APA QUICK REFERENCE AND CITATION GUIDE

APA Quick Reference and Citation Guide

© editex.com 2015 1

APA QUICK REFERENCE AND CITATION GUIDE

Overview ............................................................................................................... 2

In-text citations: General notes .............................................................................. 2

Placement of in-text references ........................................................................................ 2 Providing page numbers .................................................................................................. 2 Citing multiple sources ..................................................................................................... 3 Secondary citations .......................................................................................................... 3

Citing works by the same author in the same year ........................................................... 3 Citing works by authors with the same surname .............................................................. 3

Citing quotations............................................................................................................... 4 Footnotes ......................................................................................................................... 4

In-text citations: Examples ..................................................................................... 5

Reference list: General notes ................................................................................. 6

Format .............................................................................................................................. 6 Capitalisation .................................................................................................................... 6

Order of entries ................................................................................................................ 6

Authors’ names ................................................................................................................ 7 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... 7 Place of publication .......................................................................................................... 8

Reference list: Examples ........................................................................................ 8

Periodicals ........................................................................................................................ 8 Books ............................................................................................................................... 9

Websites ........................................................................................................................ 10 Technical and research reports ...................................................................................... 10 Meetings and symposia .................................................................................................. 10 Theses or dissertations .................................................................................................. 11 Reviews and peer commentary ...................................................................................... 11

Audiovisual media .......................................................................................................... 11

Datasets, software and apparatus .................................................................................. 11

Blog posts/internet message boards .............................................................................. 12 Legal and public documents ........................................................................................... 12 Miscellaneous ................................................................................................................ 13

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Overview

APA is one of the styles most commonly used by universities. It is widely used in the

humanities, social sciences, health and science disciplines. Please note that British/

Australian English punctuation is used throughout this guide. The rules for punctuation in

American English are slightly different. Many non-American universities, but certainly not all,

prefer that you adapt American referencing styles to adhere to British/Australian rules of

punctuation. If you are not sure what your university or department prefers, ask your tutor

or supervisor.

Referencing correctly according to a particular style (whether that be APA, MLA, IEEE or

any other style) involves presenting the publication information required exactly in the way

proscribed by the style. This means knowing which publication information is required, how

and where it should appear in the reference, what punctuation is necessary and where this

should be placed.

Thus, when formatting your references/in-text citations to a particular style and reviewing

example references/in-text citations, pay close attention to the order of information, how

each detail is displayed, and the punctuation used and where this is placed (i.e., whether

publication titles should be placed within quotation marks [if so, are they single ‘ ’ or double

“ ”?], italicised, have a capital letter for all the main words in the title or just the initial word,

and so forth).

In-text citations: General notes

Placement of in-text references

An in-text reference with the year must always come immediately after the author’s surname.

When the author’s surname is mentioned as part of a sentence, the year will appear in

parentheses immediately after the name. For example:

Orsini (2009) argues that ‘it is important to learn how to reference correctly’ (p. 78).

When the author’s name is not mentioned in the sentence, the in-text reference will appear

at the end. For example:

The Director of Editex argues that correct references are important (Orsini, 2009, p. 78).

Providing page numbers

Page numbers should be provided for direct quotations and when paraphrasing or referring

to an idea in another work.

The page number for a direct quotation is contained within a separate in-text reference

immediately after the direct quotation if the author’s name is mentioned in the sentence. For

example:


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If the author’s name has not been mentioned, it would look like this:

The Director of Editex argues that ‘it is important to learn how to reference correctly’ (Orsini,

2009, p. 78).

If the author’s name is mentioned but their ideas are paraphrased rather than quoted

directly, the page number is included with the publication year, like this:

Orsini (2009, p. 78) argued that correct referencing is important.

Citing multiple sources

Multiple sources cited within parentheses are separated by a semi-colon and must be

presented in alphabetical order. For example:

(Jackson, 2004; Tremlett, 2012)

When referring to multiple works by the same author, the sources should be separated with

a comma. For example:

(Hogan, 2005, 2006)

Secondary citations

Secondary sources should only be used when the original source is not freely available (for

example, not available in English or out of print). The original text should be cited as follows:

Watkin Tench (as cited in Smith, 1985)

Citing works by the same author in the same year

Where an author has multiple publications in the same year, a letter must be attributed to

each reference both in the reference list and in the in-text citation. For example:

Preston (2004a, 2004b)

Label the sources in alphabetical order by source title.

Citing works by authors with the same surname

When citing works by different authors with the same surname, their first initials must be

used to distinguish between them, even if the years of publication are different. For example:

(R. Carr, 1982; E. H. Carr, 1984)

If there are two sources by three authors published in the same year and the names of the

first two authors are the same—for example, Orsini, Hawton and Sachdev 2010 and Orsini,

Anuwong and Brown 2010—give all three names in every in-text citation rather than using

‘et al.’ as you would for all subsequent citations of a source by three or more authors.

If there are two sources by more than three authors with the same names published in the

same year—for example, Orsini, Hawton, Anuwong, Sachdev and Brown 2010 and Orsini,

Hawton, Smith and Silver 2010—cite the names of the first authors and as many subsequent

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names as necessary in every in-text citation to differentiate between the two sources,

followed by ‘et al.’. For example: Orsini, Hawton, Sachdev et al. 2010 and Orsini, Hawton,

Smith et al. 2010.

Citing quotations

In shorter quotations, the author’s name and year of publication should precede the

quotation, and the page number should be listed at the end. For example:


Quotations of 40 words or more should be formatted as block quotations. The citation can

be formatted in a similar manner as above, with the closing punctuation for the block

quotation appearing before the page number. For example:

Pérez Collado (2005) explained the following:

The group that went, we went as a man. We went, not as soldiers, because we did

not consider ourselves to be soldiers, but as a group. And I tell you, there were ten

of us, as we considered that there were ten of us, nine men and a woman! (p. 57)

Footnotes

Footnotes are only used in APA for supplementary information, or information that augments

or further explains a point or concept mentioned in the body of your work. Footnotes should

be brief and encapsulate just one idea—if the information given in a footnote is lengthy or

complex, it is best included in an appendix instead.

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In-text citations: Examples

Standard citations As part of a sentence In brackets

First citation Subsequent citations First citation Subsequent citations

1 author Walker (2015) Walker (2015) (Walker, 2015) (Walker, 2015)

2 authors Bradley and Walker (2015) Bradley and Walker (2015) (Bradley & Walker, 2015) (Bradley & Walker, 2015)

3–5 authors Walsh, Bradley, Soo, Ramirez and Walker (2015)

Walsh et al. (2015) (Walsh, Bradley, Soo, Ramirez & Walker, 2015)

(Walsh et al., 2015)

6+ authors Soo et al. (2015) Soo et al. (2015) (Soo et al., 2015) (Soo et al., 2015)

Groups, with abbreviation

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2015)

ABS (2015) (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2015)a

(ABS, 2015)

Groups, no abbreviation

University of South Australia (2015) University of South Australia (2015) (University of South Australia, 2015) (University of South Australia, 2015)

Special citations As part of a sentence In brackets As part of a sentence In brackets

Two or more works by the same author

Zhou (2014, 2015) and Soo et al. (2015a, 2015c)

(Soo et al., 2015a, 2015c; Zhou, 2014, 2015)

Citing in parenthetical material

The complete data can be seen in Table 2 of ABS (2010a)

(see Table 2 of ABS, 2010a, for complete data)

Authors with the same surname

A. Walker (2005) and K. Walker (2010)

(A. Walker, 2005; K. Walker, 2010)

Citing specific parts of works

Soo et al. (2015a, p. 45) and Walsh et al. (2015, Table 2, p. 16)

Soo et al. (2015a, p. 45, pp. 102–105) and ABS (2015, para. 16)b

Secondary sources

Rutherford (1952, as cited in Zhou, 2015)

(Rutherford, 1952, as cited as in Zhou, 2015)

Personal communication

T. Burke (personal communication, April 17, 2013)

(T. Burke, personal communication, April 17, 2013)

Legislation (Act) s. 2 of the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1920 states that …

* Always give Act names in full in the body of your work.

Parliamentary debates

Parliamentary debates (2012) (Parliamentary debates, 2012)

Notes: a In APA, when inserting further bracketed text (e.g. ‘ABS’) inside rounded brackets (), use square brackets []; b ‘para.’ can be used instead of ‘p.’ for online sources that do not have page numbers (see Section 6.05 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed, for further details).

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Reference list: General notes

Format

APA format requires double line spacing and a hanging indent of 1.27 cm. There should not

be a line space between entries. For example:

Hogan, J. P. (director). (1937). The last train from Madrid. Etna, Ohio: Ashfault’s Classic

Movies, 2008. DVD. 85 mins.

Low, M. & Breà, J. (1937). Red Spanish notebook: The first six months of the Revolution and

the Civil War. London: Purnell and Sons.

Radosh, R., Habeck, M. & Sevostianov, G. (2001). Spain betrayed: The Soviet Union in the

Spanish Civil War. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Capitalisation

In the reference list, use sentence case (e.g. The last train from Madrid) for all titles except

journals, which should appear in title case (e.g. Feminist Studies). Always capitalise proper

nouns (e.g. Spain or the Civil War), all words longer than four letters and the first word after

a colon (e.g. Red Spanish notebook: The first six months of the Revolution and the Civil

War).

Order of entries

References must be ordered alphabetically. Within this, multiple publications by the same

author should be ordered chronologically. For example:

Preston, P. (2004a). Juan Carlos: A people’s king. London, United Kingdom: HarperCollins.

Preston, P. (2004b). Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from dictatorship to democracy. London,

United Kingdom: W. W. Norton & Co.

Multiple works by the same author published in different years should be ordered

alphabetically by title. For example:

Preston, P. (2012). The Spanish holocaust. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.

Preston, P. (2008). We saw Spain die: Foreign correspondents in the Spanish Civil War.

London, United Kingdom: Constable and Robinson.

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Authors’ names

All authors’ surnames should be listed first, followed by their initials. First names are not

required. In addition, full stops are required after initials, with a space between each letter,

and an ampersand should be used between the second last and last names. For example:

Radosh, R., Habeck, M. R. & Sevostianov, G. (2001). Spain betrayed: The Soviet Union in the

Spanish Civil War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

When an author is an organisation that is commonly known by an acronym, such as the

United Nations (UN), define the acronym in the first citation (if it has not already been defined

in the body text); always define the acronym in the reference list entry, even if it has been

defined in the body text. For example:

United Nations Security Council (UNSC). (26 June 1946). The Spanish question (S/RES/7

[1946]). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/documents/sc/res/ 1946/scres46.htm

For the first citation if the organisation acronym has not already been defined in the body

text, define the acronym in the citation. For example:

(United Nations Security Council (UNSC), 1946)

For subsequent citations after the acronym has been defined, cite the work using the

acronym. For example:

(UNSC, 1946)

Abbreviations

Standard abbreviations can appear as abbreviations in the reference list:

ed. edition

Rev. ed. Revised edition

2nd ed. second edition

Ed. (Eds.) Editor (Editors)

Trans. Translator(s)

n.d. no date

p. (pp.) page (pages)

Vol. Volume

Vols. Volumes

No. Number

Pt. Part

Tech. Rep. Technical Report

Suppl. Supplement (American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 180)

The above list is taken directly from the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (2010, p. 180).

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Place of publication State names do not need to be spelled out; for example, NSW can be used rather than New South

Wales. Always give the city and state/province for the US, Canada and Australia, and indicate the

city and country for all other locations; for example, Berlin, Germany. Write out ‘United Kingdom’ in

full rather than using ‘UK’ or ‘England’ (or another United Kingdom country).

Reference list: Examples

Periodicals Journal article, with doi

Amabile, T. M., Hill, K. G., Hennessey, B. A. & Tighe, E. M. (1994). The work preference

inventory: Assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 66(5), 950–967. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.5.950

Journal article, with non-English title, no doi

Argyris, C. (1973). Kepribadian dan organisasi teori ditinjau [Personality and organization

theory revisited]. Administrative Science Quarterly, 18, 141–167.

Journal article, in print, accessed online

Gibbons, H. S. & Wentworth, G. P. (in press). Andrological and pedagogical training

differences for online instructors. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration.

Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall43/gibbons_

wentworth43.html

Journal, special issue

Haney, C. & Wiener, R. L. (Eds). (2004). Capital punishment in the United States [Special

issue]. Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law, 10(4).

Ganster, D. C., Schaubroeck, J., Sime, W. E. & Maynes, B. S. (1991). The nomological validity

of the Type A personality among employed adults [Monograph]. Journal of Applied

Psychology, 76, 143–168. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.76.1.143

Newspaper article, retrieved online

Gardner, N. (2011, 13 June). Rates to trigger recession—cost of living crunch—get our power

bills down. Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved from

http://global.factiva.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/ha/default.aspx

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Newsletter article, no author

Six sites meet for comprehensive anti-gang initiate conference. (2006, November/December).

OJJDP News @ a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.ncjrs.gov/htm/ojjdp/news_at_a_

glance/216684/topstory.html

Books Book, second edition (2nd ed.)

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsade,

NJ: Erlbaum.

Book, electronic version of a print book

Griffin, E. (2000). A first look at communication theory [Adobe Digital Editions version]. Boston,

MA: McGraw-Hill.

Electronic-only book, no date of publication

O’Keefe, E. (n.d.). Egoism & the crisis in Western values. Retrieved from

http://www.onlineoriginals.com/showitem.asp?itemID=135

Electronic version of a republished book, with translator

Freud, S. (1953). The method of interpreting dreams: An analysis of a specimen dream. In J.

Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of

Sigmund Freud (Vol. 4, pp. 96–121). Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books

(Original work published 1900).

Chapter in book—one editor (Ed.)

Emmons, R. A. (1989). The personal strivings approach to personality. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.),

Goal concepts in personality and social psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Chapter in book—multiple editors (Eds)

Baard, P. (2002). Intrinsic need satisfaction in organizations: A motivational basis of success

in for-profit and not-for-profit settings. In R. Deci & E. Ryan (Eds), Handbook of self-

determination research (pp. 3–33). New York: The University of Rochester Press.

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Chapter in multi-volume book (Vol. 6, pp. 191–233)

Daft, R. L. & Lengel, R. H. (1984). Information richness: A new approach to managerial

behavior and organization design. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in

organizational behavior (Vol. 6, pp. 191–233). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Entry in an online reference work

Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy

(Fall 2007 ed). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behavorism

Entry in an online reference work, no author, no date

Heuristic. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary (11th ed.). Retrieved from

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/heuristic

Reference book

VandenBos, G. R. (Ed.). (2007). APA dictionary of psychology. Washington, DC: American

Psychological Association.

Websites Law Society of NSW. (2003). Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.lawsociety.com.au/idc/

groups/public/documents/internetcontent/02609.pdf

Technical and research reports Beaton Consulting Pty Ltd. (2007). Annual professions study 2007 (Research Report No.

06.3). South Yarra, Vic.: Beaton Consulting.

Meetings and symposia Conference paper, published online

Akinyemi, A. (2003). Web-based learning and cultural interference: Perspectives of Arab

students. Paper presented at the Sixteenth Conference on E-Learning in Corporate,

Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Miami, FL. Retrieved from

http://www.editlib.org/p/12239

Proceedings, published in book form

Al-Jarf, R. (2007). Cultural issues in online collaborative instruction in EFL classrooms. In

Proceedings of the Third International Online Conference on Second and Foreign

Language Teaching and Research, 105, 1252–1312.

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Theses or dissertations Abouhaseira, M. (1998). Education, political development, and stability in Saudi Arabia

(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Graduate School of Education, University of

Southern California.

Alamir, A. (2007). Instructor influence on online interaction in EFL context: An action research

study of Saudi English learning. (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of

Melbourne.

Reviews and peer commentary Schatz, B. R. (2000, 17 November). Learning by text or context? [Review of the book The

social life of information, by J. S. Brown & R. Duguid]. Science, 290, 1304. doi:10.1126/

science.290.5495.1304

Audiovisual media DVD

American Psychological Association (Producer). (2000). Responding therapeutically to patient

expressions of sexual attraction [DVD]. Available from http://www.apa.org/videos/

Podcast

Dan Carlin (Producer). (2014). Hardcore history [Podcast]. Available from www.dancarlin.com

Datasets, software and apparatus Datasets

Pew Hispanic Center. (2004). Changing channels and crisscrossing cultures: A survey of

Latinos on the news media [Data file and code book]. Retrieved from

http://pewhispanic.org/datasets/

Software

Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (Version 2) [Computer Software]. Englewood, NJ: Biostat.

Apparatus

Eyelink II [Apparatus and software]. (2004). Mississauga. Ontario, Canada: SR Research.

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Blog posts/internet message boards Blog post

PZ Myers. (2007, January 22). The unfortunate prerequisites and consequences of partitioning

your mind [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/01/

the_unfortunate_prerequisites.php

Comment on a blog article

MiddleKid. (2007, January 22). Re: The unfortunate prerequisites and consequences of

partitioning your mind [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://scienceblogs.com/

pharyngula/2007/01/the_unfortunate_prerequisites.php

Legal and public documents United Nations report

United Nations Women (UN Women). (2011). Progress of the world’s women: In pursuit of

justice. New York, NY: Author.

United Nations resolution

United Nations Security Council (UNSC). (26 June 1946). The Spanish question (S/RES/7

[1946]). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/documents/sc/res/1946/scres46.htm

Australian Bureau of Statistics

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (1996). Women’s safety Australia, 1996 (No. 4128.0).

Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/

4128.0Main+Features11996?OpenDocument

Parliamentary debates

Australia. House of Representatives. Parliamentary debates (15 March 2012). No. 4, p. 3142.

Royal Commission, Inquest or Inquiry

Royal Commission on the Status of Women (RCSW). (1970). Report of the royal commission

of the status of women in Canada, by Commissioner F. Bird. Ottawa, ON: Author.

Legislation (Act)

Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1920 (Cth) s. 2 (Austl.).

Legislation (Bill)

Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Bill 2012. (Cth). (Austl.).

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Miscellaneous Personal communication

Reference list entries are unnecessary, since personal communication (such as interviews,

telephone conversations, emails or private letters) do not provide recoverable data.

However, the full name of the person cited and the full date of the communication

should be indicated in the in-text citation.

Unpublished data

Orsini, M. (2012). [Editor instruction manual]. Unpublished raw data.

Magazine

Pingree, G. (25 July 2009). What Spain sees in Robert Capa’s Civil War photo. Time. Retrieved

from http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1912110,00.html

Pamphlet or newsletter

Carroll, P. N. (Ed.) (December 2012). The Volunteer: Vol. XXIX, No. 4. Retrieved from

http://www.albavolunteer.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Volunteer-2012-4.pdf

Lecture, lecture notes, study guide or course materials

Preston, P. (12 July 2011). The Spanish holocaust: Hate and extermination in the Spanish Civil

War. Lecture given at Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom.

Feldmeth, G. D. (31 March 1998). Key events and battles: Spanish-American War [Lecture

notes]. Retrieved from http://www.myhistoryclass.net/classnotes.htm

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APA QUICK REFERENCE AND CITATION GUIDE

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