APA 7th Edition Referencing Guide1

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What does an APA reference list entry look like? 

Unlike in-text citations, which require just a few basic details, each reference list entry is a detailed record of the source from which you have taken information. It typically consists of:

• The author's surname/family name and initials, or the name of the company, government department, or organisation. that authored the work.

• The date the work was published, typically the year but sometimes the month and day are required.

• The title of the work.

• The source of the work. This could be the name of a publisher, or a URL or DOI for online sources.

You may have to include additional information when referencing some sources (for example, edited book chapters and journal articles). It's best to check how to reference each resource in this guide or Publication Manual. 

How should I format my reference list?

These guidelines will help you properly format your reference list in APA style:

• Begin the reference list on a new page at the end of your assignment.

• Title the reference list References in bold and centred at the top of the page.

• Order your reference list alphabetically by author.

• 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"—the default in Microsoft Word).

• The Publication Manual also recommends double-line spacing within and between reference list entries, but check your tutor or department's preferences.

How do I reference multiple works by the same author?

Author of more than one source published in different years

If you have lots of resources / publications by the same author, list according to the year of publication, beginning with the earliest year. Lists sources that don't have a date before sources that do.

Authors of more of than one source published in the same year

For works by the same author in the same year, arrange alphabetically by title of work and distinguish works by adding lowercase letter (a, b, c) after publication date (determined by alphabetised title, not order of citation in text).

Author of more than one source published in the same year with no date

Arrange alphabetically by title of work. Make sure the letters (-a,-b etc) in your in-text citations match up with the letters in your reference list.

Author of one work is also the co-author of another work

Single-author entries always precede those with multiple authors, even if the multi-author work was published earlier.

More than one author with the same last name

Order authors that share the same surname alphabetically according to their first name.

How can I cite the same source multiple times in the same paragraph?

Including an in-text citation after every sentence that contains paraphrased material can be a little distracting. If you are citing from the same source in consecutive sentences within the same paragraph, you don't necessarily need to repeat the full in-text citation.

To avoid over-citation:

• Introduce the source of the information using author and date early in the narrative of the paragraph.
• Refer to the source by the author's name, description (e.g. "the research shows...") or pronoun (e.g. "they also state ...") in subsequent sentences.
• The year can be omitted from a citation only when multiple narrative citations to a work appear within a single paragraph.
• Ensure it is obvious to your reader that the information you are referring to comes from the same source.
• Do not include only a page number in your sentence.

Examples

Author with a middle name

The example below shows how to reference a book with a middle name. If you are given the full middle name, for example, Richard Karl Jones, use the first initial just like you would with the first name.

Examples

How do I reference a U.S. patent?

When referencing a US patent, give the name of the inventor, the year in which the patent was issued, the patent's title, patent number, and URL. For example:

Examples

Title Case and Sentence case

Title Case Means Each Word Starts With a Capital Letter (apart from minor words like "of", "and" "a").

Sentence case means only the first word starts with a capital letter, just like when you write a sentence. In a sentence, only the first word gets a capital. Note: if there are proper nouns, like people's names, place names, an organisation's name etc, they keep their capital.
 

Should I use the te reo Maaori or English name of a government department?

As both names are official, you can choose to use one or the other, or the full bilingual names (both). Make sure you are consistent throughout your assignment and that the name used in your in-text citations matches your reference list.

If you are using both, separate them with a hyphen. For example, Manatū Hauora-Ministry of Health.