A GUIDE TO THE APA

REFERENCING STYLE
What is APA?

APA (American Psychological Association) style is most frequently used within

the social sciences in order to cite various sources. A group of psychologists,
anthropologists, and business managers convened and sought to establish a simple set
of procedures, or style rules that would codify the many components of scientific writing
to increase the ease of reading comprehension. This APA Citation Guide, revised
according to the 6th edition of the APA manual, provides the general format for in-text
citations and the reference page.

Why Reference?

• It is morally and legally important to acknowledge someone else’s work or

idea;
• It helps locate the source of information for verification and/or further
reading;
• It helps the researcher retrace his steps and review information used; and
• It shows that a research has actually been undertaken.

Two Main Parts to Referencing

1. In-text Citation – this demonstrates support for your ideas, arguments or views:

Wesley and Rolfes (2011) state that the body requires many nutrients
to function.

Water is a necessary part of a person’s diet. (Wesley & Rolfes, 2011).

Water is an essential element of everyone’s diet and Wesley and Rolfes

(2011) emphasize it is more important than any other nutrients.

2. Reference Listing – shows the complete details of everything cited in text.

Wesley, E. & Rolfes, S. (2011). Understanding nutrition. (12th ed.). Australia: Cengage
Learning.
 HOW TO REFERENCE

A. In-Text Citation Rules

1. Write only the last name of the author followed by the date of publication. There is a
period after the close parenthesis if it is a sentence-end citation.

Salandanan (2014) explained that teaching as a profession assumes different

meanings and definitions depending on the practitioner’s ultimate goal.

Formal education from academic institutions is the root for acquiring appropriate
knowledge and skills necessary for future employment (Laguador, 2013).

2. In case of two authors, use “and” if the names are not parenthetical; otherwise, use “&”
(ampersand).

Limpingco and Tria (2007) however, asserts that the central task of adolescence is
forming an identity.

The central task of adolescence, however, is forming an identity (Limpingco & Tria,
2007).

3. Three to five authors – write all the authors’ last name on the first mention; write
the first author’s surname followed by et al. on subsequent citation/s.

APA Style uses an author-date reference citation system in the text with an
accompanying reference list. That means that to cite any reference in a paper, the writer
should cite the author and year of the work, either by putting both in parentheses
separated by a comma (parenthetical citation) or by putting the author in the narrative of
the sentence and the year in parentheses (Schmidt, Polanski, Cure, Lewis & Thomas,
2005).

On the other hand, Smith, et al. (2005) ………..

4. Six or more authors – cite only the last name of the first author followed by et al.

Moresca, et al. (2015) define………..

5. Groups as authors – Groups recognized as an abbreviation are spelled out in the

first citation and abbreviated thereafter. In deciding whether to abbreviate the name of
a group author, use the general rule that you need to give enough information in the text
citation for the reader to locate the entry in the reference list without difficulty.

(World Health Organization [WHO], 2007) - first citation

(WHO, 2007) - second and subsequent citation

No abbreviation:

Philippine House of Congress Committee Report (2016)

6. Similar information referred to by more than one author – list the sources in
alphabetical order.( Note the use of semi-colon in between authors)

Resilience is seen as the ability to overcome adversary, combat stress, and bounce
back from hardship (Burns, 2006; Dawson, 2006; Overton, 2005).

7. Same author and same year (different works) – differentiate between them by
assigning lowercase letters a, b, c..etc.

Eyes are susceptible to melanoma, even though it is rare (Cancer Society of

New Zealand, 2013a).

According to the Cancer Society of New Zealand (2013b)………..

Note: in the absence of author, they are listed in the reference list alphabetically by
title excluding A, An or The.
8. Citing a secondary source – acknowledge the source you have read, showing it is a
secondary source. This demonstrates you have not read the original source but read
about it is a secondary source. Whenever possible, use original materials.

Fawcett (as cited by Polit & Beck, 2008) outlined the four major concepts of……..

(Note: in the reference list, include the author and details of the source you actually read.)

9. Direct quotes - for short quotes (less than 40 words, enclose the quoted part within
double quotation marks; for longer quote, use the block form ( free standing) with no
quotation marks, and in double space. Include the page number in the citation. ( Note:
quoting directly from a work should be done sparingly).

Short quote:

“ Self-directed learning is also a term which you will become familiar as you study in
Australia or New Zealand. Students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning
and organize their own study” (Hally, 2009, p.7).

Longer quote:
Principle-based teaching and principle-based learning are important
in nursing, particularly as they relate to clinical skills. Clinical skills
are usually taught according to principles, and this means that the
student learns key principles associated with the skill, and then
applies those principles to the actual performance of the skill (Hally,
2005).
10. Quotation from online sources that do not provide page numbers – provide
the author, year and paragraph number.

“The WTN exists to “encourage serendipity” – the happy accidents of colliding ideas and new
relationships that cause the biggest breakthrough for individuals and institution” (World
Technology Network, 2014, para.3).

B. Reference List Rules

1. When creating the reference list entry, identify and record specific details.
Remember the following Ws:

• Who wrote/edited it? (author or editor)

• When was it written? (publication date)
• What is it? (title of book/article/journal/web document, etc.)
• Where was it published? (place of publication)
• Where was the article located? ( serial/journal volume number,
issue number, page number, etc.)
• Where did you locate it? (internet sources) URL, web address

2. Do not create separate lists for each type of source. All materials/sources are all
arranged alphabetically in one list.

3. The reference list is arranged in alphabetical order of the authors’ last names (only
the first name’s initial is written after the comma). The first line of the reference list entry
is left-hand justified, while all subsequent lines are consistently indented.

4. Italicized titles are in lower case except for the first letter of the title, the first letter of
the word after the colon, and the first letter of proper nouns.

Baird, L. (2004). Things knowledge: A philosophy of scientific instruments. Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press.

5. The following are written in italics:

• Title of the book / journal / manual/ newspaper / magazine/pamphlet/brochure
• Thesis/dissertation title
 • Title of articles / legislatures / acts / images retrieved from the internet, Online
dictionaries

Pet therapy.(n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.holisticonline.com./stress_pet-

theraphy.htm.

Ministry of Health. (2014). Ebola: Information for the public. Retrieved from
http://www.health.gov.nz/your-health/conditions-and-treatments/diseases-
and-illnesses,/ebola-information-public.

Education Act of 1982. (1995). Retrieved from http://www.dep-ed.gov.ph./educational-

legislations.

Child’s footprint. [Image].(n.d.). Microsoft Word Clip Art.

Cambridge dictionaries online. (2011). Retrieved from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/.

6. If there is more than one work by the same author, order them by publication date –
from the oldest to the most recent.
Hughes, T.P. & Bellwood, D.R. (2003). Off-reef transport of coral fragments at Lizard Island.
Australia. Mar Geol, 157, 1-6.

Hughes, T.P. (1999). New paradigms for supporting the resilience of marine ecosystems.
Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 20(7): 380-386.
7. Use “&” instead of “and” when listing multiple authors.

Oghojafor, A., Lapido, P., Ighomereho, S., & Odunewu, V. (2014). Determinants of customer
satisfaction and loyalty in the Nigerian telecommunications industry. British Journal
of Marketing Studies, 2, 67-83.

8. When a book has up to seven (7) authors, include all names in the reference list.

Mikosch, P., Hadrawa, T., Laubreiter, K., Brandl, J., Stettner,H., &Grimm,G. (2010).
Effectiveness of respiratory-sinus-arrythmia biofeedback on state-anxiety in
patients undergoing coronary angiography. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(5),
110-111.

9. When there are eight (8) or more authors, cite only the last name of the first six (6)
authors and then use ellipsis points (…) before concluding with the last author’s name.

Vissing, K., Brink, M., Lonbro, S., Sorensen, H., Overgaard, K., Danborg, K., … Aagard, P.
(2008). Muscle adaptation to plyometric vs. resistance training in untrained young
men. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22(6), 1799-1810.

10. Group as author

Department of Health. (2007). Looking at long-term residential care in a rest home or

hospital: What you need to know. Wellington: New Zealand.

11. Editor in place of author

Aspinal, V. (Ed.). Clinical procedures in veterinary nursing. Edinburgh, Scotland: Elsevier.

12. If there is no author (like in the case of magazine or internet articles), the title
moves to that position and the entry is alphabetized by the first significant word
excluding articles/determiners ( A, An, The).

Little blue penguins homeward bound. (2011, November 23). Manawatu Standard, p.5.

13. Software (including apps)

UBM Medica. (2010). iMMS (Version 1.2.0). Mobile application software. Retrieved from
http://www.itunes.apple.com.
 14. Podcast ( audio or video)

Radio New Zealand. (2014, December 3). Filmmaker slams corporates for delay tactics on climate
change. (Audio podcast). Retrieved from http://www.radionz.co.nz./audio/player/20159538.

15. Online newspaper

De Vera, B.O. (2017, February15). Banks swarm BSP’s long term deposits. Inquirer.net. Retrieved
from http://www. business.inquirer.net/224606/banks-swarm-bsps-short-term-deposits.

16. Conference Paper

Abreu, M., & V. Mendes. (2003). Do macro-financial variables matter for european bank interest
margins and profitability? Paper presented at EcoModNetwork Conference, Istanbul.

Sample reference
Date of publication

Page nos.

Boyd, J.H, De Nicoló, G., & Smith, B.D. (2004). Crises in competitive versus
monopolistic banking systems. Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, 36
(3), 487-509.

authors
Vol. no.
Issue number
Name of journal (italicized)

Article title