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APA 7th

APA (American Psychological Association) 7th edition is an author-date referencing style requiring an in-text citation within the text of your document and a related entry in a reference list at the end of your document.

Entry in a dictionary, encyclopaedia or Wikipedia - reference list

No date: For the date of publication, use the copyright date. If there is no copyright date, use the abbreviation (n.d.) for no date.

Title entry: For a dictionary/encyclopaedia entry, when there is no author, place the title of the entry in the author's place, followed by the copyright date. Include the page number/s for the entry.

Wikipedia entry: For a Wikipedia entry or an online reference work that is continuously updated, use the abbreviation (n.d.) for the year of publication, and also include the date of retrieval.

Title of the reference work: The Title of the reference work is in italics and is in sentence case, i.e. capitalise the first letter of the first word and the first word after a colon. Use capitalisation for proper nouns. The title of the entry is in normal font and sentence case.

Edition: Include edition details for a numbered edition, e.g. 2nd ed. Place the edition details after the book title, but not in italics. Use Rev. ed. for revised editions. If the edition is for a particular country, include this, e.g. (2nd Australian & New Zealand ed.).

Publishers: If there are multiple publishers, include them all separated by a semicolon. For example: Random House; John Wiley & Sons.

DOI: For electronic books, include the DOI number (digital object identifier) if available. The format for a DOI is: https://doi.org/10.1080/1057356030207

If there is no DOI, use the web address. Note: If the book is from a database (e.g. Proquest or Ebsco) and doesn't have a DOI, do not include the URL but reference it as a print book.

For more information on reference list format and style, see General information - basics of referencing.

 

Format (electronic) with a DOI (digital object identifier)

Title of entry. (Copyright date). In Editor (Ed.), Title of reference work (Edition, pp. pages). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxx 
 

Format (electronic) without a DOI

Title of entry. (Copyright date). In Editor (Ed.), Title of reference work (Edition, pp. pages).Publisher. https://xxxx

Title of entry. (Date published/updated). In Wikipedia. URL

Author. (Copyright date). Title of entry. In Title of reference work. Publisher. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL

Note: If an online reference work is frequently updated and not archived, use n.d. for the publication date and include a retrieval date.

Format (print)

Title of entry. (Copyright date). In Editor (Ed.), Title of reference work (Edition, pp. pages). Publisher.

Note: Use this format for an e-book from an academic database or an e-book reader, e.g. Kindle.

Examples

A3 thinking. (2014). In The lean healthcare dictionary: An illustrated guide to using the language of lean management in healthcare (p. 6). Productivity Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b17714

Abdominal ultrasonography. (2024, June 12) In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdominal_ultrasonography

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Motivational interviewing. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved 13 August, 2024 from https://dictionary/apap.org/motiivational-interviewing

Hordeolum. (2009). In P. Harris, S. Nagy, & N. Vardaxis (Eds.), Mosby’s dictionary of medicine, nursing, & health professionals (2nd Australian & New Zealand ed., p. 829). Mosby.

Vein. (2002). In B. Hoare (Ed.), The Kingfisher A-Z encyclopedia (p. 350). Kingfisher.

 

Entry in a dictionary, encyclopaedia or Wikipedia - in-text citations

Parenthetical citation: When you use another person’s ideas or words in your text, include the author’s name and publication date in brackets, generally at the end of the sentence,  e.g. ... services closer to home (Bishop, 2024).

Narrative citation: If you use the author’s name as part of a sentence, include the date of publication in brackets, generally at the beginning of the sentence, e.g. Bishop (2024) argued that time was ...

Parenthetical citation

Avoidance is often encountered among staff who are undervalued in the workplace (Northouse, 2015). Another observation by Northouse (2015) is that avoidance can be counterproductive and lead to stress and conflict.

Note: If you use a parenthetical citation the first time, followed by a narrative citation, you need to repeat the date.

Narrative citation

Northouse (2015) argues that avoidance is often encountered among staff who are undervalued in the workplace. Northouse further claims that this can be counterproductive and lead to stress and conflict.

Note: If you use a narrative citation the first time, followed by another narrative citation, you can omit the date. But, if you use a parenthetical citation the next time, you must include the date.

Parenthetical citation

Use ‘&’ between the authors' surnames when they are enclosed within brackets. Use ‘and’ when they form part of the sentence.

... devastation of earthquakes (Peat & Lockyer, 2010). Tsunamis, according to Peat and Lockyer (2010), are ...

Note: If you use a parenthetical citation the first time, followed by a narrative citation, you need to repeat the date.

Narrative citation

Peat and Lockyer (2010) investigate why such events ... According to Peat and Lockyer, geography has an important part ...

Note: If you use a narrative citation the first time, followed by another narrative citation, you can omit the date. But, if you use a parenthetical citation the next time, you must include the date.

Parenthetical citation

Cite only the surname of the first author followed by ‘et al.’

... climatic extremes in New Zealand (Plummer et al., 1999). Plummer et al. (1999) discovered that drought conditions ...

Note: If you use a parenthetical citation the first time, followed by a narrative citation, you need to repeat the date.

Narrative citation

In a recent study, Plummer et al. (1999) found that precipitation had increased over this century. According to Plummer et al., climatic impacts are ...

Note: If you use a narrative citation the first time, followed by another narrative citation, you can omit the date. But, if you use a parenthetical citation the next time, you must include the date.

Use the name of the group as it appears in your reference list. However, the group name can be abbreviated. The first time, cite the full name with the abbreviation. Subsequently, only use the abbreviation. If the reader could be confused by the abbreviation use the full group name each time.

Parenthetical citation

Denmark has the most efficient process for property transfers (World Bank Group, 2016). The World Bank Group (2016) identified Greece as having the worst process with 10 different procedures needing to be completed before the property transfer is registered.

OR

... compensation guide (Accident Compensation Corporation [ACC], 1983).

Subsequently, cite the name of the group in the abbreviated form.

Employee accidents at work will receive compensation (ACC, 1983).

Note: If you use a parenthetical citation the first time, followed by a narrative citation, you need to repeat the date.

Narrative citation

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC, 1983) gives guidance as to the employer's liability.

Subsequently, cite the name of the group in the abbreviated form.

ACC (1983) stated that liability is the responsibility of the employer.

Note: If you use a narrative citation the first time, followed by another narrative citation, you can omit the date. But, if you use a parenthetical citation the next time, you must include the date.

For the title of the entry in a dictionary/encyclopaedia, use Title Case with double quotation marks. For a long title, use only the first few words.

Parenthetical citation

... process that helps product teams understand customer requirements ("Quality Function Deployment", 2014).

Note: If you use a parenthetical citation the first time, followed by a narrative citation, you need to repeat the date.

Narrative citation

"Quality Function Deployment" (2014) suggests that product teams need to understand customer requirements.

Note: If you use a narrative citation the first time, followed by another narrative citation, you can omit the date. But, if you use a parenthetical citation the next time, you must include the date.

In the reference list

Use sentence case , i.e. only capitalise the first word of the title, the first word of a subtitle or the first word after a colon, plus proper nouns.

Example

Quality function deployment. (2014). In The lean healthcare dictionary: An illustrated guide to using the language of lean management in healthcare (p. 63). https://doi.org/10.1201/b17714

If there is no date provided, use n.d. (for 'no date') where you'd normally put the date.

Parenthetical citation

… a romantic fantasy of London rather than the reality (Broughton, n.d.).

Note: If you use a parenthetical citation the first time, followed by a narrative citation, you need to repeat the date.

Narrative citation

Broughton (n.d.) mentioned Fairburn's disillusionment with England rather than the romantic picture that he was expecting.

Note: If you use a narrative citation the first time, followed by another narrative citation, you can omit the date. But, if you use a parenthetical citation the next time, you must include the date.

In the reference list

Where the publication date is not known, use n.d. for no date.

Example

Broughton, W. S. (n.d.) Problems and responses of three New Zealand poets in the 1920s. In W. Curnow (Ed.), Essays on New Zealand literature (pp. 1-15). Blackwell Books.