Quick Guide to

APA 7th Referencing

This guide has been developed to assist students doing coursework using APA 7th referencing style and
contains examples of some commonly referenced materials. It should be used in conjunction with the
online Referencing Library Guide, where you will find more examples and explanations.

Edith Cowan University uses APA referencing style in most courses. If you are unsure whether you should
use APA 7th, APA 6th, or something else, consult your unit plan or contact your unit coordinator.

Why Should I Reference?

Referencing is an essential part of university-level writing. Citing all sources used in your work will:
• acknowledge the work of other writers;
• enable other researchers to trace your sources;
• demonstrate the depth of your research; and
• support the arguments and opinions put forward in your work.

Referencing can help you avoid plagiarism, which is a form of academic misconduct that is taken very
seriously at university. If you fail to acknowledge other writers’ words, ideas, or concepts, and/or claim them
as your own—whether you mean to or not—that is plagiarism. Using common knowledge in your
discussion (e.g. the chemical formula for water is H20) is not considered to be plagiarism. Note that reusing
your own previous work without acknowledgement is considered self-plagiarism.

What Is APA Referencing?

APA is the referencing style set by the American Psychological Association. It consists of two parts:
1. In-text citation: a short reference (author, date) contained within the text of your assignment; and
2. End-text reference: the full citation details of each reference used in the text of your assignment.

For most information sources, an in-text citation should have a corresponding end-text reference, and every
work in the end-text reference list should have at least one in-text citation. The exception to this is when
you cite personal communications.

In-Text Citations
In-text citations must be included each time you use the words or ideas of another writer. Direct quotations
must also include a page number, e.g. (Wheelen & Hunger, 2008, p. 23). Use the paragraph number or
section heading for electronic sources with no page number, e.g. (Basu & Jones, 2007, para. 4). If you are
not quoting directly, follow your lecturer’s preference about page numbers.

An in-text citation must always contain the author and date, but the format will depend on how you
structure your sentence. Refer to the online Referencing Guide for examples of different forms.

End-Text References
The end-text reference list provides full citation details of a work based on the following four elements:
1. who produced the work (i.e. author, which might be an organisation or a person)
2. when was the work produced (i.e. date of publication)
3. what is the work you are referring to (i.e. title of the work)
4. where did this work come from (i.e. publisher or online source)

All end-text reference list citations have the following format as their underlying structure:
Author, A. A. (year). Title. Source.
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Components of a Reference

Book
Author Date Book title Publisher

Mikic, M. (1998). International trade. Macmillan Press.

Journal article
Authors Date Article title

Smith, G. M., & Li, Q. (2010). The role of occupation in an integrated

boycott model: A cross-regional study in China. Journal of Global
Marketing, 23(2), 109-126.
https://doi.org/10.1080/08911761003673421
Volume(issue) page numbers DOI Journal Title

Government report

(Corporate) Author Date Standard/report title

Bureau of Meteorology. (2019). Corporate plan, 2019-20. Department

of the Environment and Energy.
http://www.bom.gov.au/inside/Bureau-of-Meteorology-Corporate-
Plan-2019-20.pdf
Parent organisation/publisher Web address

Webpage
Author Date Title of page Website Name

Freeman, S. (2000, April 1). How anesthesia works. HowStuffWorks.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/anesthesia.htm
Web address

Chapter in an edited book

Author Date Chapter title Editor of book

Baynham, M. (2003). Adult literacy. In J. Bourne & E. Reid (Eds.),

World yearbook of education 2003: Language education (pp. 109-
123). Kogan Page.
(page numbers) Publisher Title of book

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Sample References
Source In-text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes

Journal In-text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes

Article
With doi (Stahl, 2016) Huizinga, J. (2015). The world I live in. Self & Society, 13(1), 2-
(digital object 11. https://doi.org/10.1080/03060497.1985.11084661
identifier)
Print, and (Ponce & Rowe, Ponce, A. N., & Rowe, M. (2018). Citizenship and community
online articles 2018) mental health care. American Journal of Community
with no doi Psychology, 61(1-2), 22-31.

Academic articles with no DOI do not require a URL.

3+ authors (McGuire et al., 2014) McGuire, J. A., Witt, C. C., Remsen, J. V., Corl, A., Rabosky,
D. L., Altshuler, D. L., & Dudley, R. (2014). Molecular
phylogenetics and the diversification of hummingbirds.
Current Biology, 24(8), 910-916.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.016

More than 20 (Leung et al., 2015) Leung, W., Shaffer, C. D., Reed, L., Smith, S. T., Barshop, W.,
authors Dirkes, W., Dothager, M., Lee, P., Wong, J., Xiong, D.,
Yuan, H., Bedard, J. E. J., Machone, J. F., Patterson,
S. D., Price, A. L., Turner, B. A., Robic, S., Luippold, E.
K., McCartha, S. R., . . . Elgin, S. C. R. (2015).
Drosophila Muller F elements maintain a distinct set of
genomic properties over 40 million years of evolution.
G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 5(5), 719-740.
https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.114.015966

If there are more than 20 authors, include the first 19 authors,

followed by an ellipsis ( . . .), then the last author's name.
Book In-text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes
2 authors, (Sennewald & Baillie, Sennewald, C. A., & Baillie, C. (2016). Effective security
edition 2016) management (6th ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.

Use the full name of the publisher, except for markers of

business structure such as “Inc” or “Pty Ltd”.
Electronic (Matson, 2017) Matson, J. L. (2017). Handbook of social behavior and skills in
book with DOI children. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-
64592-6

If a book has a DOI, include it. If it does not, reference as print.

Edited book (Guzys & Petrie, Guzys, D., & Petrie, E. (Eds.). (2014). An introduction to
2014) community and primary health care. Cambridge
University Press.

Chapter of a (Ryan, 2005) Ryan, M. J. (2005). Evolution of behaviour. In J. Bolhuis & L.

book Giraldeau (Eds.), The behaviour of animals (pp. 294-
314). Blackwell Publishing.
Reference In-Text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes
Work
Entry in a (Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Major depressive disorder. In
continually n.d.) Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved December
updated 6, 2019, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/
dictionary dictionary/major%20depressive%20disorder

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 Source In-text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes

Entry in an (Jensen, 2015) Jensen, R. (2015). Advocacy journalism. In W. Donsbach

encyclopaedia (Ed.), The concise encyclopedia of communication (pp.
- individual 94-95). Wiley Blackwell.
author
Wikipedia (or (“Bird,” 2019) Bird. (2019, December 1). In Wikipedia.
online https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bird&oldid=9
dictionary with 28751793
no author)
Use the permanent link for the page at the time you used it. If
you use a permanent link, you do not need a retrieval date.
Newspaper In-text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes
Newspaper (Harlan, 2013) Harlan, C. (2013, April 2). North Korea vows to restart
article shuttered nuclear reactor that can make bomb-grade
plutonium. The Washington Post, A1, A4.

Newspaper (Caro, 2018) Caro, J. (2018, June 22). How to tame trolls. The Sydney
article online Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-
and-relationships/how-to-tame-trolls-20180621-
p4zmtc.html

Online-only (Gunders, 2020) Gunders, P. (2020, January 29). Meet Australia’s other
news source commuters. ABC News.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-29/meet-the-
bush-commuters/11758372

Conference In-Text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes

Paper
Conference (Jones, 1993) Jones, P. (1993, September). Backyard bird watching [Poster
presentation presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Naturalist Club,
(with type in Perth, WA, Australia.
brackets)
Conference (Smith, 2003) Smith, C. L. (2003). Understanding concepts in the defence in
proceedings depth strategy. In Proceedings of the IEEE 37th Annual
(published as 2003 International Carnahan Conference on Security
a chapter of a Technology (pp. 8-16). IEEE.
book) https://doi.org/10.1109/CCST.2003.1297528

Follow the format for an edited book.

Report In-Text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes
Authored (Stewart et al., 2014) Stewart, J., Hedwards, B., Richards, K., Willis, M., & Higgins,
report D. (2014). Indigenous youth justice programs
evaluation. Australian Institute of Criminology.
https://aic.gov.au/publications/special/005

Include the name of the publishing organisation as the

publisher, unless the publisher is also the author.
Technical (Australian Bureau of Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Land management and
report, e.g. Statistics [ABS], farming in Australia, 2014-15 (Cat. No. 4627.0).
ABS report 2016) https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/4
627.0Main+Features102014-15
Subsequent mention:
(ABS, 2016) Long URLs like this may be replaced using a URL shortener.
Standard (Standards Australia, Standards Australia. (2016). Pavements. Part 1: Residential
2016) (AS 3727.1:2016).

Do not include the publisher if they are also the author.

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 Source In-text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes

Australian (Australian Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

curriculum Curriculum, (2014). Foundation to year 10 curriculum: Language for
document Assessment and interaction (ACELA1428).
Reporting Authority http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Curriculum/Cont
[ACARA], 2014) entDescription/ACELA1428

Website In-Text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes

Webpage (British Society for British Society for Nanomedicine. (n.d.). What is
Nanomedicine, n.d.) nanotechnology and what is nanomedicine?
https://www.britishsocietynanomedicine.org/what-is-
nanomedicine/

If the page doesn’t say when the content was published, use
the abbreviation n.d. for “no date.”
Website as a KidsPsych
whole (http://www.kidspsych When citing an entire website, and not a particular page or
.org) is an interactive idea on that website, it is sufficient to give the address of the
website for children… site within your writing. No reference list entry is needed.
Blog post (Myers, 2019) Myers, P. Z. (2019, December 5). Wait! The end of the
semester isn’t all that bad! Pharyngula.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2019/12/05/wa
it-the-end-of-the-semester-isnt-all-that-bad/
Audio- Visual In-Text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes
Material
Film/motion (Bell, 1999) Bell, A. J. W. (Director). (1999). Lost for words [Film]. Yorkshire
picture Television.
YouTube or (McDonnell, 2011) McDonnell, C. [charlieissocoollike]. (2011, May 17). Stop
other procrastinating [Video]. YouTube.
streaming https://www.youtube.com/charlie#p/u/4/qjIsdbBsE8g
video
Include the author’s screen name in brackets, if required.
TED Talk or (Agler, 2019) Agler, E. (2019, April). An end to parasitic worms [Video]. TED.
webinar https://www.ted.com/talks/ellen_agler_an_end_to_para
sitic_worms

Other In-Text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes

Thesis / (Kershaw, 2016) Kershaw, L. H. (2016). Journeys towards expertise in
dissertation technology-supported teaching [Doctoral dissertation,
Edith Cowan University]. Research Online.
http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1776

Photographs / (Bredel, 2013) Bredel, M. (2013). Storm ahead [Photograph]. Flickr.

images https://www.flickr.com/photos/marvinok/9053229662/

This in-text citation is for discussing the image only. If you are
reproducing an image in your work, add a copyright statement.
Legal In-Text Citation End-Text Reference & Notes
Material
Legislation (Narcotic Drugs Act Narcotic Drugs Act 1967 (Cth)
1967 (Cth), s
8E(1)(b)) Legal materials in APA style are referenced using the format
and conventions of the country’s legal citation style. In
Australia, this style is AGLC (currently on its 4th edition). For
explanations and examples of this type of referencing, visit the
Referencing Guide page for Australian Legal Materials.
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Reference List Example
References

Atrill, P., & McLaney, E. J. (2005). Management accounting for decision makers (4th ed.). Prentice Hall.

Atrill, P., & McLaney, E. J. (2019). Financial accounting for decision makers (9th ed.). Pearson.

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Land management and farming in Australia, 2014-15 (Cat. No.

4627.0). http://tiny.cc/emvejz A complicated URL was replaced using a URL shortener.

Italian government declares state of emergency in flood-ravaged Venice. (2019, November 15). The

Age. https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/italian-government-set-to-declare-state-of-

emergency-in-venice-20191115-p53ast.html

Jacobson, D., & Idziorek, J. (2013). Computer security literacy: Staying safe in a digital world. Chapman

and Hall. https://doi.org/10.1201/b13707

Larrañaga, M. D., Lewis, R. J., Sr., Lewis, R. A., & Hawley, G. G. (2016). Hawley's condensed chemical

dictionary (16th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

Patel, P. (2017, February). Bots in your bloodstream. Scientific American, 316(2), 15.

https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0217-15

Ryan, M. J. (2005). Evolution of behaviour. In J. Bolhuis & L. Giraldeau (Eds.), The behaviour of

animals (pp. 294-314). Blackwell Publishing.

Standards Australia. (2016a). Pavements. Part 1: Residential (AS 3727.1:2016).

Standards Australia. (2016b). Refrigerating systems and heat pumps (AS/NZS 5149:2016).

Timms, M., DeVelle, S., & Lay, D. (2016). Towards a model of how learners process feedback: A deeper

look at learning. Australian Journal of Education, 60(2), 128-145.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944116652912

United Nations. (n.d.). Goal 2: Zero hunger. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/

Each entry is in alphabetical

Each entry begins flush The reference list is
order according to the last
with the left-hand double spaced. Check
name of the author or editor.
margin. with your lecturer to
If there is no author, list
Use a hanging indent for confirm this is required
according to the first main
subsequent lines. for your assignment.
word of the title.

APA Style rules are designed for ease of reading in manuscript form. Published work and student assignments
occasionally have different requirements and expectations. Check your assignment specifications.
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