APA Referencing Guide
Some background on APA Referencing
APA referencing - The American Psychological Association reference style and Harvard systems are very similar since they both reference information by providing the author's surname, the year and the page number in the main body of the assignment. When quoting indirectly or paraphrasing from a source, the source must be acknowledged in the text by author name and year of publication. If quoting directly, a location reference such as page numbers and paragraph numbers are also required. However, although page numbers are optional when paraphrasing, it is useful to include them.
Here are a few examples of APA Referencing
A direct quotation would be as follows;
Samovar and Porter (1997) point out that, "language involves attaching meaning to symbols" (p. 188).
If a quotation is over forty words it should be separated from the main text and indented without using quotation marks.
Citations from a secondary source would be as follows;
Peterson (as cited in Samovar and Porter, 1997) states that language must be first understood as symbols.
Full bibliographic information for each source should be included at the end of each assignment. References must be listed in alphabetical order and include the following elements: Author's surname, initials date, title (in italics) and publication information. A capital letter should be used to abbreviate an editor or editors i.e. Ed. or Eds:
Samovar, L.A., and Porter, R.E. (Eds.) (1997). Intercultural communication: A reader. (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Journal articles need to be written as author, date, title of article, title of journal, part number, volume number in brackets, and page numbers of the article. The title of the journal rather than the title of the article needs to be written in italics:
Labonte, R., & Schrecker, T. (2007). Globalisation and social determinants of health. Globalisation and Health 3 (7), 190-220.
Where 6 or more authors have written an article or book et al. should be used after the first name (meaning 'and others').
Where there is no author the title of the book should come first, followed by the date, the place in which it was published and the name of the publisher.
Where multiple works are published in the same year by the same author, books should be listed alphabetically by title in the reference list:
Napier, A (1993a). Fatal storm. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Napier, A. (1993b). Survival at sea. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
For edited books, the edition number is placed after the title of the work but this is not necessary for a first edition. Different editions of a book mean that the content and layout has altered so it no longer matches up with earlier editions. This clarifies the importance of recording the correct edition that has been used in the reference list.
A chapter in a book should be written as author of chapter, date, title of chapter, 'in', author of book, title of book, chapter pages in brackets, place of publication and name of publisher:
Helber, L.E. (1995). Redeveloping mature resorts for new markets. In M.V. Conlin and T. Baum (Eds.), Island tourism: Management principles and practice (pp. 105-113). Chichester, England: John Wiley.
Electronic journals should be written in the same way as hard copy journals but with the date retrieved added along with the name of the database:
Madden, G. (2002). Internet economics and policy: an Australian perspective. Economic Record, 78, 343-58. Retrieved October 16, 2002, from ABI/INFORM Global database.
Newspaper references should be written as follows;
WA packed with overseas appeal. (2004, November 12). The West Australian, p.47. Retrieved November 13, 2004, from Factivia database.
A document from the internet should be written as author (or name of organisation), date, document title, date retrieved, website. When no author is available the title is written first:
Statistics New Zealand. (2007). New Zealand in profile 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2007, from http://www.stats.govt.nz
For audio-visual material the primary contributors should be identified (such as the director or producer), the publication date, publication information written in square brackets, 'motion picture' placed in square brackets, followed by the motion picture's country of origin and the name of the motion picture studio:
Zhang, Y. (Director/Producer). (2001). Not one less [Motion picture]. China: Columbia Pictures Industries.
A reference to a television programme might look like this;
Slater, K. (Producer). (2002). Gene in a bottle. 40 minutes [Television broadcast]. New York, USA TV3 Network Services.
Conference papers should be listed as follows;
Jones, H (1999). References rethought. In Information and Reference Services Section Symposium, 12 - 14 October 2001 (pp. 59-64). Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Australian Library and Information Association.
Lecture handouts should be written as follows;
James, T. (2005). Research [Handout]. Oxford, England: University of Oxford: Diploma in Research.
Technical reports or research should be written as follows;
Jones, H (2005). The communication experiences of ethnic minority students in a Western tertiary institution (Working paper 2005/25). Oxford, England: University of Oxford, Department of Cultural Studies.
The APA referencing style is similar to the Harvard style although there are a few minor differences. The APA style would most likely use a 'p' symbol to define the page number in the text of the essay whereas the Harvard system is most likely to use a 'colon' to separate the date and page number in the main text (although the Harvard system tends to be less prescriptive about the way a reference is written).
In the reference list the main difference between the two styles is that the APA places full stops after titles, and does not use quotation marks to define book or chapter titles. Nevertheless, the APA system is a fairly straightforward way of referencing although there are a few details that could be overlooked if the writer is not careful.
For example, it is important to be consistent with the words that should be written in italics. When citing books the title of the book is written in italics, when citing chapters in books the title of the book and not the chapter is written in italics, and when citing journal articles the name of the journal rather than the title of the journal article should be placed in italics.
In addition, if citing a chapter in a book it is important to note that the initials of the author of the chapter are placed after the author's surname whereas the author of the book would be written as initials first, followed by the author's surname.
