REFERENCING
APA STYLES 7TH
EDITION
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE
OF REFERENCING
REFERENCE USING THE APA 7TH
EDITION
REFERENCING
is how you acknowledge the source of the information
you have used (referred to) in your work.
There should be a one-to-one correspondence between
the works cited in the text and the works listed in the
reference list.
If you read a work while doing your literature search but did not
end up citing it in the text of your paper, do not include it in the
reference list.
Use the section label “References”
• Start the reference list on a new page after the
text of your paper.
• Center the label at the top of the page and write
it in bold.
• It is acceptable to use “Reference” as the label
when you cited only one source in your paper.
F O R M A T
• Double-space the reference list, both within
and between references. Do not add extra
lines between references.
• Order references alphabetically, usually by
the first letter of the first author’s last name.
• Include the authors’ first and middle initials
(if they have them). Do not write out first or
middle names.
• Write author names in inverted format so that
the last name comes first, followed by a
comma and the initials. Place a period and a
space after each initial
S A M P L E
AVOID THE FOLLOWING COMMON MISTAKES
when writing reference list entries.
Use the word “and” between two authors’ names in narrative
in-text citations. Use an ampersand (&) between two
authors’ names in parenthetical in-text citations and before
the final author’s name in reference list entries.
° Narrative in-text citation: Sanders and Jang (2020) found . .
.
° Parenthetical in-text citation: A positive association was
found . . . (Sanders & Jang, 2020). ° Reference list entry:
Sanders, F. A., & Jang, T. D. (2020).
DATE ELEMENT
Use more specific dates, such as the month, day, and year
(e.g., 2020, June 10), for works published on a more frequent
basis (e.g., newspaper or magazine
articles, social media posts).
If the date is unknown or cannot be determined, write “n.d.”
as the date.
TITLE ELEMENT
Titles of works that stand alone (e.g., books, reports,
webpages) are written in italic sentence case.
For book and report references, place any identifying
information (e.g., edition, report number, volume number)
in parentheses after the title. Do not add a period between
the title and the parenthetical information.
SOURCE ELEMENT
In the source element for journal article references:
° Italicize the journal title and volume number.
° Do not italicize the comma between the journal
title and volume number, the issue number, and page
numbers.
° Place the issue number in parentheses after the volume
number with no space in between.
° Use an en dash (–) to separate a page range (e.g., 15–26).
EXAMPLE
SELF TEST:
Book Reference:
Question:
Author: John D. Smith
Year: 2019
Title: Understanding Psychology
Publisher: Pearson
SELF TEST:
Book Reference:
Question:
Author: John D. Smith
Year: 2019
Title: Understanding Psychology
Publisher: Pearson
Answer:
Smith, J. D. (2019). Understanding psychology. Pearson.
SELF TEST:
2. Journal Article Reference:
Question:
Author: Emily R. Johnson
Year: 2020
Title: The effects of sleep on memory
Journal Title: Journal of Neuroscience
Volume: 15
Issue: 3
Pages: 45-58
DOI: 10.1234/jns.v15i3.6789
SELF TEST:
Answer:
Johnson, E. R. (2020). The effects of sleep on memory.
Journal of Neuroscience, 15(3), 45-58.
https://doi.org/10.1234/jns.v15i3.6789
THANK YOU!
