characteristics of the style.

Commonly used reference types

Format for a book:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright Year). Title of the book: Subtitle (edition, if not the first). Publisher. URL or DOI (if electronic)

 

Example of a book:

Lang, T., & Heasman, M. (2015). Food wars: The global battle for mouths, minds and markets (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315754116

Format for a chapter in an edited book:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright Year). Title of the book chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (edition, pp. #–#). Publisher. DOI or URL

 

Example of a book chapter:

Davies, C., Robinson, K. H., Metcalf, A., Ivory, K., Mooney-Somers, J., Race, K., & Skinner, S. R. (2021). Australians of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. In T. Dune, K. McLeod, & R. Williams (Eds.), Culture, diversity and health in Australia: Towards culturally safe healthcare (pp. 213-231). Routledge.

Format for a journal article:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Name of the Periodical, volume(issue), #–#. https://doi.org/xxx

 

Example of a journal article:

Boddy, J., & Dominelli, L. (2017). Social media and social work: The challenges of a new ethical space. Australian Social Work, 70(2), 172–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2016.1224907

Format for a webpage:

Author. (Year, month day). Title of the webpage. Publisher/Website Name. URL

 

Example of a webpage with an organisational group author:

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2015, September 23). UNESCO and sustainable development goals. https://en.unesco.org/sustainabledevelopmentgoals

 

Note: omit the publisher/website name if it is the same as the author

 

Examples for other sources

APA provide an extensive array of examples for different sources, including:

  • Textual works e.g. books, journal articles, standards, government reports
  • Audiovisual media e.g. podcast, TED Talk, YouTube clip
  • Social media e.g. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok
  • Webpages and web documents

Further help with APA

Some examples of topics found in the blog:

The APA website includes comprehensive advice on how to use their referencing style. These are some of the popular topics:

Your feedback

APA Style Guides

We have the full APA style guide available to borrow from the University Library.