Referencing: Home

• To acknowledge the source of information you have used and avoid plagiarism.
• To demonstrate you have researched carefully.
• To help your reader follow up on your research topic.
• The consistent format helps make it clear to the reader what sources were used.

The APA 7th Style manual specifies the following for the reference list.

1. The word References should appear in upper and lower case and be centered at the top of the page
2. All reference entries should be double-spaced
3. All references should be in a "hanging indent" format. (This means that the first line of each reference is flush against the left margin and the subsequent lines of each reference are indented).
4. Unless otherwise advised, the APA style above should be used.

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned by a registration agency (the International DOI Foundation) to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the Internet. The publisher assigns a DOI when your article is published and made available electronically.

All DOI numbers begin with a 10 and contain a prefix and a suffix separated by a slash. The prefix is a unique number of four or more digits assigned to organizations; the suffix is assigned by the publisher and was designed to be flexible with publisher identification standards.

We recommend that when DOIs are available, you include them for both print and electronic sources. The DOI is typically located on the first page of the electronic journal article, near the copyright notice. The DOI can also be found on the database landing page for the article.

For more on DOIs, see Electronic Sources and Locator Information (PDF) and the DOI category of the APA Style Blog. (American Psychological Association, 2019b)

• APA Referencing Quiz
• The Citation Game

Read our Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License here.

APA Style is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences. It is described in the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), which is titled the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The guidelines were developed to aid reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of communication, and for "word choice that best reduces bias in language. (Wikipedia, 2019)

             APA Style was first developed in 1929 by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication. Since that time, it has been adopted by leaders in many fields and has been used by writers around the world. (American Psychological Association, 2019a)

Provide a reference every time you quote, paraphrase or summarise someone else’s ideas, theories, information or data, no matter what the source. This includes facts, figures, tables, charts and images.

The source must be referenced whether it is:

• published or unpublished
• electronic or hard copy
• text based or audio/visual.

 Your reference list may include:

Books, journals, reports, personal correspondence, case studies, blog posts, lectures, podcasts, videos, television programs, interviews and more.

You do not have to cite:

• Your own experiences, artwork, data or findings compiled from your own research work.
• Common knowledge - facts known to most people and found in most reference resources, widely known historical or geographic facts. Common knowledge can also include information your teacher would expect all students to know, in other words it can include some specific information widely known in a field of study such as nursing, business or the social sciences. 
• Remember, when in doubt, cite it.

In APA Style, include a reference list rather than a bibliography with your paper.

What’s the difference? A reference list consists of all sources cited in the text of a paper, listed alphabetically by author’s surname. A bibliography, however, may include resources that were consulted but not cited in the text as well as an annotated description of each one. Bibliographies may be organized chronologically, or by subject, rather than alphabetically.

If you have been given an assignment that asks for a bibliography, consult your instructor for more specifics about the required format. In APA Style, include a reference list rather than a bibliography with your paper.

What’s the difference? A reference list consists of all sources cited in the text of a paper, listed alphabetically by author’s surname. A bibliography, however, may include resources that were consulted but not cited in the text as well as an annotated description of each one. Bibliographies may be organized chronologically, or by subject, rather than alphabetically.

If you have been given an assignment that asks for a bibliography, consult your instructor for more specifics about the required format.