APA referencing

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American Psychological Association (APA) Referencing

This is a beginners' guide to APA referencing. Referencing means showing where you got your information from (citing your sources), and the APA system of referencing is one of a number of standardised methods for doing this. As space for examples is limited, students are strongly encouraged to consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th edition) in the library, or try the following online sources which have lots of useful examples and frequently asked questions (FAQ) sections:

Why do we have to reference our sources of information?

Referencing serves three important purposes:

It gives credit to the person who first wrote the information or made the research findings, and it avoids any possibility of plagiarism (academic cheating).
It shows your marker that you have done the required reading and can incorporate other writers’ ideas into your written work.
It makes it easy for those who read your writing to find the sources you have referred to. It is part of your academic training to learn how to cite sources so that others may also use them.

When do we have to reference?

We have to cite our sources of information in two places:

In the text (body) of an assignment or essay. This is called in-text referencing and means citing your sources in the body of your writing whenever you quote or paraphrase. Paraphrasing means summarising an author’s ideas in your own words.
The reference list at the end of your assignment or essay. Every source referred to in the text must also be listed in the reference list at the end.

In-text References

Paraphrasing

When you summarise information from books, journals, online articles etc, you are paraphrasing, and you need to cite your source. At a minimum, you need to supply the surname of the author(s) plus the date of publication. You are also encouraged to provide a page or paragraph number to help a reader locate the information.

Example:

While groups and organisations can provide members with support and security, they can also sometimes be controlling and coercive (Sullivan, 2001, p. 126).

Or:

Sullivan (2001) points out that while groups and organisations can provide members with support and security, they can also sometimes be controlling and coercive (p. 126).

Quoting

Sometimes you will want to include a quotation from another source. In this case, you must quote directly, copying each word exactly as it was in the original.

If you inadvertently misspell a word or make a grammatical error, you are misquoting the original author. Statistics and definitions are frequently quoted rather than paraphrased. When you quote from a source, you need to place quotation marks around the quote and give the page number.

Example:

"Periods of quiet and of active sleep (often called REM sleep because of the rapid eye movements) alternate throughout the night, with a total of perhaps ninety minutes devoted to REM" (Gleitman, 1995, p.6).

Or:

Gleitman (1995) explains that "periods of quiet and of active sleep (often called REM sleep because of the rapid eye movements) alternate throughout the night, with a total of perhaps ninety minutes devoted to REM" (p.6).

If the quote is more than 40 words long, you should indent it from the left margin 5-7 spaces, double-space it, and omit the quotation marks, for example:

Essay introductions usually start with broad and general statements about the topic and become gradually more focused until the key points are stated at the end of the introduction. You might begin with some background information, a question, dilemma or paradox or an eye-catching quotation (Emerson, 1998, p.29).

Secondary sources

Sometimes you will not have read the original research but a summary or quotations from it, in a book or article by another author. You need to acknowledge this by using the words as cited in. In the example below, the student has read about Anbar’s research in a book written by Nicholson.

Example:

Anbar reported a study of six children who learned to read before they went to school. Her study showed that their parents had willingly put countless hours into their children’s reading development (as cited in Nicholson, 2000, p.163).

Personal communications

Information from interviews, conversations, lectures and emails is non-recoverable (can’t be found by anyone else) and so it is referenced only in the text, not in the reference list.

Example:

T. Heke (personal communication, August 12, 2009) commented that the demand for design graduates has dramatically increased in the past five years.

Or:

The demand for design graduates has dramatically increased in the past five years (T. Heke, personal communication, August 12, 2009).

Paraphrasing or quoting from Internet sites

When you use information from the Internet, the in-text reference is the same as that for a book or an article. You need the author’s surname, date of publication, and if possible a page number. Many electronic sources do not provide page numbers. If this is the case, and paragraph numbers are visible, use the paragraph number. If no author is mentioned, use the name of the organisation and the date the information was published on the internet, e.g. The Arthritis Foundation (2008, p.2). If you want to refer to an entire website (but not a document on that site), just supply the URL in your text after you mention the site, and don’t add the reference to the Reference List.

The Reference List at the end of your assignment

A reference list is an alphabetically arranged list of all the authors and books, articles or other sources that you have referred to in your assignment or essay. Every reference you have mentioned in the body (text) of your assignment, and that the reader can access, must also appear in the reference list. Each entry must contain the author’s surname(s), initials, date of publication, name of book or article, place of publication and name of publisher. Do not list books, journal articles or Internet sites separately; they are all included in the same list, arranged alphabetically by first author’s surname. (Do not change the order of the surnames on publications, e.g. a book by White, Anderson & Young is listed under W in the reference list). The title of a book is italicised. In the case of a journal article, it is the title of the journal and the volume that is italicised (see p. 6 of handout for an example of a reference list).

Electronic sources in the reference list

For electronic sources, the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010) recommends that you “include the same elements, in the same order, as you would for a reference to a fixed-media source and add as much electronic retrieval information as needed for others to locate the sources you cited”. Include the author’s surname or initials (or name of the organisation if there is no author stated), the date of publication or latest update, the document title and the full uniform resource locator (URL), e.g. http:// www.otagopolytechnic.ac.nz Include a retrieval date only if the information is likely to change (e.g.Wikipedia).

Since the URLs for online scholarly materials, such as academic journal articles, can sometimes change over time, APA (2010) recommends that you provide a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) if it is available, instead of the URL. The DOI system has been developed by a group of international publishers, and is an attempt to attach a permanent, unique, identifying number for each article published and made available electronically. An example of a DOI would be: DOI: 10.1108/03091561710823361. Publishers of online scholarly journals who use this system will display the DOI for each article prominently on the first page of the article.

Reference list formats for commonly used sources:

Book (one author)

Nicholson, T. (2000). Reading the writing on the wall. Palmerston North, New Zealand: Dunmore Press.

Book (two authors)

Bird, L., & Drewery, W. (2004). Human development in Aotearoa: A journey through life. Auckland, New Zealand: McGraw-Hill.

Book (second or later edition)

Hetherington, E. M., & Parke, R. D. (1979). Child psychology: A contemporary viewpoint (2^nd ed.). Auckland, New Zealand: McGraw-Hill.

Book (edited)

Emerson, L. (Ed.). (2007). Writing guidelines for education students. Auckland, New Zealand: Thomson Learning.

Chapter in an edited book

Holmes, J. (1991). The role of the sociolinguist in society. In G. McGregor & M. Williams (Eds.), Dirty silence: Aspects of language and literature in New Zealand (pp. 39-52). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Journal articles

Lindgren, M., Unosson, M., & Ek, A. (2000). Pressure sore prevalence within a public health services area. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 6, 333-337.

Online journal article with DOI (no URL required if article has DOI)

Callaghan, P., Khalil, E., & Morres, I. (2010). A prospective evaluation of the Transtheoretical Model of Change applied to exercise in young people. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 47 (1). doi: 10.1016/ijnurstu.2009.06.013

Online journal article with no DOI assigned

Kenneth, I.A. (2000). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 8. Retrieved from http:// www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html

Journal article (electronic copy) retrieved from a database. (In general, do not include database information.)

Groer, M. W., Davis, M. W., & Hemphill, J. (2002). Postpartum stress: Current concepts and the possible protective role of breastfeeding. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 31(4), 411-417.

Magazine article

Hales, B. (2006, July). Management for design. New Zealand Management, 24-25.

Online magazine article

Vincent, K. (2009, December). NZIM Managing: Hard facts of soft skills management. New Zealand Management. Retrieved from http:// www.management.co.nz/ToC.asp

Newspaper article

Goodwin, E. (2010, February 5). ODHB not "heartless" to elderly. Otago Daily Times, p.1.

Pamphlet (no publication date, group author as publisher)

Health and Disability Commissioner. (n.d.). Code of health and disability services: Consumers’ rights [Pamphlet]. Auckland, New Zealand: Author.

Work of art

Beckmann, M. (1919). Large self-portrait [Drypoint on heavy woven paper]. Brooklyn Museum, New York.

Article retrieved from Website

American Academy of Family Physicians. (2000). Pressure sores. Retrieved from http:// familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/seniors/endoflife/039.html

Web log (Blog)

McQuillan, D. (2009, April 30). Enhancing student motivation [Web log message]. Retrieved from http:// massageonline.wordpress.com

Wikipedia

Person-centred therapy. (2009, December, 5). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved December 15, 2009, from http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person-centred_therapy