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APA Referencing - Education & CCSC students: Reference lists

This guide provides information on how to reference using the APA 7th edition publication style

Reference Lists

APA 7th Edition

Reference Lists

Abbreviations

Abbreviations

These are the acceptable abbreviations in the reference list to refer to parts of the source being referenced.

Abbreviation Book or publication part
ed. edition
Rev. ed. Revised edition
2nd ed. Second edition
Ed. (Eds.) Editor (Editors)
et al. and others
n.d. No date
No. number (series)
p. (pp.) page (pages)
para. paragraph
Pt. part
Vol. Volume (not used for journals)

Hanging Indents

Hanging Indents

Hanging indents are used to align the first author's surname with the margin and wrap the second and subsequent lines of the reference using an indent. The instructions for hanging indents in MS Word are:

  1. Select the text of the reference list
  2. Select Paragraph Settings
  3. Select the drop-down list under Special
  4. Choose Hanging
  5. Type a measurement, e.g. 1.27 cm. This is the size of the indentation of the second and subsequent lines of the paragraph from the margin.
  6. Click OK

Group author

Group author

If an organisation or group is given as the author (i.e. there are no individual author names) write the organisation's name in full as the author.

If the group author is also the publisher, omit the publisher.

For Endnote users, type a comma at the end of the organisation's name in the author field to stop Endnote abbreviating the organisation's name as though it were an individual's name.

Examples:

National Health and Medical Research Council. (2018). Australian code for responsible conduct of research.

 

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). 

 

(American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 288)

No author

No author

If there is no author or the author is not known, use the title in place of the author and alphabetise by the first significant word. In this example, the reference would be alphabetised by "S." The title remains italicised.

Example:

The Sage handbook of school organization. (2018). Sage. 

 

The word Anonymous is used only for works that have "Anonymous" as the author.

Order

Order

Several works by different authors with the same surname are ordered by first initial.

Mathur, A. L., & Wallston, J. (1999)
Mathur, S. E., & Ahlers, R. J. (1998)


References by the same author with the same publication date are arranged alphabetically by title (excluding or The). Place lowercase letters--a, b, c, and so forth--immediately after the year, within the parentheses.

Baheti, J. R. (2001a). Control ...
Baheti, J. R. (2001b).  Roles of ...


See also the references to Cooling's work in the Sample Reference List below.

(American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 303-306)

References by the same author with the same publication date

References by the same author with the same publication date

References by the same author(s) with the same publication date are arranged alphabetically by title (excluding or The). Place lowercase letters--a, b, c, and so forth--immediately after the year, within the parentheses. 

Baheti, J. R. (2001a). Control ...
Baheti, J. R. (2001b). Roles of ...

Once you know the order of the reference list (by title) use the publication year with the lower-case letter for in-text citations, e.g. (Baheti, 2001b).

(American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 303-306)

Reference Lists

Reference Lists

The reference list is located at the end of your assignment. It starts on a new page and includes the details of every source you have referred to in your assignment. APA Style does not use bibliographies (all the sources you read) but a reference list only (sources you referred to in your assignment). 

Reference lists should be organised alphabetically according to authors' names and then chronologically if there is the same author for two or more references.

Example:

Ames, M. (2013). Engaging "apolitical" adolescents: analyzing the popularity and educational potential of dystopian literature post-9/11. High School Journal, 97(1), 3-20.

Arnold, M., & Kunzel, B. (2007). Speculative fiction: classroom must-reads. English Journal, 97(1), 118-122.

Blakemore, S.-J., & Frith, U. (2005). The learning brain: Lessons for education. Blackwell. 

Blakemore, S.-J., & Frith, U. (2008). The literate brain. In K. W. Fischer & M. H. Immordino-Yang (Eds.), The Jossey-Bass reader on the brain and learning (pp. 229-241). Jossey-Bass. 


The title of the book or journal article should be italicised and hanging indents should be used (not shown in this example). See the Sample Reference List on this page for correct format of hanging indents.

Sample Reference List

Sample Reference List in APA 7th Edition

Formatted in MS Word

Spacing

Line spacing

The reference list uses the same line spacing as the body of your assignment (1.5 or double-spaced). A blank line between entries in the reference list is optional.

Author initials (spacing)

Author initials (spacing)

Author names with two or more initials have a blank space between initials. See Sample Reference List for more examples.

Reference list

Pelling, N. J., &  Armstrong, P. (2017). The practice of counselling and clinical supervision (2nd ed.). Australian Academic Press. 
© 2016 Morling College. Morling College is an affiliated institution with the Australian College of Theology (CRICOS Provider 02650E). Morling College Counselling (CRICOS Provider 03265F).