20170908100944APA Guide Uni of Melbourne
20170908100944APA Guide Uni of Melbourne
20170908100944APA Guide Uni of Melbourne
BASIC REFERENCING
USING THE APA SYSTEM
Is the APA referencing system very different from the Harvard system of
reference?
Do you need to include the URL address when citing internet sources using
the APA system?
For every source used, you must have a reference. This is to acknowledge the source
and to allow the reader to trace everything you have used. Referencing includes
citations in the text and a list of references at the end of your assignment.
Citations and references show that your writing is not based entirely on your own ideas
but rather is based in part on the ideas, information and evidence of others. This is
a strength, not a weakness as you are at university to learn from others. However,
you need to show what are your ideas and what belong to someone else otherwise
you may be accused of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the presentation by a student
of an assignment which has in fact been copied in whole or in part from another
students work, or from any other source (eg published books or periodicals), without
due acknowledgment in the text. Presenting material from other sources without full
acknowledgment (plagiarism) is penalised heavily. This holds for both copying and
paraphrasing of others work. Referencing also allows readers to check the same
source for themselves. Careful citation thus avoids plagiarism by acknowledging the
work of others and demonstrating that your work is based on solid evidence.
Different types of references are listed in slightly different ways depending on what
type they are, including books, journals, and websites. There are also varying methods
of citing original sources. Personal communication or non archival material, such as
personal letters, memos, emails and personal interviews are not included in reference
lists. Personal communications are cited in the text only.
Reference List
At the end of your essay or assignment, include a list of all the references you have
cited on a seperate page. It is the usual practice to only include those sources you
have actually cited, rather than the ones you have read. If they are important, you
should have cited them in the body of the essay.
Do not reference lecture notes or personal communication.
The reference list should be at the end of the assignment, before any appendices.
The heading should be References.
Authors
Page 1
Helpsheet
If you have references by same authors but different years, arrange by year of
publication with the earliest first.
If you have two or more references with the same author and published in the same
year, list them by title in alphabetical order and place a sequential letters after the
year of publication to enable distinctions between citations.
Whyte, T. C. (1997a). Controlling
Whyte, T. C. (1997b). Roles of
If the author is an agency, association or institution, provide the full name of that
organisation and do not use acronyms or abbreviations.
If the reference is an edited work, place the editors/s name/s in the authors
position and enclose the abreviaton (Ed.)/(Eds.) after the last editor/s name.
Adams, T. S. (Ed.). (1992).
Jones, A. B., & Olson, D. H. (Eds.). (1979).
Publication Date
Give the publication date (the year the work was copyrighted) in parentheses ie
(2009)
For magazine, newsletter and newspaper references, give the year followed by the
exact date of publication
(1998, June). [monthly publications]
(2000, September 28). [dailies and weeklies]
Titles
Periodical titles (eg journal, magazine or newspaper titles) are written in title case
(the first letter of every major work capitalised), using italics throughout the reference
list. The title of the actual article to which you are referring is not written in italic or
underline, nor is it enclosed in quotation marks. Use a capital letter for the first major
word of the title and subtitle and for proper nouns (ie names of people or places).
The periodical title is placed after the article title.
Malaysia: miracle cure. Far Eastern Economic Review
For Non-periodical titles (eg book titles), capitalise only the first word of the title,
subtitle and proper nouns (ie names of people or places), using italics consistently
throughout the reference list.
If you have only referred to a specific chapter in an edited book or one paper from
published conference/symposium proceedings, use italics for the book title but not
the chapter or paper title to which you are referring. Capitalise only the first word of
the titles, subtitles and proper nouns (if any). The chapter/paper title is proceeded
by In, the name of the editor/s (or the conference/symposium organising body if
no editor is give), the book title, relevant page numbers in parenthesis
In conference proceedings
If you refer to an article from the paper with no author given, alphabetically locate it
in the reference list according to the first significant word. (Note that articles such as
the are ignored in alphabetical listings of references)
Adam, C. T. (2001).
The Apple Industry. (1999, May 1).
Baxendall, R. B. (1998).
Page 2
Helpsheet
Internet sources
Punctuation
Note the specific use of commas , full stops . colons : parentheses ( ) amperstands &
and the order of the information in this guide for all types of resources you use.
Non-Periodicals
If you use a quotation, or a paraphrase that is very close to the words of the source,
you must include the page reference after the year of publication, separated by a
comma. Use p. for single pages or pp. for multiple pages:
(Cooper, 1999, p. 332)
(Cooper, 1999, pp. 319-20)
If you have two authors with the same surname, also include the authors first initial in
all citations even if the year of publication differs:
A. Jones (2001)
(P. Jones, 1999)
If you cite a work from a secondary source, that is you have not seen the original
work but have been made aware of it through another reference, you need to
name the original work and give a citation for the secondary source:
Carinis study revealed that(as cited in Patton, 1990) or
(Carini, as cited in Patton, 1990).
Citing personal communications occurs in text only and the details are not displayed
in the reference list because the reader cannot easily recover the information. The
citation should include the initials and surname of the communicator and the exact
date of communication:
A. B. Smith (personal communication, April 20, 2002) stated that
(A. B. Smith, personal communication, April 20, 2002).
Page 3
Helpsheet
The citation should either be placed at (a) the end of a sentence with the authors
surname and date of publication, separated by a comma, in parenthesis or (b)
within the sentence with only the date of publication in parenthesis:
a) This aspect of the taxation system was the most significant (Larsen,
1971). or
b) Larsen (1971) suggests that this aspect of the taxation system was the
most significant.
Include all the authors in the order they published in the referenced book, (necessarily alphabetically).
If the author is an agency, association or institution spell out the full name
of the group eg American Psychological Association (2000).
McTaggart, D. P., Findlay, C. A., & Parkin, M. D. (1996). Economics, 2nd ed., Sydney, Australia: Addison-
Wesley.
Citation in text:
If there are two or more authors, use the ampersand (a) if the citation is placed at
the end of a sentence but not (b) it if the citation is made within the text:
a) (Dunphy & Stace, 1990).
b) Dunphy and Stace (1990) argued that
If there are three or more authors, cite all their surnames the first time the reference
occurs. In subsequent citations, include only the surname of the first author followed
by et al., followed by the year of publication:
First citation: (McTaggart, Findlay, & Parkin, 1996).
Subsequent citation: (McTaggart et al., 1996)
Daniels, P. J (1992). Australias foreign debt: Searching for the benefits. In P. Maxwell & S. Hopkins (Eds.),
Macroeconomics: Contemporary Australian readings (pp. 200-250), 2nd ed., Pymble, Australia: Harper
Educational.
Page 4
Helpsheet
Periodicals
Ensure that:
the volume and issue number are included
individual page numbers are included from the start to the finish of the article cited
(eg. pp. 586-612)
Journal Articles
Author of the article Year of publication Full article title, using a capital for a the first word of the title
and subtitle; do not use italics, underline or enclose in
quotation marks
Abrahamson, A. A. (1991). Managerial fads and fashions: The diffusion and rejection of innovations.
Academy of Management Review, 16 (3), 586-612.
Magazine articles
Year of publication followed by the exact date of publication -
month for monthlies or day and month for weeklies
Jayasankaran, S. (2000, May 11). Malaysia: miracle cure. Far Eastern Economic Review,
81, 36-38.
Page numbers
Volume number
The Age. Hot tuna counts on Cambell to make waves, (2002, May 7). p. Business 2.
Full article title
Include p. and section for one
page number, pp. Business 2-3
for multiple pages or pp. Business 1, 6 if article
appears on discontinuous pages
Page 5
Helpsheet
Internet Non-Periodicals
StatSoft Inc. (n.d.) Electronic statistics textbook. Retrieved May 27, 2000, from
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html
If the author is a corporation or association, the group name is usually spelt out in
full for each citation. An acronym can be used in repeated citations provided it is
readily understandable and the reader is made aware of the acronym in relation
to the full name in the first citation. The acronym needs to be enclosed in square
brackets after the full name of the organisation or association.
First citation: (National Australia Bank [NAB], 1999)
Subsequent citation: (NAB, 1999).
For direct citations from electronic sources without page numbers, provide the
paragraph number, preceded by the paragraph symbol .
(StatSoft Inc., n.d., 5)
Author of the section Date of publication Section or chapter title Italics the document title and
precede with In
Benton Foundation (1998, July 7). Barriers to closing the gap. In Losing ground bit by bit: Low income
communities in the information age (chap. 2). Retrieved May 28, 2000, from http://www.benton.org/
library/Low -Income/two.html
Page 6
Helpsheet
Internet Periodicals
Author Date published Article title Note the article was sourced electronically
Adams, P. J. (2000). Australian economic history [Electronic version]. Journal of Australian Economics, 5(2),
117-132. Retrieved June 12, 2001, from http://jae.org/articles.html
Page numbers Add this information from Retrieved onward if you Volume (issue)
believe the format varies from the printed form, numbers
page numbers are not given or addition
information is included
Page 7
Helpsheet
Citations
Try to include citations so that they fit into the flow of your writing. Note that for any
citation as a minimum you need to inculde the author of the source and the publication
date. Some useful phrases are:
Using Footnotes
Number content footnotes consecutively throughout with superscript Arabic numerals.
1
e.g. for instance .
At the end of the document centre the label Footnotes in uppercase and lowercase
letters at top of a separate page. Indent the first line of each footnote and type the
footnotes in the order in which they appear on the page.
If you are unsure about how to reference or cite a specific source in accordance with
the APA system, refer to the:
Page 8
Helpsheet
Plagiarism
Quoting, Summarising and Paraphrasing
When writing you can present the ideas of others either through direct quotation, or
summary or paraphrase, depending on your purpose.
For direct quotation, copy the material from the source carefully. Use quotation marks
for even a single word if the original author used it in a special or central way. Do not
change any wording, spelling, capitalisation or punctuation. Use an ellipsis mark (three
spaced full stops) to indicate the exact point at which you have deliberately left out
part of a direct quotation. Use brackets to surround any word, comment, or punctuation
mark you add within the quotation.
Place the word [sic] (meaning in this manner) in square brackets immediately after
any mistake in spelling, grammar, or common knowledge that your reader might
otherwise believe to be a misquote. If the quoted material is less than about 40 words,
place it in quotation marks within your running text. If it is more than about 40 words, set
it off from the text without quotation marks. Quotations of the latter sort should have an
extra line space before and after the quote and all lines should be single spaced and
indented from the left.
When you summarise or paraphrase, you state in your own words and sentence
structures the meaning of someone else s writing. Since the words and the sentence
structures are yours, do not use quotation marks, but do acknowledge the author of
the idea. If you use the original sentence pattern and substitute synonyms for key words
or use the original words and change the sentence pattern, you are not paraphrasing
but plagiarising, even if the source is acknowledged. This is because both methods use
someone elses expression without quotation marks. In paraphrasing it is crucial not only
to use your own form of expression but also to represent the authors meaning without
distorting it.
Example
Original
In the forefeet of pigs is a very fine hole, which may be seen when the hair has been
carefully removed. (Smith, 1996, p. 23)
Plagiarism
In the front feet of pigs is an extremely small hole, which can be viewed after the hair
has been cautiously taken out.
This is plagiarism because the sentence structure is the same as the original and the
original source has not been acknowledged.
Paraphrase
Careful removal of hair from pigs feet will reveal a small hole. (Smith, 1996, p. 23)
This is not plagiarism as the original source has been acknowledged. Note that
paraphrasing that is closely modelled on the original sentence structure also requires the
inclusion of a page number in the citation.
Page 9
Helpsheet
Checklist
To be certain to acknowledge sources fairly and avoid plagiarising, review this checklist
before beginning to write and again after you have completed your first draft.
1. What type of source are you using: your own independent material, common
knowledge, or someone elses material?
2. If you are quoting someone elses material, is the quotation exact? Have you
used quotation marks for quotations run into the text? Have you set off block
quotes with an extra space before and after the quote, single spacing within
the quote, and left indenting of all lines of the block quote? Are omissions shown
with ellipses and additions with square brackets?
3. If you are paraphrasing someone elses material, have you rewritten it in you
own words and sentence structures? Does your paraphrase employ quotation
marks when you resort to the authors exact language? Have you represented
the authors meaning without distortion?
4. Have you acknowledged each use of someone elses material?
5. Do all references contain complete and accurate information on the sources
you have cited?
6. Have you completed and signed a cover sheet for your work if you are
submitting it in hard copy or have you completed the electronic form if you are
submitting your work electronically?
Page 10