This referencing guide is to be used in conjunction with the Library’s General guide to citing and referencing.
The information in this guide is based on the following manual from the American Psychological Association (APA):
Please note: You must check if the 6th edition or the 7th edition is recommended by your academic department.
There are standard reference formats for most types of document. Below are examples of the most common types of document you might want to reference. Each of the following gives a suggested standard format for the reference followed by examples for the different document types.
Author’s surname, Initials. (Year of publication). Title (xx ed. if not the first). Place of publication: Publisher.
Tseris, E. (2019). Trauma, women's mental health, and social justice: Pitfalls and possibilities. Routledge.
Title. (Year of publication). (xx ed. if not the first). Publisher.
Group author. (Year of publication). Title (xx ed. if not the first). Publisher. *(If not the same than different from the corporate group author.)
NB: When the author and publisher are the same, it is not necessary to add the publisher.
Editor’s surname, Initials. (Ed.). (Year of publication). Title (xx ed. if not the first). Publisher.
Authors’ surnames, initials. (Year of publication). Title. (xx ed. if not the first). Publisher.
Author of chapter’s surname, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In: Initials of the first editor, Surname of first editor & Initials of the second editor, Surname of the second editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Publisher.
Author’s surname, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of article . Title of journal, Volume number(issue number), page numbers xx-xx. http//doi.org/xxxx
Author surname, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of journal, Volume number(issue number), page numbers xx-xx. URL
Author surname, Initials. (Year of publication). Title. Retrieved from URL.
Author surname, Initials. (Year of release in electronic format). Title. Publisher. URL (Original year work was Published).
Name of government departments. (Date of publication). Title of report. Publisher [If different from the group author].
Author surname, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of journal, Volume number(issue number), pages xx -xx.
Author’s surname, Initials. (Year of publication, Month of publication, Day of publication). Title of the article. Title of Newspaper, pp. xx-xx.
Writer’s surname, Initials. (Writer), & Director’s surname, Initials. (Director). (Year, Month Day). Title of episode (Season x) [Television series episode]. In Executive Producer’s Initial. Executive Producer’s surname (Executive producer), Title of TV series. Broadcasting company.
The APA makes a distinction between theses/dissertations available in print form only (‘unpublished’) and those available online (‘published’), and it makes further distinctions according to the type of online publisher. The APA also uses American terminology to describe a thesis/dissertation: 'doctoral dissertation’ and ‘master’s thesis’. Please refer to the Publication Manual for detailed guidance. The example below is for Doctoral dissertation published online, but not in a database.
Author Surname, Initials. (Year of the award). Title of dissertation (Level of the award, Awarding institution). Archive-name. URL
Author's surname, Initials. (Year, month and day site/document was published online: be as specific as is possible). Title. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from web address.
Note: If there is no individual author, you can use an organisation or corporate body name the group author (organisation), e.g. British Broadcasting Corporation. If neither is available, move the title to the author position, before a full stop and the date of publication.
Do not include retrieval dates unless the source material may change over time (e.g. wikis, web pages...)
The American Psychological Association uses an author-date style of referencing with details entered in round brackets. For example:
The traditional approach to human cognition is over-simplified in assuming that processing is typically serial (Eysenck & Keane, 2010).
Treatment of multiple authors:
When a work has two authors, cite both authors every time.
When a work has three or more authors, include only the surname of the first author only, followed by et al., and date of publishing in every citation, including the first. For example:
Kisangua et al. (2007) found that … [first and subsequent citations]
Formatting the reference list in APA style:
Begin the reference list on a new page at the end of your assignment.
Apply a hanging indent to each reference list entry. This means that the first line of each entry is left-aligned, while the second and subsequent lines are indented (the Publication Manual recommends 0.5" or 1.27cm).
To create a hanging indent in Microsoft Word: Highlight your reference entry, right-click, select 'Paragraph' from the list, a box will open and select 'Hanging' from the drop-down menu labelled 'Special'.
The Publication Manual also recommends double-line spacing within and between reference list entries, but check your tutor or department's preferences. See examples:
British Broadcasting Corporation. (2005). Review of the BBC's royal charter: BBC response to a strong BBC, independent of government.
Martin, A. (2006). Literacies for the digital age. In A. Martin & D. Madigan (Eds.), Digital literacies for learning (pp. 3-25). Facet.
Oncul, O. (2016). Crime and Delinquency. International Journal of Psychology, 51(S1), 295-303. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12305
The reference list should contain full details of all the sources mentioned in the text, arranged alphabetically by surname of the first author.
Treatment of multiple authors within the reference list:
For sources with 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis (…) and then add the final author’s name. Do not place an ampersand (&) before the final author's name. See:
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition is the official source for APA Style.
Shelf mark: 808.06615 AME
The Concise Guide to APA Style, Seventh Edition is the official APA Style resource for students. Designed specifically for undergraduate writing.
Shelf mark: 808.06615 AME
The APA Style website and blog will provide information about the seventh edition style only, with a very useful Q&A section.
You might like to refer to either the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association or the more compact version, Concise rules of APA style.
Shelf mark: 808.06615 AME (Level 3)
You might like to refer to either the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association or the more compact version, Concise rules of APA style.
Shelf mark: 808.06615 AME (Level 3)
The APA Style Blog is the official companion to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. It provides a bank of answered questions, which you can either browse or search for.
You may also find helpful this e-book. It includes examples for APA and other styles.
Click on the image or book title to access the e-book.
Also available in print shelf mark 808.027 NEV (Level 3)
