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APA Referencing

1. APA referencing style 

When writing an academic essay, you will need to refer to work published in a variety of forms: book, journal article, on the web, conference papers, in the media etc. This work needs to be cited (APA referencing or an alternative editorial style) in a specific way in the body of your essay and a complete list of all the citations given at the end of your text in a "reference" section. Reference to other's work can be done by paraphrasing or summarising their ideas or through the use of quotations. In either case, properly citing the source is essential. There is more than one way to reference. This text considers one particular style: APA referencing.

1.1    Why the need to reference?

There are a number of reasons why you need to make use of other people's ideas when writing an academic essay.  By paraphrasing or quoting a text, you provide evidence for your judgements, support your arguments with examples and demonstrate that you have read around your subject. However, you need to carefully acknowledge other people's work and ideas to avoid the serious charge of plagiarism. In addition, by providing references using the APA referencing style or any other, you enable your reader to locate the sources used and evaluate your interpretation of them.

1.2    What is APA referencing?

The American Psychological Association (APA) has established an editorial style used consistently in the books and journals that it publishes. Many others have adopted this style, APA referencing, as standard. The reference format for APA referencing style is described in the fifth edition of the Publication Manual of the Association. This large reference book contains hundreds of guidelines on, for example, punctuation and grammar, and how to format references.

1.3    Style

References in APA referencing are listed alphabetically by the first author's last name. The reference section is usually double-spaced, the first line typed flush with the left margin, and any additional lines indented 5 spaces to the right of the left margin.
The reference section should appear at the end of your essay and should begin on a new page following your conclusion. Following APA referencing guidelines give the heading "References" (not underlined) centered at the top of the page. Remember, that all references cited in your essay must be acknowledged in the reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be referred to at least once in your essay.

1.4    APA Referencing within the text

Citing authors in your essay

Within the text if the author is part of your narrative, in APA referencing bracket the date only. Otherwise, bracket both.

...Smith (1993) proposed that...

In a recent study it was suggested that more needed to be done (Smith, 1993).

If both year and author are part of the narrative don't add brackets.

In 1993, Smith proposed that...

There is no need in APA referencing to include the year in subsequent references to the same work in the same paragraph.

In 1993, Smith proposed that more needed to be done. Smith's own research had looked at...

If there are two authors give both names. For three, four and five authors cite all names the first time the reference occurs, then the first name only followed by et al.

Weber, Edwards, Hall and Johnson (1998) analysed the methodology. Weber et al. discovered...

If there are 6 or more authors in APA referencing cite the first author followed by et al. for both the first and subsequent citations.

You will frequently need to cite more than one work: reference the authors alphabetically separated by semicolons.
Several researchers (Adamson, 1982; Evans et al, 1994; Smith and Weber, 1989)...

APA referencing 2: The Reference section.

2.1 Books

1.    Author/editor surname, initials. (Year). Title. (Ed.). Place of publication: Publisher.

Hellman, E. W. (1998).  Sociology. (3rd ed.). London: McGraw-Hill.

The date is the year of publication not printing.
Do not mention the edition if it is the first.
Cite the first named place of publication for books.
In case of several works by the same first author in APA referencing arrange by year of publication, the earliest first. If the works share the same publication date, arrange alphabetically by title.
 

2.    Two authors

Edwards, N., & Mitchell, O. A. (2003). The Science of Language. London: McGraw-Hill.

3.    Book chapters

Jones, R. M., & Morgan, A. (1998). Language and Gender in the Classroom. In T.  
        Wakefield (Ed.), Language Issues (pp. 29-54). New York: Springer.

4.    Editor

The editor is cited in the same way as the author in APA referencing.

Wakefield, T. (Ed.). (1998). Language Issues. New York: Springer.

2.2 Journal articles

APA referencing format for journal articles:

Journal article - one author
Hughes, J. (2000). The politics of Peru. Latin American Studies, 12, 5-34.

Journal article - two authors
Hughes, J., & Rosen, B. (1992). Eva Peron. The Journal of Latin American Politics, 1,
     76-92.

Journal article with three to six authors in APA referencing style is written as:
Richards, P. I., Sidebotham, F. G., Bell, A., & Adams, D. (2001). Climate change in East Africa.
     Geography, 20, 136-198.

Journal article - more than six authors
Corbett, C., Cheng, A., Hillman, C., Morgan, M., Benora, S., Weller, N., et al. (1998).
     Mathematical understanding in the pre-school children. Early Childhood Studies, 31, 420-476.

2.3 World Wide Web

APA referencing guidelines for citing work taken from the World Wide Web:

If author name(s) missing or the dates vague, find information from the Home Page link. Decide who is responsible for producing the web page, use them as the "author" and reference as follows:

Author/editor, initials. (Year). Title.  Retrieved date, from URL

2.4 Conferences

Conference papers are frequently published in book or journal form. They can be referenced in APA referencing using the following format:

Author, Initial. (Year). Title of conference paper. In Initial, Author/Editor of conference paper, conference proceedings title (pp.  xx - xx). Place of publication: Publisher.

2.5 Theses

Unpublished theses cited in APA referencing style:

Author, initials. (Year).Thesis title. Level of thesis.  Awarding Institution.

Faulkes, P. (1982). Woman and the asylums: 1850-1900. Unpublished doctoral 
   dissertation, Manchester University, Manchester.

APA referencing 3

To cite sources obtained from government publications, law reports, newspapers or films, use the following APA referencing formats:

3.1 Government Publications

Government Department or Institute. (Year). Title of document. (Number of document, if a number is given)  Place of publication: Publisher.

3.2 Law Reports

Name v. Name, Volume Source Page (Court Date).

3.3 Newspapers

Journalist name, initial. (Year, Date). Title of news item. Name of newspaper, Page number(s).

3.4 Films

Name (director or producer).  (Year).  Title [Motion picture]. Country of origin: Movie studio/distributor.